Neonatal manifestations of maternal phencyclidine exposure

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of maternal phencyclidine use on the fetus. Ninety-four neonates with maternal phencyclidine exposure were compared with 94 controls. Maternal phencyclidine use was assessed by questionnaire and repeated urine testing. Mothers of study and control patients were matched for demographic characteristics. Infants were assessed between 24-72 hours postnatally by a single examiner blind to the maternal history. The results showed that study infants had a mean of 5.02 +/- 2.93 abnormalities while controls had a mean of 4.13 +/- 2.65 abnormalities (p less than 0.01). Furthermore, study infants were more likely than controls to have poor attention, hypertonia, and depressed neonatal reflexes (p less than 0.05). The contribution of seven drug classes to the total number of abnormalities was assessed using stepwise multiple regression. Only phencyclidine accounted for a significant proportion of the variance (f = 4.38; p less than 0.05). The results of this study suggest that maternal phencyclidine use may lead to abnormal neonatal neurologic findings and behavior.