Pre-school children of amphetamine-addicted mothers. I. Somatic and psychomotor development.

Sixty-five children whose mothers took amphetamine during pregnancy have been followed prospectively since birth. At 4 years of age their somatic growth and general health did not differ from that of another unselected Swedish population of the same age examined at the Child Health Centre. Developmental screening by the Terman Merrill method showed that the group as a whole had a significantly lower IQ (103) than a sampled Swedish group (110). The psychological assessment of the child's adaptation and emotional wellbeing showed that there were more disturbed children or "problem children" in the group that had lived partly or all the time with a mother who was still addicted to drugs.