1. Buprenorphine, Methadone, and Morphine
treatment during pregnancy: Behavioral effects on
the offspring in rats.
Hwei-Hsien Chen, Yao-Chang Chiang, Zung Fan Yuan, Chung-Chih Kuo, Mei-Dan Lai,
Tsai-Wei Hung, Ing-kang Ho, and Shao-Tsu Chen
Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2015
Jacob Patterson
2. Background
Buprenorphine and Methadone work similarly
to aid in treating opioid dependence
This includes pregnant women
Being born addicted to opioids has awful
short-term and long-term effects
Treatment with Buprenorphine and
Methadone has some similar effects
5. Questions asked in this study
● How do Buprenorphine and Methadone affect the
cognitive function, social interaction, and anxiety-like
behaviors in young rats.
● Are the effects sex-linked?
● Is higher Buprenorphine a really safe agent for treating
pregnant women?
15. Discussion
Compared side effects of Buprenorphine,
Methadone, and Morphine
Exposure to all three causes cognitive
impairment
Novel object recognition and social interaction
affected equally in both sexes
16. Discussion
Morphine and Methadone exposure showed
increase in anxiety-like behaviors for male
and female offspring equally
Buprenorphine exposure effected females in
elevator plus-maze, but not males
Locomotion was not effected, thus behavioral
changes were not due to locomotion deficits
17. Conclusions
Buprenorphine overall showed side-effects to
a lesser extent than Methadone
Side-effects still cause significant cognitive
impairment
Higher doses not recommended
Being born addicted to heroine is still probably
worse
