COCAINE EXPOSURE AFFECTS NEWBORNS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Children exposed to cocaine before birth tend to have
slightly lower intelligence scores and more difficulty with language than
other children, according to a study published today.

Researchers at Brown University analyzed research involving more than 800
elementary-age children and found that children born to mothers who used
cocaine during the pregnancy had IQ scores about 3.26 points lower than
children born to mothers who did not use cocaine.

Dr. Barry M. Lester, Brown researcher and co-author of the study in the
journal Science, said the finding was actually good news.

``Ten or 15 years ago, it was thought that these kids were almost beyond
hope,'' said Lester. ``But we find that the level of deficit can be
corrected with a proper intervention.''

He said special training for children born to cocaine-using mothers could
compensate for both the intellectual and language loss.

The deficit in language skills experienced by the cocaine-exposed children
was about twice the loss in intellectual ability, Lester said. Language
researchers tested the children's ability both to express themselves and to
understand instructions. In both tests, the children were below the
performance of those who were not exposed to cocaine in the womb.

Children in the study were aged 4 to 7, he said.

Lester said surveys designed to determine how many American children are
affected by prenatal cocaine exposure have given a wide range of answers --
from 45,000 to 375,000. He said methods used in the surveys are different
and the true number is ``probably somewhere in the middle.''

Most children exposed before birth to cocaine are born into poverty, a
background that also affects intellectual and language scores, he said.

``Three IQ points wouldn't mean much in a middle-class context,'' said
Lester. ``Add in poverty and it kicks the score into the 80s. It puts them
at double jeopardy.''

An IQ score of 100 generally is considered normal, he said.

Special training to overcome intellectual deficits caused by prenatal
cocaine exposure would cost about $6,335 per child annually and add about
$80 million to the nation's special education costs, Lester estimated.

Language training for the children, he said, would be even more expensive.
He estimated the national cost at between $22 million and $352 million
annually.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst