PainRelief.com Interview with:

David A. A. Baranger, PhD
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Ryan Bogdan, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences
Department of Psychiatry
Washington University in St Louis
St Louis, Missouri



PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

David Baranger: Prenatal cannabis use is increasing in the United States. Prior work from our group found that prenatal cannabis exposure, particularly when it occurred after mothers learned they were pregnant, was associated with worse mental health outcomes in children aged 9-10.

In this study we followed up with this same group of children, who are now as old as 12, to ask whether anything has changed. Have they improved, or gotten worse? To our surprise, we found that children with prenatal cannabis exposure still had worse mental health outcomes – things had not gotten better, nor had they gotten worse.