A Comparison of Two Statewide Datasets to Understand Population Prevalence of Substance Use in Pregnancy: Findings and Considerations for Policy & Research.

Mental health conditions including substance use disorder are the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. Unfortunately, fears of child protective services' involvement interfere with maternal self-disclosure of substance use in pregnancy. Seeking to identify more mothers with substance use disorder in pregnancy or at delivery, and responsive to changes to the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), Connecticut requires hospital personnel to submit a deidentified notification to CPS for all newborns with prenatal substance exposure. However, it is unknown whether this approach aligns with maternal self-report on substance use. For the present study, we compared population parameters derived from CAPTA notifications submitted between March-December 2019 with parameters derived from self-report data on substance use in pregnancy from mothers who gave birth during the same timeframe. Results revealed that three times as many mothers self-reported any alcohol or drug use in pregnancy compared to the rate measured with CAPTA notifications. Compared to mothers who self-reported drug use in the third trimester, CAPTA notifications were made for statistically similar rates of Black mothers but half the self-reported rate of White and Hispanic mothers. This disparity reflects that CAPTA notifications were made for twice as many Black mothers as White or Hispanic. Although CAPTA notifications are not punitive in nature, this disparity reveals that the public health aims of this policy are not yet achieved.

Novel Implementation of State Reporting Policy for Substance-Exposed Infants.

BACKGROUND: The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act's provisions concerning hospitalist and child protective services response to infants with prenatal substance exposure (IPSE) were revised in 2016 to address the impact of the opioid epidemic. In 2019, Connecticut unveiled a statewide hospital reporting infrastructure to divert IPSE without safety concerns from CPS using a deidentified notification to CPS and a plan of safe care (POSC). Connecticut is the first state to implement a separate, deidentified notification system. METHODS: We used notification and birth data to determine rates per 1000 births. We employed multinomial logistic regression to understand factors associated with 3 mutually exclusive outcomes: (1) diversion with POSC, (2) report with POSC, or (3) report without POSC. RESULTS: During the first 28 months of policy implementation, hospitalists submitted over 4700 notifications (8% of total Connecticut births). Over three-quarters (79%) of notifications included marijuana exposure, and 21% included opioid exposure. Fewer than 3% included alcohol exposure. Black mothers were disproportionally overrepresented among notifications compared with the state population, and all other race groups underrepresented. Over half of identified IPSE were diverted. Type of substance exposure was the strongest predictor of outcome, controlling for maternal age and race group. CONCLUSIONS: Connecticut Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act diverted IPSE without provider safety concerns away from child protective services. Substance exposure type was associated with the dyad's outcome at hospital discharge. Nonuniversal screening practices may contribute to racial disproportionality in implementation.

Adolescent outcome of boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and social disability: results from a 4-year longitudinal follow-up study.

IQ-achievement discrepancy methodology similar to that used in defining learning disabilities has recently been used to identify a subset of boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) evidencing marked impairment in social functioning. In this study, 2 issues were examined: (a) What is the longitudinal outcome of boys with ADHD identified at baseline as "socially disabled"? (b) Is social disability at baseline a significant predictor of severe long-term outcomes (such as substance use disorders) in boys with ADHD? If so, are its predictive relationships accounted for by conditions that are comorbid with ADHD? Results showed that, at follow-up, boys with ADHD who also had social disability evidenced significantly higher rates of mood, anxiety, disruptive, and substance use disorders, compared with nonsocially disabled boys with ADHD and comparison boys without ADHD. Findings also showed that social disability at baseline in boys with ADHD was a significant predictor of later conduct disorder and most substance use disorders after baseline mood and conduct disorders and behavior checklist ratings of aggressive behavior and attention problems were controlled.