Long-term effects of prenatal methadone maintenance.

Methadone maintenance has been the treatment of choice for heroin addiction for several years. The prenatal and early neonatal effects have been described in several reports (Kandall et al. 1979; Finnegan 1983). However, there have been few reports on the longterm effects of methadone maintenance during pregnancy on the child’s somatic and neurobehavioral development. Some investigators have described mild neurobehavioral abnormalities, while others have found none (Finnegan 1983: Wilson et al. 1981; Lifschitz et al. 1983; Strauss et al. 1979).