A latest study has found that the combination of heroin and cocaine in the presence of methadone may increase the permeability of the placenta. It was noted that an exposure to these drugs may increase the passage of certain toxins to the fetus. This revelation was made by Antoine Malek and other experts from Zurich University Hospital’s Department of Obstetrics.
Women addicted to drugs may find it difficult to completely refrain from drugs. Therefore methadone is believed to be used in order to reduce the amount of damage incurred to the fetus.
These experts were believed to have made use of a perfusion technique to examine the function of the human placenta tissue. In this way they discovered that in the presence of methadone, an exposure to cocaine and heroin may increase the passage of certain toxins to the fetus. This exposure may possibly increase the passage of the antipyrine chemical.
These experts were believed to have discovered that methadone when used alone seemed to lower the amount of the chemical which could possibly permeate the tissue. However an introduction of cocaine and heroin drugs to methadone seemed to increase the amount of the toxin.
Seemingly methadone is stated to be very crucial for treatment, however the effects of this drug when used in combination need to be further analyzed. Through this analysis the experts have evidently highlighted the need for keeping a close supervision on pregnant women dependent on drugs.
These results have been presented in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology, an open access journal of BioMed Central.
