General’s Report--which marks federal document’s 50th anniversary--includes researchers’ findings on effects of maternal smoking on offspring
brain structure, function.
A Miriam Hospital review article showing altered brain development
in offspring of mothers who smoke during pregnancy has been included in the
2014 Surgeon General’s Tobacco Report. Prior to now, few studies have assessed
the relationship between maternal smoking and child brain development.
Entitled, “Maternal smoking during pregnancy and
offspring brain structure and function: review and agenda for future research,”
the review was led by Laura Stroud, PhD, a senior research scientist at
the Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at The Miriam Hospital. It
was published in 2012 in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
“Information from our study may help us to understand
pathways leading to long-term adverse outcomes from prenatal tobacco exposure,”
Stroud said. “Our study also gives more ammunition and information to mothers
and providers to help them quit.
“Further, with our research included in the Surgeon
General’s Report,” Stroud added, “we are contributing to the body of evidence
that forms ‘the state of the science’ regarding tobacco’s effects on health.
The SGR typically has a major impact on tobacco public policy. It’s a real
The Surgeon General’s Tobacco Report--the 32nd
tobacco-related Surgeon General’s Report issued since 1964--is a comprehensive
compilation of available evidence and literature about the effects of smoking
on health. Its purpose is to determine the strength of related evidence and
make conclusions about the links between smoking and various diseases. Surgeon
General reports have focused on different themes through the years, ranging
from the impact of tobacco control policies to the effects of secondhand smoke.
The last report was issued in 2012.
reviewed the small but emerging literature looking at the effects of
maternal smoking and child brain development,” said Margaret Bublitz, research scientist at the Centers for
Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at The Miriam, and first author of the
The paper found that across a small number of studies that
exist, children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy showed a decreased size
of a number of brain regions--particularly the cerebellum and corpus callosum.
The review also found a lack of coordination across different brain regions
during information and auditory processing--the same regions and deficits that
have been shown to be altered in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
and other disorders. It contained a proposed agenda for future research,
including improved measures of maternal smoking and repeated measures of brain
structures and function and attention deficits over development using designs
that allow control for potential genetic differences between mothers who do and
do not smoke.
“What is important is that across a small number of studies,
there appear to be effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy on brain
structure and function,” Stroud said, “and these alterations may help us start
to explain greater rates of attention deficits and disruptive behaviors in
children of mothers who smoke.”
More about the Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at The Miriam Hospital