Age+Factors+for+PME(Prenatal+Marijuana+Use)

PME (Prenatal Marijuana Exposure) is most common in teens at the age of 14. What this means is that mothers who smoke marijuana during pregnancy increase their child’s risk of smoking marijuana at a younger age. The women involved in this study were followed throughout pregnancy and recruited in the fourth prenatal month. Early use of marijuana by the mother predicts higher rates of anti-social behaviour, psychological problems, health consequences and adult substance abuse compared to later use of marijuana. This can be seen as quite accurate because the most important months for the baby during pregnancy are the first 3 months.

Cannabinoid receptors have a huge impact on an infant’s brain and can affect brain development and functioning across many vital domains. What we always must keep in mind is that there are many factors that cause young adults to use marijuana such as family context and child management practices, parental substance use and abuse, child characteristics and peer environment. Age, intelligence, behaviour and past experience are also major factors for marijuana use among young adults.

After pregnancy this study was followed up by assessing the infant at delivery, 8 and 18 months and 3,6,10 and 14 years of age. The women and their children were evaluated. They assessed many factors such as maternal psychological, social and environmental factors, demographic status and substance use and the child’s development. Among the adolescents who were tested for marijuana use through a urinal analysis 100 reported using marijuana over the past year. The specificity of marijuana use was 78 % when the teens report was compared to his or her urinal analysis.

An interesting factor was reported by the authors of SRD (Self-Report Delinquency).They indentified four subscales for young teens exposed to marijuana in the womb: damage, theft, violence, and status offences.

Porath & Fried, two scientists studying substance use and abuse during pregnancy found that there is a significant association between PME and initiation of marijuana use among 16-20 year olds, however, this is﻿ only related to males. There is a significant relation between infants exposed to marijuana use in the womb and a person’s decision to try or start using marijuana. This is found only in males because more males are exposed to larger groups of people than females.

Age*Incidence *rate (n/N)

9–9.9 * 0.4 * 2/563 10–10.9 * 0.5 * 3/561  11–11.9 *1.6 * 9/558  12–12.9 * 5.5 * 30/549  13–13.9 * 12.7 * 66/519  14–14.9 * 13.0 * 59/453  15– * 3.3 * 13/394

This chart demonstrates the percentage of adolescents who initiated use during the interval relative to those who had not yet initiated use at the beginning of the interval. As you can see in this chart it demonstrates that the incidence rate is highest among adolescents aged 14 years old.

Table 4 Factors associated with age of onset (Cox proportional hazards model)

Coefficient Significance Hazard Ratio--> C=Coefficient, S=Significance, HR=Hazard Ratio (a) Results with current behaviour and peer use excluded Depression(CDI) C=0.06, S=0.000, HR=1.06 Home Environment C=-0.13, S=0.000, HR=0.88 Prenatal strictness/supervision C= -0.07, S=0.001, HR=0.93 Pubertal Development C=-0.25, S=0.003, HR=0.78 Prenatal Marijuana Exposure C=0.13, S=0.04, HR=1.14 Family history drug problems C=0.31,S=0.04, HR=1.36 (b) Depression C=0.01, S=0.27, HR=1.01 Home environment C=-0.07, S=0.03, HR=0.93 Parental strictness/supervision C=-0.05, S=0.07, HR=0.95 Pubertal development C=-0.16, S=0.054, HR=0.85 Prenatal marijuana exposure C= 0.11, S=0.07, HR=1.12 Family history drug problems C=0.34, S=0.03, HR=1.40 Peer use C=0.61, S=0.000, HR=1.84 Adolescent cigarette use C=0.82, S=0.000, HR=2.27 Adolescent alcohol use C=0.71, S=0.000, HR=2.04 Sexually active C=0.51, S=0.004, HR=1.67

This chart demonstrates the variables that were associated with the onset age in the first four prenatal months. This chart shows the coefficient, significance and Hazard Rations of these variables. Positive coefficient shows an increased risk of initiation, while negative coefficient shows a negative association between the variable and outcome.

For each daily joint in the 1st trimester of the pregnancy, the rate of initiating among marijuana use among those with PME was increased by 1.14 % compared to those with no PME. The odds of having a higher frequency rate were 1.3 % higher among adolescents who were exposed to one joint per day compared to adolescents with no prenatal marijuana exposure.

[]