San Francisco, CA: Children exposed to cannabis in utero are no more likely than non-exposed children to be diagnosed with either anxiety or depression by age 13, according to data published in the scientific journal Cannabis.
Researchers affiliated with Kaiser Permanente of Northern California and the University of California at San Francisco assessed the relationship between prenatal cannabis exposure and diagnoses of childhood depression and anxiety in a cohort of more than 100,000 children. Mothers of the study’s participants were universally screened for prenatal cannabis use. Study participants were assessed for depression and anxiety from age 6 to 13.
After adjusting for covariates, prenatal cannabis exposure was associated with a lower risk of anxiety and no increased risk of depression.
“In this large, retrospective cohort study of maternal-child dyads in a diverse, integrated healthcare delivery system, prenatal cannabis use was not associated with increased risk of child early-onset anxiety or depressive disorders after adjusting for key covariates, including maternal use of other non-cannabis substances during early pregnancy and maternal pre-pregnancy anxiety and depressive disorders,” the study’s authors concluded. “Additional research is needed to test whether the association between prenatal cannabis use and child anxiety and depressive disorders varies depending on the timing, duration, mode and strength of cannabis.”
Other longitudinal studies have also reported no association between in utero cannabis exposure and higher risk of either ADHD or poorer cognitive performance at early adolescence.
Full text of the study, “Cannabis use during early pregnancy and child diagnoses of depressive and anxiety disorders,” appears in Cannabis. Additional information is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Maternal Marijuana Use and Childhood Outcomes.’