Smoking During Pregnancy Ups Risk for AD/HD

A study suggests a child is more likely to develop AD/HD if the mother smoked during pregnancy.

A recent study from Denmark suggests that kids whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are more likely to have AD/HD. The study seems to corroborate previous research showing that high levels of nicotine in a mother's body can affect fetal brain development.

As part of the study, published in the August 2005 issue of Pediatrics, researchers at Aarhus University Hospital in Aarhus N, Denmark interviewed the mothers of 3,935 children, 170 of whom had AD/HD. The researchers found that mothers who smoked were three times more likely than non-smokers to give birth to a child who later developed AD/HD.