Postpartum weight alteration in hamster offspring from females injected during pregnancy with either heroin, methadone, a composite drug mixture, or mescaline

Abstract

The effects of the injection of either heroin, methadone, a composite drug mixture, mescaline, or saline into pregnant hamsters were observed on the postpartum young for approximately 50 days. The primary differences between the young from the drug-injected females as compared to the saline litters was a decreased average pup weight that increasingly became greater as the growth period continued. The decreased average weight was most pronounced in the methadone and heroin groups. The mescaline groups, originally very similar in average weight to control groups, began to lose weight at an increasing rate as the growth period continued. In general, both lowest weight and the highest weight pup in all drug group litters exhibited markedly lower weights than similar control animals. Additionally, behavioral patterns, pelt color alteration, and diarrhea-associated deaths were recorded in some of the litters from drug-injected mothers.