Smoking during pregnancy raises risk of schizophrenia

Research in Finland found that the more women were exposed to nicotine, the greater chance they had of having a child affected by severe mental illness, according to a report published in the Daily Mirror.

Signs of heavy nicotine exposure in a mother's blood were associated with a 38-percent increase in the likelihood of schizophrenia.

Scientists analyzed data on 1,000 schizophrenia patients and matched their birth and health records with those of non-affected control individuals.

Smoking habits were assessed by looking at levels of a nicotine marker, cotinine, in the blood.

Based on this measurement, one-fifth of schizophrenia patients' mothers were found to have smoked heavily while pregnant, compared with 14.7% of mothers of controls.

Senior researcher Professor Alan Brown, from the University of Columbia in New York City, said: “To our knowledge, this is the first biomarker-based study to show a relationship between fetal nicotine exposure and schizophrenia.”

Women participating in the study were recruited into the Finnish Prenatal Study of Schizophrenia.

Blood tests were carried out during the first and early second trimesters of pregnancy.

Nicotine is known to cross the placenta easily and enter the fetal bloodstream, leading to neurodevelopmental abnormalities.

The research is published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Prof Brown added: “These findings underscore the value of ongoing public health education on the potentially debilitating, and largely preventable, consequences that smoking may have on children over time.”