This study was conducted to determine the relationship between prenatal smoking exposure and the use of psychotropic medication up to young adulthood. Population-based longitudinal register data consisting of all singletons born in Finland from 1987 to 1989 (n = 175 869) was assessed. Information on maternal smoking was determined 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% 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 (95% CI: 1.29-1.43), and 13.6% in children exposed to >10 cigarettes per day (95% CI: 1.53-1.74). The exposure was significantly associated with the risk for all medication use and for both singleand multiple-drug consumption even after adjustment for possible confounders. These findings show that exposure to smoking during pregnancy is linked to both mild and severe psychiatric morbidity. Am J Epidemiol. 2011 Sep 15;174(6):681-90. PMID: 21821539.
