Smoking during pregnancy affects child's brain
Researchers from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, NL have associated prenatal tobacco exposure with problematic brain development.
Specifically, their study included 113 young children who were prenatally exposed to tobacco and 113 unexposed controls. The researchers studied the behavioral and emotional functioning and the brain morphology.
The findings showed that children whose mother was smoking during pregnancy, have smaller brains and less amounts of grey and white matter. Of note, the brain of the children whose mother quit smoking during pregnancy had the same development pattern as the unexposed controls.
These findings support that smoking during pregnancy has long-term effects on brain development and can lead to emotional problems and affective disorders.
References
H. E. Marroun, M. N. Schmidt, I. H. A. Franken, V. W. V. Jaddoe, A. Hofman, A. van der Lugt, F. C Verhulst, H. Tiemeier, T. White (2013) "Prenatal Tobacco Exposure and Brain Morphology: A Prospective Study in Young Children", Neuropsychopharmacology, doi: 10.1038/npp.2013.273