Smoking cannabis while pregnant could harm the developing foetal brain, researchers have claimed.
A team at the University of Aberdeen also said certain prescribed drugs, including some to treat obesity, could have an effect in the womb too.
The research focuses on the importance of molecules produced naturally in the brain, and how certain nerve cells recognise and connect with each other. Anything that affects this could affect brain function, it was claimed. The brain molecules called endocannabinoids are said to function in a similar way to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from cannabis, targeting the same receptors and signalling systems in the brain. The researchers said this signalling process should occur unhindered for the brain to develop normally.
Prof Tibor Harkany, recruited to the University of Aberdeen as part of the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (Sulsa), said:
"Anything that disrupts this process such as cannabis smoking or certain drugs that interfere with this signalling system could ultimately affect the brain's functionality."
Cannabis is viewed as among the more widely used drugs by women at reproductive age. Previous research has claimed that babies born to mothers who took cannabis while they were pregnant went on to experience problems with physical activity.
Marijuana users who have babies should quit the drug and go into marijuana rehab, as marijuana smoke harms not only themselves, but also their babies.
The new research - an experimental study involving mice - is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
(PNAS).
June 2008
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