Nat Med: Using marijuana during pregnancy may increase the risk of autism in future generations.

13, 2020 // -- In a recent study published in the international journal Nature Medicine, scientists from Ottawa Hospital and other institutions found that women who use marijuana during pregnancy have a higher risk of developing or developing autism, with a 4 per 1,000-year-old occurrence of autism among pregnant women who are exposed to marijuana during pregnancy, and 2.42 per 1,000 years.
Photo Source: The Ottawa Hospital recreational marijuana is legal in Canada, but that doesn't mean it's safe for pregnant and lactating women, and researchers at Health Canada and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advise these people not to use marijuana as much as possible, and they also have health tips or warnings on their packaging. Despite these warnings, mark Walker, a researcher at
, says there is now evidence that more and more women are using marijuana during pregnancy, which may be worrying because we don't know how marijuana affects pregnant women and their offspring, and parents-to-be should be aware of the potential harm that marijuana use can do.
researchers reviewed data on every newborn in Ontario between 2007 and 2012, before recreational marijuana was legalized, and about 3,000 (0.6 percent) of the 500,000 women in the study reported using marijuana during pregnancy.
Previously, researchers found a direct link between marijuana use during pregnancy and an increased risk of premature birth in newborns, and they produced an animated video outlining their findings, in which they found that women who used marijuana during pregnancy often used other substances, such as tobacco, alcohol and opioids.
In this study, researchers analyzed 2,200 women who had only used marijuana during pregnancy and found that women who used marijuana still had a higher risk of developing autism than women who did not use it; the researchers did not know how much marijuana they used during pregnancy, how often they used it, when they used it during pregnancy, and how they noted that the findings revealed a link between the two when they tried to control other factors that affected the body's neurodevelopment.
as marijuana ben more socially acceptable, some health care providers have noticed that some would-be parents may use it to treat morning sickness in pregnant women.
epidemiologist Dr. Daniel Corsi points out that in the past we didn't have better data to illustrate the effects of marijuana on pregnant women, and this study is the largest correlation study to date, and we hope the results will help women and health care workers make sound decisions.
pregnant women who are considering or already using marijuana should perhaps consult their health care provider in a timely manner and make informed choices as soon as possible about what is best for their health and that of their child.
() Original source: Corsi, D.J., Donelle, J., Sucha, E. et al. Maternal cannabis use in pregnancy and child neurodevelopmental outcomes. Nat Med (2020). doi:10.1038/s41591-020-1002-5.