Exposure to substance abuse in the womb: Is it linked to adverse health effects during adult life?

In an earlier post we commented briefly on how early-life exposure to substances such as alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, and heroin can increase the chances of birth defects. The question we intend to answer now is whether this kind of exposure has long-term health effects. A review published in 2013 by A.M. Vaiserman summarizes the research on this subject. The author concluded that substance abuse by a mother not only affects her child's health around the time of birth, but also causes adverse effects that are long-term and are established by epigenetic mechanisms.

Epigenetic regulation, which includes the mechanisms discussed in the linked post, has been shown to have an important role in the programming of late-onset pathologies, including type-2 diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer. Substance abuse during pregnancy can affect the programming occurring in the developing embryo or fetus, and consequently increase the chance of pathology. There are currently more findings about the effects of prenatal substance abuse on the health outcome of the infant than on the adult. However, research on this area is increasing and yielding interesting results that link prenatal substance abuse with more long-term health consequences than what was known before.