Smoking during Pregnancy Increases ADHD Risk

Smoking during pregnancy can increase a child's risk of certain health issues, including low birth-weight and increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or premature birth. Even second-hand smoke can increase the risk of a certain respiratory issues and certain birth defects.

Now, a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics found that smoking during pregnancy can also increase a child's risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

"We've been lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that if we can just get mothers to stop smoking and onto nicotine replacement, it will protect against any kinds of fetal damage in the developing child. This is a stark injection of reality about how that may not be the case," said Dr. Timothy Wilens, director of the Center for Addiction Medicine and acting chief of child psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, via Medical Xpress.

For the study, researchers reviewed the medical records of about 85,000 children born in Denmark, all who had participated in the study from 1996 to 2002. The sample showed that a little over 2,000 of the children exhibited signs of the disorder.

Findings revealed that roughly 1.8 percent of children with signs of ADHD had nonsmoking parents, while two percent also showed signs of the disorder if they had a father who did not smoke and a mother who had given up the habit. Overall, children were 4.2 percent more likely to have symptoms of ADHD if they lived in a household where both parents smoked.

For mothers using nicotine therapy, researchers also found that around 3.8 percent of sample would also deal with symptoms of ADHD. If the mothers alone were smokers, the rate was around 3.4 percent. However, the ADHD rate fell to 2.9 percent in children living in households where the fathers were the smokers.

"If at all possible, try not to smoke when conceiving," Dr. Wilens concluded. "If you think you've conceived and you're smoking, it's best to come off cigarettes as quickly as possible. If you need to use nicotine-replacement therapy, use it for as short a time as possible."