1980s 'crack babies' scare overblown, research shows

[proud2BlibKansan]

HEALTH & SCIENCE NEWS
1980s 'crack baby' scare overblown, research on teens says
May 27
BY LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO — Research in teens adds fresh evidence that the 1980s "crack baby" scare was overblown, finding little proof of any major long-term ill effects in children whose mothers used cocaine during pregnancy.

Some studies have linked pregnant women's cocaine use with children's behavior difficulties, attention problems, anxiety and worse school performance. But the effects were mostly small and may have resulted from other factors including family problems or violence, parents' continued drug use and poverty, the researchers said.

They reviewed 27 studies involving more than 5,000 11- to 17-year-olds whose mothers had used cocaine while pregnant. The studies all involved low-income, mostly black and urban families.

The review, led by University of Maryland pediatrics researcher Maureen Black, was released online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.


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Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org



Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/27/4258490/crack-baby-scare-overblown-teen.html#storylink=cpy

[LuvNewcastle]

1. But it was so nice to see Nancy Reagan holding a crack baby.

Those photo-ops kind of sum up the 1980's. I don't remember any photo-ops of Ronnie with and AIDS patient, though. I think they let Rock Hudson visit the White House once before he died. It was like 1986 or 1987 before Ronnie ever publicly mentioned AIDS.

[Warpy]

2. That was actually known before Ronniepoo was out of office

Kids who had been total messes at birth, withdrawing from the crack their mothers smoked, were normal and with no neurological deficits when they were next evaluated at the age of two and three.

Poverty and chaotic living situations were seen as a bigger risk even then, but that was against the Republican boilerplate so the research wasn't exactly front page news.

It should have been.