Study Looks At Cannabis Use During Pregnancy And Fetal Brain Development

A study conducted by Western University found that marijuana use during pregnancy can negatively affect brain development in children.

What Does The Study Say?

Led by Mohammed H. Sarikahya, a doctoral student at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, the study found that exposing pregnant rats to THC can cause long-lasting changes in their anxiety levels and in their brains' addiction circuitry.

According to Sarikahya, the male and female offspring in the study reacted differently to THC exposure, with the female rats appearing much more resistant to the effects, while the males "badly hit on almost every metric," evaluated by the study.

Sarikahya noted that “for the first time prenatal cannabis exposure can induce profound fatty acid adaptations that may account for those pathological alterations.”

The study also showed that male offspring were found to be especially vulnerable to increased anxiety, and their brain regions associated with addiction and reward were severely affected.

"These impacts on brain development could manifest during the sons' adulthood, as sons experienced higher levels of anxiety and depression, as well as a lack of emotional regulation," reads the study which also found that females tend to be more immune to long-term effects.

"[In adulthood], women often [experienced] no anxiety, no changes in brain activity, no depression, no alterations in reward processing, and actually very little protein changes as well," Sarikahya said.

As The Gazette reported, the study was conducted with only "a six percent THC dose." However, Sarikahya noted that “these effects on brain development from a small-to-moderate dose of THC are concerning.”

Conclusions:

The researcher points out that there is a tendency for cannabis to be used more and more to solve common problems related to pregnancy, such as anxiety and nausea. He stressed the need for additional research on how marijuana affects pregnancy and offspring later in life.

Dr. Mishka Terplan, who has researched substance use during pregnancy and helped develop the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' addiction guideline, says the impact of marijuana exposure can be hard to separate from tobacco use, stress and any other health problems and environmental factors.

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Photo: Courtesy of Peter Pike by Pixabay and Dhemer Gonçalves by Pexels // Edited by Benzinga