April 15, 2026 · BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2025-087321

Prenatal exposure to buprenorphine or methadone and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes: population based cohort study

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This study aimed to compare the incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders in children with prenatal exposure to buprenorphine versus methadone. Analyzing data from over 18,000 pregnancies, the authors found no significant increase in the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders associated with buprenorphine compared to methadone, suggesting that buprenorphine may be a safer treatment option for opioid use disorder during pregnancy.

Sabine Friedrich, Krista F Huybrechts, Loreen Straub, Sonia Hernandez-Diaz, Yanmin Zhu, Georg Hahn, Helen Mogun, Hendrée E Jones, Hilary S Connery, Jonathan M Davis, Kathryn J Gray, Barry Lester, Mishka Terplan, Brian T Bateman

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