Perinatal Substance Use-Related Content at Major Addiction Scientific Conferences: An Analysis of Oral Presentation Sessions.

Background: Substance use is a leading cause of pregnancy-associated death in the US. It is not known if the amount of perinatal content at national addiction science conferences reflects the research and education being done in this area nationally.

Methods: We analyzed oral presentation sessions at five major addiction scientific conferences from 2021 to 2023 (American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry [AAAP], American Society of Addiction Medicine [ASAM], Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance use and Addiction [AMERSA], College on Problems of Drug Dependence [CPDD], Research Society on Alcohol [RSA]) closely affiliated with organizations involved with substance use-related research and funding. Conference programs were searched using an inductive framework to identify sessions focused on pregnancy or the postpartum period. Available session materials were reviewed, coded, and categorized into three mutually exclusive groups: 1) dedicated to the perinatal period, 2) containing some perinatal content, but were not dedicated to the perinatal period, and 3) sessions with no perinatal content.

Results: Across >3,000 speakers, less than 10% of sessions (76/788) contained perinatal substance use-related content. Among these, 4.7% (39/788) sessions were dedicated to the perinatal period, with the common topic covered being epidemiologic data on long-term infant neurodevelopmental outcomes following in utero drug exposure (n = 22). An additional 37 had some perinatal content but were not primarily focused on perinatal substance use. Among sessions dedicated to the perinatal period, only two covered overdoses.

Discussion: Sessions dedicated to the perinatal period may not adequately reflect the diverse real-world needs of birthing people with substance use disorders. Whereas included sessions commonly covered neurodevelopmental outcomes (ie, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders), overdose and the postpartum period were seldom covered.