Thesis (Ph.D.) in Nursing--University of Maine, 2009. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-152).

No description available.

Approximately 10% of women use cocaine and 20% smoke cigarettes during pregnancy. Animal studies indicate that both cocaine and nicotine are neuroteratogenic agents, although findings with humans are inconsistent. Studies with human infants have been plagued by unreliable subject identification procedures, poor control over confounding factors, and invalid measures of CNS integrity. The literature on prenatal cocaine and nicotine use is reviewed and two studies are presented along with an intriguing case report. The effects of maternal prenatal cocaine use (Study 1) and two levels of cigarette smoking (Study 2) on newborn information processing ability were examined using an auditory habituation-recovery paradigm. Case-control designs were employed in which subjects were individually matched on a number of maternal and infant factors. Cocaine exposure was determined by newborn meconium analysis, urine analysis, and maternal self-report. Maternal smoking was determined by self-report and a variation of the bogus pipeline method. Fetal cocaine- and nicotine-exposure were associated with differential impairments in neonatal information processing. Cocaine-exposed newborns exhibited deficits on measures of habituation and recovery to novelty. Dose-response effects of nicotine-exposure were evident on measures of orientation and habituation, but recovery to novelty was not consistently affected. The results imply that fetal cocaine-exposure severely impairs neonatal auditory information processing ability, whereas fetal tobacco-exposure is associated with deficits in information-processing which may be secondary to impairments in arousal regulation. These auditory processing deficits may be related to the later language impairments reported in follow-up studies with cocaine-and tobacco-exposed infants. Following the two studies, a case is presented of an infant born to a woman who reported using large amounts of cocaine throughout pregnancy, although the infant's meco

Thesis (M.A.)--Northern Kentucky University, 2006. / Made available through ProQuest. Publication number: AAT 1440549. ProQuest document ID: 1251900511. Includes bibliographical references (p. 17-18)

Infants of mothers who have received narcotics on a continuous basis during pregnancy are born physically dependent. Drug withdrawal, one of many detrimental effects, is initially the most apparent. Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) was originally described as a generalized disorder characterized by signs of central nervous system hyperirritability, gastrointestinal dysfunction, respiratory distress, and a host of vague autonomic manifestations. Recent studies have suggested that these same signs follow withdrawal from other addicting drugs as well. Feeding problems are the most common and important concomitants of neonatal withdrawal, because sucking function is uncoordinated, ineffectual and poorly sustained. Previous studies have shown a natural history of recovery of sucking dysfunction during recovery from NAS. A disposable and practical apparatus for monitoring nutritive sucking behaviour was developed, based on a prototype previously described in the literature. A weighted scoring system which encompasses the full spectrum of withdrawal signs was also designed. No significant difference in sucking rate was observed between normal and NAS babies on day 1 (p=0.8). There was a highly significant difference on day 2 (prO.0001), day 3 (p=0.0005), and day 4 (p=0.006). No significant difference in nutrient consumption was observed between normal and NAS babies on day 1 (p=0.9) and day 2 (p=0.8). A significant difference was observed on day 3 (p=0.006) and day 4 (p=0.03). A significant inverse correlation was demonstrated between both sucking rate and nutrient consumption with the classical clinical signs of withdrawal over the first two months of life (r=-0.57, -0.51, respectively). The periodic monitoring of sucking rate of the passively addicted infant provides an objective gauge of the seventy of withdrawal in NAS, eliminating the subjectivity of evaluating changes in clinical signs. Therefore, it is recommended that sucking rate measurements be instituted as a standard guide to the management of withdrawal in these infants. / Medicine, Faculty of / Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to identify behavioral characteristics of young children (ages 3-8) in special education who were prenatally substance exposed in order to compare them to the behaviors of non-substance exposed children in special education.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1995. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 15, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Lanny Morreau (chair), Mack Bowen, Ming-Gon John Lian, William Rau, Kenneth Strand. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-110) and abstract. Also available in print.

No description available.

Although the hazards of prenatal exposure to addictive substances have been documented for decades, it continues to be a prevalent social and health concern today. Alcohol and cocaine are two commonly abused substances during pregnancy, often leading to behavioral and cognitive disorders in exposed children. At present, the relationship between teratogenic effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) on the brain and observed behavioral outcomes is still unclear. A primary reason for this incomplete understanding is the lack of information regarding neuronal functioning in these populations. Functional MRI, which measures real-time brain activation in response to certain stimuli, can be utilized to bridge the gap between known structural damage and observed behavioral outcomes. This thesis aims to examine structural and functional alterations in PAE and PCE populations as compared to unexposed, socio-economic status-matched populations. As the PAE population is highly affected by structural dysmorphology, the applicability of a newly developed diffeomorphic image registration method to this population is examined. Additionally, task-positive and task-negative functional connectivity and activity are investigated in the PAE population, and related to underlying structural alterations. Neural correlates of global arousal and emotional regulation are investigated in the PCE population, as these behavioral outcomes are most notable. Similarly, functional connectivity and activation in task-positive and task-negative networks, as well as correlated structural measures, are examined in the PCE population. The diffeomorphic image registration algorithm was found to improve both structural and functional image registration for the PAE population. In the examination of specific deficits in arithmetic processing, poorer performance in the PAE group was attributed to a multi-level effect produced by altered structural and functional connectivity and functional activity in calculation and default mode networks. Baseline arousal levels were found to be higher in adolescents with PCE as compared to healthy controls (by altered default mode network functioning); emotional regulation also appeared to be affected in the PCE group by a prefrontal-amygdala structural and functional disconnect. The findings of this thesis give insights into the relationship between task-positive and task-negative duality and cognitive impairment, and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the spectrum of clinical disorders caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol and cocaine.