A study recently published in the scientific journal, Neurology, cited a study out of the University of Hawaii that found children whose mothers where using methamphetamine while carrying them showed abnormalities in brain development.

The study, conducted by Dr. Linda Chang of UH’s of John A. Burns School of Medicine, is being considered the first of its kind. Using a new method of Diffusion tensor imaging, it compared brain scans of young children nearly-half from meth moms and the other half from non-meth moms, finding that the white matter of the former was lagging in development and showed some irregularities.

The researcher team at UH isn’t exactly sure how meth causes the physical abnormality in the white matter of the children. Nonetheless, the researchers have committed to following the children throughout their development to research long-term effects in longitudinal studies.

Hopefully, the findings will motivate drug-abuse prevention organizations to create campaigns targeting potential expecting-to-be, meth moms to clean up their act, so future children aren’t affected by meth addiction.