Editorial: Substance abuse and early development.

Abstract

While misuse of psychoactive substances can be traced back to pre-historic times, their effects on invisible target—such as the developing fetus—only gained recognition within the last century [1–4]. Initial seminal findings in humans and laboratory rodents quickly grew from isolated observations to well-planned, multidisciplinary studies. Despite the involvement of numerous methodologies, large teams of researchers, and widely different experimental organisms, there has been an unusual consensus on the meaning of findings: principally that prenatal exposure to drugs of misuse has deleterious consequences for the developing fetus.