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MATERNAL SMOKING, ADHD IN CHILDREN AGAIN LINKED
Two new studies strongly implicate maternal smoking as a
risk factor for childhood learning and behavior problems,
replicating earlier findings
(see related article, Crime Times, 2005, Vol. 11, No. 4, Page 3).
In the first study, Karen Markussen Linnet and colleagues
conducted a follow-up of 1355 children whose mothers'
smoking habits were recorded during pregnancy. When the
children were three, the researchers used parent
questionnaires to identify symptoms of hyperactivity,
distractibility, aggression, hostility, anxiety, and
fearfulness.
"Compared with children of non-smokers," they report,
"children born to women who smoked 10 or more cigarettes
per day had a 60% increased risk of hyperactivity and
distractibility perceived by the parents." The findings
remained true when the researchers controlled for several
other lifestyle factors.
While Markussen Linnet and colleagues did not find a
correlation between maternal smoking during pregnancy and
hostility or aggression in children, a recent study by L. S.
Wakschlag and colleagues did. Wakschlag et al. studied 448
boys participating in the Pittsburgh Youth Study and found
that tobacco-exposed boys were significantly more likely to
develop oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), or to have
combined ODD and ADHD, than other children. They also
were more likely to develop delinquent behavior early in
life.
The researchers conclude, "[E]xposure-related conduct
problems appear to be characterized by socially resistant and
impulsively aggressive behavior."
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"Cigarette smoking during pregnancy and hyperactive-
distractible preschoolers: A follow-up study," K. Markussen
Linnet, C. Obel, E. Bonde, P. Hove Thomsen, N. Jorgen
Secher, K. Wisborg, and T. Brink Henricksen, Acta
Paediatrica, Vol. 95, No. 6, June 2006, 694-700.
Address: K. Markussen Linnet, Perinatal Epidemiology
Research Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Paediatrics,
Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby Sygehus, Denmark.
-- and --
"Is prenatal smoking associated with a developmental
pattern of conduct problems in young boys?" L. S.
Wakschlag, K. E. Pickett, K. E. Kasza, and R.
Loeber, Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol. 45, No. 4, April 2006, 461-
7. Address: L. S. Wakschlag, Institute for Juvenile Research,
Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago,
Chicago, IL 60608, lwakschlag@psych.uic.edu.
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