Profiles of Drug Endangered Children: Investigation in a Clinical Sample

Despite the increase in children born prenatally exposed to methamphetamine, little is known about the cognitive and neuropsychological outcomes of these children. Research specific to prenatal-methamphetamine exposure is extremely limited and has been primarily restricted to rat studies. This research combined with the few studies examining children prenatally exposed to methamphetamine suggests that methamphetamine-exposure is associated with various cognitive and neuropsychological delays and is impacted by both biological and environmental factors. Given the scarcity of research in this area, the current study used archival data from a psychological assessment clinic to (1) describe the frequency of prenatal methamphetamine-exposure cases, (2) describe the profiles of prenatal methamphetamine-exposed children, and (3) compare a matched sample of methamphetamine-exposed and clinical non-drug exposed groups for any differences. The methamphetamine-exposed group was also compared to the non-clinical normative group to examine any differences.A total of 25 children participated in the study (14 prenatally methamphetamine exposed children and 11 non-drug exposed children). Of the total clinic population, 3.07% were identified as exposed to methamphetamine. Descriptive analysis indicated that the methamphetamine-exposed group performed in the low average range in the areas of processing speed, verbal comprehension, attention/executive functions, memory and sensorimotor functioning as measured by the Wechsler intelligence scales and the Neuropsychological Evaluation for Children (NESPY). An examination of the subtests indicated that the methamphetamine exposed children scored lower than both the non-drug exposed group and the normative sample. Of particular concern were the comprehension, arithmetic, symbol search and coding subtests that all fell in the below average range. A series of t-tests indicated a significant difference between clinic based non-drug exposed children and methamphetamine-exposed children in the area of processing speed. When compared to the non-lineal normative sample, the methamphetamine-exposed group scored significantly lower in the areas of verbal comprehension and processing speed. In addition to being statistically significant, the findings were also clinically significant indicating potential areas of delay for these children. Although these findings provide some insight regarding the functioning of prenatally methamphetamine exposed children, more research is needed as the impact of environment factors and other confounding variables could not be ruled out.