Relation of prenatal smoking exposure and use of psychotropic medication up to young adulthood

: Ekblad Mikael, Gissler Mika, Lehtonen Liisa, Korkeila Jyrki

: 2011

: American Journal of Epidemiology

: American journal of epidemiology

: Am J Epidemiol

: 174

: 6

: 681

: 90

: 10

: 0002-9262

: 1476-6256

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwr150

: https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/174/6/681/89544

The study objective was to determine the relation of prenatal smoking exposure to the use of psychotropic medication up to young adulthood by using population-based longitudinal register data consisting of all singletons born in Finland from 1987 to 1989 (n = 175,869). Information on maternal smoking was assessed during antenatal care and received from the Finnish Medical Birth Register. Information on the children's psychotropic medication (1994-2007) was received from the Drug Prescription Register, and the children's psychiatric diagnoses related to outpatient (1998-2007) and inpatient (1987-2007) care were derived from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register. A total of 15.3% (n = 26,083) of the children were exposed to prenatal smoking. The incidence of psychotropic medication use was 8.3% in unexposed children, 11.3% in children exposed to <10 cigarettes per day (adjusted odds ratio = 1.36, 95% confidence interval: 1.29, 1.43), and 13.6% in children exposed to >10 cigarettes per day (odds ratio = 1.63, 95% confidence interval: 1.53, 1.74). The exposure was significantly associated with the risk for all medication use and for both single- and multiple-drug consumption even after adjustment (e.g., mothers' severe psychiatric illnesses). These findings show that exposure to smoking during pregnancy is linked to both mild and severe psychiatric morbidity.