The children of mothers who were exposed to second-hand smoke while pregnant are more at risk of serious psychological problems like ADHD, according to a new University of Washington (UW) study. UW psychologists Lisa Gatzke-Kopp and Theodore Beauchaine say that their study links third-hand smoking to aggressive behavior, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), defiance and a broad range of conduct disorders.
Reporting their findings in Child Psychiatry and Human Development, the UW researchers found that those children whose mothers had been exposed to tobacco smoke either by smoking or by being around smokers when they were pregnant had more externalizing psychopathology behaviors than children whose mothers spent their pregnancies in a smoke-free environment.
It appears that the effects from cigarette smoke depend largely on the level of exposure. "Children with these disorders have a range of behaviors that stretch from problematic to severe. It is a continuum based on the number of symptoms, and children who were exposed to smoke exhibited more symptoms," Gatzke-Kopp noted.
The study controlled for a number of other factors including family income, parents' substance use, birth weight and parents' anti-social behavior, but second- and third-hand exposure to smoking persisted as the primary predictor of conduct disorder and ADHD.
Animal studies in the past have shown that nicotine affects brain development during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, causing changes in brain regions critical to the development of externalizing psychopathology in humans.
The researchers say their study shows that regardless of how women are exposed to tobacco smoke - either directly or second-hand smoke - their unborn children's behavior can be affected.
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Source: University of Washington
