Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-29-2025
Keywords
breast milk, substance use disorder, lactation, drug transfer, pharmacokinetics, relative infant dose, milk-to-plasma ratio, infant health, breastfeeding safety
Abstract
Breast milk provides significant health benefits to both infants and mothers, offering protection against infections and enhancing cognitive development. This paper examines the complex effects of substance use disorder (SUD) during pregnancy and lactation, focusing on the pharmacokinetics of drug transfer into breast milk. It highlights the mechanisms by which drugs enter milk, emphasizing the roles of passive diffusion and active transport, particularly through breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP). The study explores the impact of various substances on fetal and infant health, with a focus on the relative infant dose (RID) and milk-to-plasma (MP) ratio as key metrics for assessing drug safety in breastfeeding. The findings underscore the need for careful evaluation of maternal drug use during lactation to balance the benefits of breastfeeding with potential risks.
Publisher Attribution
Copyright: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Recommended Citation
Yang, Yongzong; Yi, Bofang; and Zhang, Tao, "The Impact of Substance Use Disorder and Drug Transfer into Breast Milk: Implications for Maternal and Infant Health" (2025). Pharmacy Faculty Scholarship. 80.
https://orb.binghamton.edu/pharmacy_fac/80
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Comments
10.3390/pharmaceutics17060719