Prenatal Substance Exposure: Associations with Neurodevelopment in Middle Childhood.

Objective: Single-substance exposure effects on neurodevelopmental outcomes, such as problem behavior and intelligence quotient (IQ), have been studied in children for decades. However, the long-term consequences of polysubstance exposure are poorly understood.

Study Design: Longitudinal neurodevelopmental data were gathered from cohorts across the United States through the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Program.

Assessment of Psychosocial and Neonatal Risk Factors for Trajectories of Behavioral Dysregulation Among Young Children From 18 to 72 Months of Age.

Importance: Emotional and behavioral dysregulation during early childhood are associated with severe psychiatric, behavioral, and cognitive disorders through adulthood. Identifying the earliest antecedents of persisting emotional and behavioral dysregulation can inform risk detection practices and targeted interventions to promote adaptive developmental trajectories among at-risk children.

Objective: To characterize children's emotional and behavioral regulation trajectories and examine risk factors associated with persisting dysregulation across early childhood.

Risk Factors for Postpartum Depression and Severe Distress among Mothers of Very Preterm Infants at NICU Discharge.

Objective: To identify psychological, medical, and socioenvironmental risk factors for maternal postpartum depression (PPD) and severe psychological distress (SPD) at intensive care nursery discharge among mothers of very preterm infants.

Study Design: We studied 562 self-identified mothers of 641 infants born <30 weeks who were enrolled in the Neonatal Neurobehavior and Outcomes in Very Preterm Infants Study (NOVI) conducted in nine university-affiliated intensive care nurseries. Enrollment interviews collected socioenvironmental data, depression, and anxiety diagnoses prior to and during the study pregnancy.

The Impact of Early Life Experiences and Gut Microbiota on Neurobehavioral Development in Preterm Infants: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of early life experiences and gut microbiota on neurobehavioral development in preterm infants during neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalization.

Methods: Preterm infants were followed from NICU admission until their 28th postnatal day or until discharge. Daily stool samples, painful/stressful experiences, feeding patterns, and other clinical and demographic data were collected.

Perinatal Outcomes during versus Prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Role of Maternal Depression and Perceived Stress: A Report from the ECHO Program.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on perinatal outcomes while accounting for maternal depression or perceived stress and to describe COVID-specific stressors, including changes in prenatal care, across specific time periods of the pandemic.

Study Design: Data of dyads from 41 cohorts from the National Institutes of Health Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Program ( = 2,983) were used to compare birth outcomes before and during the pandemic ( = 2,355), and a partially overlapping sample ( = 1,490) responded to a COVID-19 questionnaire. Psychosocial stress was defined using prenatal screening for depression and perceived stress.

Annual Research Review: Prenatal opioid exposure - a two-generation approach to conceptualizing neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Opioid use during pregnancy impacts the health and well-being of two generations: the pregnant person and the child. The factors that increase risk for opioid use in the adult, as well as those that perpetuate risk for the caregiver and child, oftentimes replicate across generations and may be more likely to affect child neurodevelopment than the opioid exposure itself. In this article, we review the prenatal opioid exposure literature with the perspective that this is not a singular event but an intergenerational cascade of events.

Acoustic Cry Characteristics in Preterm Infants and Developmental and Behavioral Outcomes at 2 Years of Age.

Importance: Acoustic cry characteristics have been associated with severe medical problems in newborns. However, little is known about the utility of neonatal acoustic cry characteristics in the prediction of long-term outcomes of very preterm infants.

Objectives: To evaluate whether acoustic characteristics of infant cry at neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) discharge are associated with behavioral and developmental outcomes at age 2 years in infants born very preterm.

Postpartum Behavioral Sleep Intervention for Smoking Relapse Prevention: A Pilot Trial.

Objectives: Rates of postpartum smoking relapse are high (70-90%) but standard relapse prevention interventions are not effective postpartum. This pilot study evaluated effects of a combined relapse prevention and sleep intervention on sleep and relapse to smoking.

Methods: Twenty-eight postpartum mothers were assigned to the intervention group-combined relapse prevention and behavioral sleep intervention-or to the comparison group-relapse prevention alone.

Sleep Problems and Autism Impairments in a Large Community Sample of Children and Adolescents.

Sleep problems are common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). How sleep problems reflect specific ASD phenotypes is unclear. We studied whether sleep problems indexed functional impairment in a heterogeneous community sample of individuals with ASD.

Buprenorphine versus Methadone for Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy.

Background: Opioid agonist therapy is strongly recommended for pregnant persons with opioid use disorder. Buprenorphine may be associated with more favorable neonatal and maternal outcomes than methadone, but existing data are limited.

Methods: We conducted a cohort study involving pregnant persons who were enrolled in public insurance programs in the United States during the period from 2000 through 2018 in which we examined outcomes among those who received buprenorphine as compared with those who received methadone.

Characteristics of Individuals in the United States Who Used Opioids During Pregnancy.

Opioid use has disproportionally impacted pregnant people and their fetuses. Previous studies describing opioid use among pregnant people are limited by geographic location, type of medical coverage, and small sample size. We described characteristics of a large, diverse group of pregnant people who were enrolled in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, and determined which characteristics were associated with opioid use during pregnancy.

Newborn Cry Acoustics in the Assessment of Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome Using Machine Learning.

Importance: The assessment of opioid withdrawal in the neonate, or neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS), is problematic because current assessment methods are based on subjective observer ratings. Crying is a distinctive component of NOWS assessment tools and can be measured objectively using acoustic analysis.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of using newborn cry acoustics (acoustics referring to the physical properties of sound) as an objective biobehavioral marker of NOWS.

Association of Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy With Risk of Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children.

Importance: Antidepressant use during pregnancy has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders in children in some studies. However, results may be explained by uncontrolled confounding by parental mental health status, genetics, and environmental factors.

Objective: To evaluate the association between antidepressant use in pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes in children.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia and neurobehavioural outcomes at birth and 2 years in infants born before 30 weeks.

Objective: To identify neurobehavioural risks in preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) prior to hospital discharge.

Design And Patients: Longitudinal study of 676 newborns born before 30 weeks of gestation.

Setting: Nine university NICUs affiliated with six universities.

Environmental influences on child health outcomes: cohorts of individuals born very preterm.

The National Institutes of Health's Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program was designed to address solution-oriented research questions about the links between children's early life environment and their risks of pre-, peri-, and post-natal complications, asthma, obesity, neurodevelopmental disorders, and positive health. Children born very preterm are at increased risk for many of the outcomes on which ECHO focuses, but the contributions of environmental factors to this risk are not well characterized. Three ECHO cohorts consist almost exclusively of individuals born very preterm.

Sociodemographic Variation in Children's Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Societal changes during the COVID-19 pandemic may affect children's health behaviors and exacerbate disparities. This study aimed to describe children's health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, how they vary by sociodemographic characteristics, and the extent to which parent coping strategies mitigate the impact of pandemic-related financial strain on these behaviors. This study used pooled data from 50 cohorts in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Program.

Analysis of Neonatal Neurobehavior and Developmental Outcomes Among Preterm Infants.

Importance: The ability to identify poor outcomes and treatable risk factors among very preterm infants remains challenging; improving early risk detection and intervention targets to potentially address developmental and behavioral delays is needed.

Objective: To determine associations between neonatal neurobehavior using the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS), neonatal medical risk, and 2-year outcomes.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This multicenter cohort enrolled infants born at less than 30 weeks' gestation at 9 US university-affiliated NICUs.

Association of Antipsychotic Drug Exposure in Pregnancy With Risk of Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A National Birth Cohort Study.

Importance: Although antipsychotic drugs cross the placenta and animal data suggest potential neurotoxic effects, information regarding human neurodevelopmental teratogenicity is limited.

Objective: To evaluate whether children prenatally exposed to antipsychotic medication are at an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD).

Design, Settings, And Participants: This birth cohort study used data from the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX, 2000-2014) and the IBM Health MarketScan Research Database (MarketScan, 2003-2015) for a nationwide sample of publicly (MAX) and privately (MarketScan) insured mother-child dyads with up to 14 years of follow-up.

Early-life factors associated with neurobehavioral outcomes in preterm infants during NICU hospitalization.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of early-life pain/stress and medical characteristics on neurobehavioral outcomes in preterm infants.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted with 92 preterm infants (28-32 weeks gestational age [GA]). Early-life pain/stress was measured via the Neonatal Infant Stressor Scale (NISS) during the first 28 days of NICU hospitalization.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders Among Publicly or Privately Insured Children in the United States.

Importance: Neurodevelopmental disorders are associated with poor health and social outcomes. Population-based data on incidence, age at diagnosis, and demographic variations are essential to identify modifiable risk factors and inform the planning of services and interventions.

Objectives: To assess the incidence and timing of diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders during childhood in the US and to evaluate differences by population characteristics.

Parental age and autism severity in the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment (RI-CART) study.

Advanced parental age at offspring birth has been associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The objective of the current study was to investigate associations between parental age at birth and autism severity. The Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment (RI-CART) study represents a community-based sample with a range of autism severity, including participants with and without ASD.