al disorders such as depression or anxiety.

"This is a matter of severity. Children with these disorders have a range of behaviors that stretch from problematic to severe. It is a continuum based on the number of symptoms, and children who were exposed to smoke exhibited more symptoms," said Gatzke-Kopp, a post-doctoral researcher.

Nicotine, an alkaloid compound in tobacco, is believed to be the chemical that causes these behaviour problems in children. Animal studies have shown that nicotine affects brain development during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, causing changes in brain regions critical to the development of externalising psychopathology in humans.

"Evidence suggests that the dopamine system in the brain gets over stimulated during pregnancy. Dopamine is a brain chemical that plays an important role in behavior and cognition, among other functions," Beauchaine said.

"As a consequence, children who were exposed to smoke in utero have colic and are hard to sooth as infants. As toddlers they are overactive and oppositional. Later on they are irritable, inattentive and low on pleasure," he added.

Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the research also supports a 2006 report by the U.S. Surgeon General that found passive smoke exposure poses a substantial risk to the general health of those who breathe the smoke, as well as to the fetuses of pregnant women.

The study and its findings are published in the current issue of Child Psychiatry and Human Development.


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