College of Medicine researchers Samantha Goldfarb, Gregg Stanwood, Heather Flynn and Devon Graham shared insights from biomedical, clinical and policy perspectives on opioid abuse during pregnancy. Their article, "Developmental opioid exposures: Neurobiological underpinnings, behavioral impacts, and policy implications," appears in the archive journal Experimental Biology and Medicine.

From the abstract: "Solutions to this complex problem must be multi-faceted, which would be greatly enhanced by a translational, multidisciplinary understanding. Therefore, this mini-review incorporates biomedical, clinical, and policy aspects of opioid use during pregnancy.  We review the known roles for endogenous opioids in mediating circuit formation and function in the developing brain, discuss how exogenous opioid drug use and addiction impact these processes in animal models and humans, and discuss the implications of these data on public policy. We suggest that some current policy initiatives produce unintended harm on both mothers and their children and delineate recommendations for how legislation could better contribute to addiction recovery and increase neural resilience in affected children."