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Prenatal Exposure to Marihuana and Tobacco During Infancy, Early and Middle Childhood: Effects and an Attempt at Synthesis

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Toxicology in Transition

Part of the book series: Archives of Toxicology ((TOXICOLOGY,volume 17))

Abstract

In the past two decades a notable increase has occurred in the number of investigations devoted to examining the effects on the behavioural development of offspring who have been prenatally exposed to a range of substances that women may ingest or absorb during pregnancy. Among the most common of the non-medicinal drugs used by pregnant women are cigarettes and marihuana. The former is the subject of a relatively extensive amount of research, whereas the latter is striking for the paucity of objective information available. In this report I will briefly review, in a selective fashion, the body of literature that examines the consequences for the infant and young child of in utero exposure to these two substances and focus upon the results arising from a long-term, ongoing prospective study underway in Ottawa, Canada. Much of the work and interpretations presented in this chapter have appeared in publications arising from the Ottawa study and have been the subject of two recent reviews (Fried, 1993; Fried, in press).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1S 5B6

    P. A. Fried

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  1. P. A. Fried
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Arbeitsphysiologie an der Universität Dortmund, Ardeystr. 67, D-44139, Dortmund, Germany

    Gisela H. Degen

  2. Interkantonale Kontrollstelle für Heilmittel, Erlachstr. 8, CH-3000, Bern 9, Switzerland

    Jürg P. Seiler

  3. Ciba-Geigy Ltd., K-136.3.23, CH-4002, Basel, Switzerland

    Philip Bentley

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© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Fried, P.A. (1995). Prenatal Exposure to Marihuana and Tobacco During Infancy, Early and Middle Childhood: Effects and an Attempt at Synthesis. In: Degen, G.H., Seiler, J.P., Bentley, P. (eds) Toxicology in Transition. Archives of Toxicology, vol 17. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79451-3_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79451-3_21

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-79453-7

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