PREGNANT SMOKERS LINKED TO BABY HYPERACTIVITY

LONDON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Women who smoke during pregnancy can
increase their baby's risk of developing attention deficit disorder
and learning difficulties, Swedish scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers have already shown that pregnant smokers can pass on
cancer-causing substances to their unborn children. A study by doctors
at Gotenburg University in Sweden has now linked the tobacco habit to
neurological disorders in children.

Attention deficit disorder (ADHD) causes hyperactivity and an
inability to concentrate. Deficits in attention, motor control and
perception -- commonly referred to as DAMP -- describe youngsters who
have learning and motion problems but are not mentally retarded.

Although both conditions are common in children, Professor Christopher
Gillberg and colleagues in the department of child and adolescent
psychiatry at Gotenburg University found that children were more
likely to suffer from attention deficit disorder and DAMP if their
mothers smoked during pregnancy.

``Improved maternal health care, including the prevention of smoking
during pregnancy, could lead to a reduction in the rate of language
and behaviour problems and a reduction in DAMP in the general
population,'' they said in research published in the Archives of
Disease in Childhood, a monthly medical journal.

Their study of 62 six-year-old children with deficit disorders and a
control group of healthy youngsters showed that twice as many in the
deficits group had mothers who smoked during pregnancy.

Stomach and sleep problems were also more common in the deficits group
and two-thirds of the children also had language difficulties.

``Our finding of an association of DAMP and a higher rate of ADHD
symptoms with maternal smoking during pregnancy agrees with other
studies of ADHD and so-called minimal brain dysfunction syndrome, a
disorder similar to DAMP,'' the researchers added.

Millions of children around the world suffer from the conditions,
which are treated with drugs and a new therapy called neurofeedback
which focuses on rebalancing the brain waves of the children and
teaching them to concentrate.

The treatment is based on the theory that ADHD children produce too
many theta brain waves, slow brain waves associated with inattention,
and not enough beta waves involved in concentration.

Studies have also shown that smoking increases a woman's risk of
having a low-birthweight child and is associated with a greater chance
of sudden infant death syndrome, or cot death.

Despite the negative effects of smoking during pregnancy, up to 61
percent of women smokers do not give up the habit during pregnancy.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry