1 Women & Infants Hospital, Providence, RI
To the Editor.
In their recent statement on drug-exposed infants,1 the Committee on Substance Abuse discourages universal screening for perinatal drug abuse, citing concern that "the harm vs the benefits of "labeling" the infant and/or the mother are not known." Just how widely we should be testing for perinatal drug abuse remains unclear, however; recent data from our institution suggest that even with broad screening criteria we are missing most cases of perinatal drug abuse.