Abstract

BACKGROUND: Opium abuse is one of the widespread social problems, and one of the most worrying aspects of it is the effect of parents' drug abuse on the fetus. OBJECTIVES: The present study has investigated the correlation between opium abuse during pregnancy in mothers with congenital heart defects in their children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From early 2009 to late 2011, for two consecutive years in specialized pediatric center of Zahedan Medical University, 225 of children suffering from congenital heart defects were examined and compared with 480 healthy ones for mother opium dependency. The final data were analyzed by student t-test and chi(2) in SPSS software and the two groups were compared in terms of their parents' addiction to opium. RESULTS: From 225 children under study 23.5 had addicted parents based on the variables of the study but the rate was only 2.3 for the control group. The difference between these two groups was significant and the most common form of heart disease was congenital ventricular septal defect. CONCLUSIONS: Opium has teratogenic effect on cardiovascular system.