Prenatal smoking can lead to psychiatric problems in children and increase the
need for psychotropic medications in childhood and young adulthood, claims a new
study.
In the study, Finnish researchers found that adolescents who had been exposed to
prenatal smoking were at increased risk for use of all psychiatric drugs
especially those uses to treat depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) and addiction compared to non-exposed youths.
The study has been presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual
meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
"Recent studies show that maternal smoking during pregnancy may interfere with
brain development of the growing fetus," said Mikael Ekblad, lead author of the
study and a pediatric researcher at Turku University Hospital in Finland. "By
avoiding smoking during pregnancy, all the later psychiatric problems caused by
smoking exposure could be prevented."
Ekblad and his colleagues collected information from the Finnish Medical Birth
Register on maternal smoking, gestational age, birthweight and 5-minute Apgar
scores for all children born in Finland from 1987 through 1989. They also
analyzed records on mothers’ psychiatric inpatient care from 1969-1989 and
children’s use of psychiatric drugs.
Results showed that 12.3 per cent of the young adults had used psychiatric
drugs, and of these, 19.2 per cent had been exposed to prenatal smoking.
The rate of psychotropic medication use was highest in young adults whose
mothers smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day while pregnant (16.9 per cent),
followed by youths whose mothers smoked fewer than 10 cigarettes a day (14.7 per
cent) and unexposed youths (11.7 per cent).
The risk for medication use was similar in males and females, and remained after
adjusting for risk factors at birth, such as Apgar scores and birthweight, and
the mother’s previous inpatient care for mental disorders.
Smoking exposure increased the risk for use of all psychotropic drugs,
especially stimulants used to treat ADHD (unexposed: 0.2 per cent; less than 10
cigarettes/day: 0.4 per cent; and more than 10 cigarettes/day: 0.6 per cent) and
drugs for addiction. An increased risk for use of drugs to treat depression also
was seen (unexposed: 6 per cent; less than 10 cigarettes/day: 8.6 per cent; and
more than 10 cigarettes/day: 10.3 per cent).
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
