Abstract
The World Drug Report 2019 presented an alarming figure to the world: more than 5% of the world's population has been using some type of illicit drug, and that number is growing every year. While its use increases, its abuse during pregnancy has become a global public health problem, resulting in medical and social challenges related to maternal and child health. In this context, the objective of this review was to determine the prevalence of illicit drug use during gestation across the globe, alongside with a critical review of the evaluated studies. Research was performed by simultaneously searching terms ("pregnant woman OR pregnant" OR "gestation" OR "pregnancy" AND "illicit drugs" OR "street drugs") in the databases of the Scientific Electronic Library Online, PubMed, and Web of Science. Comparisons between studies were performed in software Statistica 10.0. The data presented worrying results in relation to the variation in prevalence of illicit drug use during pregnancy, when comparing studies based on interviews or questionnaires (self-reported) (1.65%) and studies based on toxicological analysis (12.28%). In addition, we emphasize the high prevalence (5.16%) of illicit drug use among adolescent pregnant women and the low number of studies on this population. This study reveals worrying data about pregnant drug-user population, mainly the underestimation of prevalence in studies that use only questionnaires or similar methods in comparison to studies that use toxicological analysis of biological matrices. This scenario reveals necessity for health systems in different countries to establish specific public health policies for this population.
Highlights
The World Drug Report 2019 presented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that, in 2017, about 271 million people were using illicit drugs around the globe, which is 5.5% of the world population (UNODC 2019)
In the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances the expression “psychotropic substance” was the term used to refer to those natural or synthetic substances or any natural material listed in the four schedules of the convention, which have been prohibited from commercialization except for prescribed use (UNODC 1971)
Is possible to emphasize the research by National Institute on Drug Abuse perfomed in 1992 and published in 1996, found that 5.5% of pregnant women surveyed used an illicit drug
Summary
The World Drug Report 2019 presented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that, in 2017, about 271 million people were using illicit drugs around the globe, which is 5.5% of the world population (UNODC 2019). The same report shows that, from 2010 to 2017, the number of drug users rose from 226 million (5% of the world population) to 271 million (5.5% of the world population) (UNODC 2019). It is a cause for concern that illicit drug use in the world is increasing every year. In the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances the expression “psychotropic substance” was the term used to refer to those natural or synthetic substances or any natural material listed in the four schedules of the convention, which have been prohibited from commercialization except for prescribed use (UNODC 1971). As Asimakopoulos et al (2016) stated in his review, licit drugs are those for which the prescription for medical use is permitted by law, while illicit drugs are those for which non-medical use is prohibited by law.
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