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Prompt: Science Summary

Whether you are pregnant or not we all have heard "do not smoke while pregnant". Smoking while pregnant is known to cause significant lifetime problems to the child. Unfortunately sometimes it just is not enough for the mother to stop smoking. According to (Boyd, 68) children of women who smoked during pregnancy are more likely than their schoolmates to be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A women that smokes while pregnant can also cause the child's birth weight to be lower compared to a child's mother that did not smoke. But recently researches at Columbia University has associated smoking while pregnant to a higher risk factor in developing bipolar disorder in adult children (Columbia University). This is the first study to associate smoking while pregnant to the development of BD. The researches conducted a study that involved evaluating a large group of pregnant women, 79 cases and 654 comparison subjects. Symptoms of BD normally show up when the child is in its late teens to early adulthood. Since BD shares characteristics with ADHD (that can be a result of smoking while pregnant) researchers believe a child will develop BD. Which I find it really hard to believe, and reminds me of Barrett's Laws #9 Beware of the plausible, especially if it works. This study needs a lot more research before it would be in fine print in the textbook, and for me to fully believe this study.

References:

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "Smoking during pregnancy may increase risk of bipolar disorder in offspring." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 October 2013.

Boyd, Denise Roberts., and Helen L. Bee. //Lifespan Development//. Sixth ed. Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon, 2012. Print.

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