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The Management of the Pregnant Drug Addict

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Diana Riley
Diana Riley*
Affiliation:
St John's Hospital, Stone, Aylesbury, Bucks and Clinical Assistant in Obstetric Liaison Psychiatry, University College Hospital, London
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The number of drug abusers in this country has increased over the past 20 years, and the pattern of drug taking has also changed. More people now take drugs on a recreational basis, and a smaller proportion of addicts show the full-blown picture of physical and mental deterioration associated with addiction in the past. Where such deterioration is present, pregnancy rarely occurs because of suppression of menstruation and ovulation and reduction of male fertility. Perhaps because of this change, the number of pregnant drug addicts has also increased. They now create a significant problem in the obstetric departments of hospitals in major population centres where addicts tend to congregate.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists , Volume 11 , Issue 11 , November 1987 , pp. 362 - 365
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1987

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