Finnish researchers have found that maternal smoking during pregnancy may affect the development of the child and increase the likelihood that the child will grow up using psychotropic drugs. ”The study shows that maternal smoking during pregnancy may increase the risk of mild and even severe psychiatric disorders in children as they grow up,” said Mikael Ekblad, a pediatrician at Turku University Hospital in Finland, who led the study. Ekblad and his research team called on data from 175,000 babies born in Finland between 1987 and 1989, referencing records of prescription drugs used by these children from 1994 to 2007 under health insurance coverage, and grouped the children by whether their mothers smoked during pregnancy for a comparative study. The study excluded premature infants and infants with low birth weights to improve the accuracy of the analysis. On average, 1 in 11 children had received one or more psychotropic medications. These medications included antitussives, tranquilizers, antidepressants, stimulants and narcotics. The comparison showed that 8% of children of nonsmoking mothers used these drugs during pregnancy; mothers who smoked less than 10 cigarettes per day during pregnancy; and children whose mothers smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day used 14% of these drugs (a ratio of 1.63). The study was published by the latest issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The report said it was not possible at this stage to determine how maternal smoking affects brain development in infants or children, and possible mechanisms of action include nicotine affecting brain development and smoking reducing fetal oxygen intake.