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Pediatric Exposure to Drugs of Abuse by Hair Testing: Monitoring 15 Years of Evolution in Spain

Hair testing is a useful tool to investigate the prevalence of unsuspected chronic exposure to drugs of abuse in pediatric populations and it has been applied to three different cohorts of children from Barcelona, Spain along fifteen years to evaluate eventual changes in this exposure. Children were...

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Autores principales: Pichini, Simona, García-Algar, Oscar, Alvarez, Airam-Tenesor, Mercadal, Maria, Mortali, Claudia, Gottardi, Massimo, Svaizer, Fiorenza, Pacifici, Roberta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4143861/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25153461
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110808267
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author Pichini, Simona
García-Algar, Oscar
Alvarez, Airam-Tenesor
Mercadal, Maria
Mortali, Claudia
Gottardi, Massimo
Svaizer, Fiorenza
Pacifici, Roberta
author_facet Pichini, Simona
García-Algar, Oscar
Alvarez, Airam-Tenesor
Mercadal, Maria
Mortali, Claudia
Gottardi, Massimo
Svaizer, Fiorenza
Pacifici, Roberta
author_sort Pichini, Simona
collection PubMed
description Hair testing is a useful tool to investigate the prevalence of unsuspected chronic exposure to drugs of abuse in pediatric populations and it has been applied to three different cohorts of children from Barcelona, Spain along fifteen years to evaluate eventual changes in this exposure. Children were recruited from three independent studies performed at Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Spain) and approved by the local Ethics Committee. Hair samples were collected from the first 187 children cohort (around 4 years of age) in 1998, from the second 90 children cohort (1.5–5 years of age) in 2008 and from the third 114 children cohort (5–14 years of age) in 2013. Hair samples were analysed for the presence of opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, and cannabis by validated methodologies using gas or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Familiar sociodemographics and eventual consumption of drugs of abuse by parents, and caregivers were recorded. Hair samples from 24.6% children in 1998 were positive for any drug of abuse (23.0% cocaine), 25.5% in 2008 (23.3% cocaine), and 28.1% in 2013 (20.1% cocaine and 11.4% cannabis). In none of the cohorts, parental sociodemographics were associated with children exposure to drugs of abuse. The results of the three study cohorts demonstrated a significant prevalence of unsuspected pediatric exposure to drugs of abuse which mainly involved cocaine maintained along fifteen years in Barcelona, Spain. We recommend to be aware about unsuspected passive exposure to drugs of abuse in general population and to use general or selected hair screening to disclose exposure to drugs of abuse in children from risky environments to provide the basis for specific social and health interventions.
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spelling pubmed-41438612014-08-26 Pediatric Exposure to Drugs of Abuse by Hair Testing: Monitoring 15 Years of Evolution in Spain Pichini, Simona García-Algar, Oscar Alvarez, Airam-Tenesor Mercadal, Maria Mortali, Claudia Gottardi, Massimo Svaizer, Fiorenza Pacifici, Roberta Int J Environ Res Public Health Communication Hair testing is a useful tool to investigate the prevalence of unsuspected chronic exposure to drugs of abuse in pediatric populations and it has been applied to three different cohorts of children from Barcelona, Spain along fifteen years to evaluate eventual changes in this exposure. Children were recruited from three independent studies performed at Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Spain) and approved by the local Ethics Committee. Hair samples were collected from the first 187 children cohort (around 4 years of age) in 1998, from the second 90 children cohort (1.5–5 years of age) in 2008 and from the third 114 children cohort (5–14 years of age) in 2013. Hair samples were analysed for the presence of opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, and cannabis by validated methodologies using gas or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Familiar sociodemographics and eventual consumption of drugs of abuse by parents, and caregivers were recorded. Hair samples from 24.6% children in 1998 were positive for any drug of abuse (23.0% cocaine), 25.5% in 2008 (23.3% cocaine), and 28.1% in 2013 (20.1% cocaine and 11.4% cannabis). In none of the cohorts, parental sociodemographics were associated with children exposure to drugs of abuse. The results of the three study cohorts demonstrated a significant prevalence of unsuspected pediatric exposure to drugs of abuse which mainly involved cocaine maintained along fifteen years in Barcelona, Spain. We recommend to be aware about unsuspected passive exposure to drugs of abuse in general population and to use general or selected hair screening to disclose exposure to drugs of abuse in children from risky environments to provide the basis for specific social and health interventions. MDPI 2014-08-14 2014-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4143861/ /pubmed/25153461 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110808267 Text en © 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Communication
Pichini, Simona
García-Algar, Oscar
Alvarez, Airam-Tenesor
Mercadal, Maria
Mortali, Claudia
Gottardi, Massimo
Svaizer, Fiorenza
Pacifici, Roberta
Pediatric Exposure to Drugs of Abuse by Hair Testing: Monitoring 15 Years of Evolution in Spain
title Pediatric Exposure to Drugs of Abuse by Hair Testing: Monitoring 15 Years of Evolution in Spain
title_full Pediatric Exposure to Drugs of Abuse by Hair Testing: Monitoring 15 Years of Evolution in Spain
title_fullStr Pediatric Exposure to Drugs of Abuse by Hair Testing: Monitoring 15 Years of Evolution in Spain
title_full_unstemmed Pediatric Exposure to Drugs of Abuse by Hair Testing: Monitoring 15 Years of Evolution in Spain
title_short Pediatric Exposure to Drugs of Abuse by Hair Testing: Monitoring 15 Years of Evolution in Spain
title_sort pediatric exposure to drugs of abuse by hair testing: monitoring 15 years of evolution in spain
topic Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4143861/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25153461
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110808267
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