Volume :
6
Issue :
2
Abstract :
Much of the scientific justification for using methadone to treat women with heroin use disorders relies on one heavily cited early review of five studies. The review concluded there were no long-term developmental effects directly associated with prenatal methadone exposure because scores for exposed infants on the Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development fell “well within the normal range of development.†However, three of the studies reviewed reported significant differences between exposed and control infants on the PDI. The other two did not report scores on the PDI. The PDI is a subscale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, which was released with a much more extensive normative sample in 1993. Extrapolating PDI scores from the earlier version to the better 1993 version reveals that methadone-exposed infants were not well within the normal range of development. Given the increasingly higher doses of methadone used to treat pregnant opioid-dependent women, we are concerned about the potential for greater adverse effects in the present era. Beginning with the seminal review, this paper examines subsequent studies for longitudinal outcomes for prenatally exposed infants. We hypothesize that revised BSID-II PDI scores will reveal motor effects for infants born to women with heroin use disorders treated with methadone.