Prenatal Maternal Smoking Affects Adolescent Brain Development and Drug Use

Adolescents who were exposed to prenatal maternal cigarette smoking are more likely to experiment with illicit drugs and to have a thinner orbitofrontal cortex than nonexposed adolescents. To determine if drug use is associated with cortical thickness, investigators analyzed magnetic resonance imaging data for 314 adolescents in Quebec (mean age, 15 years), half of whom had been exposed to prenatal maternal cigarette smoking (defined as >1 cigarette per day in the second trimester of pregnancy), based on maternal report.

Adolescents completed the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Predictive Scales (a measure of psychiatric symptoms) and answered extensive questions about personal and peer drug use. In analysis that was controlled fo…