14 DAY TRIAL // People born to mothers who smoked while pregnant with them are two times more likely to develop bipolar disorder, researchers argue in a paper published in yesterday's issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
This study is the first to link prenatal exposure to tobacco to a higher risk of suffering from bipolar disorder in adulthood.
The researchers base their claims on data collected while looking into the medical records of several dozen children born between 1959 – 1966 in the US, EurekAlert reports.
Commenting on the outcome of this investigation, specialist Alan Brown pointed out that, “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.”
People who develop bipolar disorder first start showing symptoms associated with this psychiatric illness in their late teens or early adulthood. Thus, they begin to constantly switch between periods of depression and periods of mania.
Inattention, irritability and substance abuse have also been linked to this illness.