Just reported is a new syndrome that results from the exposure of a developing fetus to the opioid fentanyl. Geneticists at Delaware’s Nemours Children’s Hospital have studied a group of 6 patients with short stature, small heads, unusual facial features, cleft palate, deformed hands and feet, and genital abnormalities. The study authors also reports 4 additional cases from other institutions.
Mirroring the fetal alcohol syndrome which also presents with slow physical growth, small heads, brain abnormalities, distinctive facial features, and limb deformities, fetal fentanyl syndrome results from metabolic aberrations during gestation that result from intentional or accidental exposure to this recreational narcotic. Genetic studies on these infants failed to detect DNA abnormalities that explain these unique features so Fetal Fentanyl Syndrome is the result of the drug’s chemical toxicity.
Abuse of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50-100 times more potent than morphine, is the driver for overdose deaths that have surged some 22 fold over a recent 8 year period. Now we know that exposure to this dangerous drug by pregnant women also results in extreme toxicity to the developing fetus.
https://www.gimopen.org/article/S2949-7744(23)00843-9/fulltext#
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/fetal-alcohol-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20352901
https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/fentanyl.html
#fentanyl #pregnancy #fetalfentanylsyndrome #fetalalcoholsyndrome #teratogenicity
