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Methadone prescribed to pregnant women may be causing sight problems for their babies, a study in Glasgow has found.The small-scale study showed 95% of the children investigated had poor eyesight, while a quarter also had significant developmental problems.
But the report in the British Journal of Ophthalmology said many of the women were also abusing illicit drugs.
Researchers said they could not be sure if methadone alone was responsible and are carrying out further studies.
Methadone is usually prescribed as a substitute for heroin, and is given to heroin-addicted mothers because it allows them to stabilise their life and reduces the risk of their babies being born underweight or premature.
However, most babies born to women who are prescribed the opioid during pregnancy have withdrawal symptoms known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).
Cerebral palsy
The study, carried out at the city's Royal Hospital for Sick Children, examined the eyesight of 20 children whose mothers had taken methadone during pregnancy.
More than half of those babies (55%) had also been exposed to either benzodiazepines such as temazepam or heroin (40%) while in the womb.
All but one of the 20 babies had poor eyesight and seven out of 10 had involuntary eye movement (nystagmus), while vision had not yet developed fully in half of the children.
Twelve of the babies in the study had been treated for NAS, while the other eight had not.
Of the 12, one in three (35%) also had a squint, while a similar proportion (30%) had blurred vision or long or short sightedness problems.
One in four had impaired brain function relating to sight and the same proportion had significant developmental problems, including cerebral palsy.
The researchers said the underlying causes of the visual problems were not clear, but that further studies would be conducted to find out more.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.