Prenatal and concurrent cocaine, alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco effects of adolescent cognition and attention

Understanding the long-term effects of prenatal drug and alcohol exposures is a critical component of informed public health prevention and intervention efforts, as well as in developing knowledge regarding environmental effects on neurocognitive development. The cocaine epidemic of the late 1980 ’s created a large U.S. population of children who were polydrug-exposed in the prenatal period who are now adolescents or young adults. Cocaine is a potent monoaminergic neurotransmitter that can impact fetal and long-term neurocognitive development directly through disruption of neural ontogeny, through vascular effects, and indirectly through maternal nutrition (Woods et al., 1987; Volpe, 1992).
Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence - Category: Addiction Authors: Source Type: research