More research is needed on the relationship of cocaine use to miscarriage and premature labor. Alternative medications to prevent premature labor need to be developed. Cocaine raises fetal blood pressure and heart rate. Nonhuman animal research suggest that cocaine concentrations can be transferred from the mother to the fetus through the placenta or umbilical cord. It is not known whether amniotic fluid might act as a reservoir that potentially could expose the fetus to cocaine long after the mother has stopped using the drug.
More research is needed on the effects of cocaine use on the fetus.
Stress Examination of stress is a critical element in drug abuse research. Stress can be used as an independent variable to study sex differences in various responses to drugs and to reveal the underlying mechanisms of drug action. Stress and cocaine use correlate, particularly with regard to drug relapse. Former heroin and cocaine addicts have been found to be hyperresponsive to chemically-induced stress. More research is needed to determine whether this hyperresponsiveness may result in relapse for these former addicts and whether gender differences exist in the interaction of drugs of abuse and stress.