Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C17A0UXrw5n/ Even minimal alcohol and tobacco use by pregnant women affects their child’s brain performance later.  This the conclusion of a multisite, collaborative study helmed by Columbia University psychiatrists.  The researchers reviewed the brain wave studies of 649 children at various ages from 5 to 11 years looking at abnormalities as a function of maternal exposures to alcohol and/or tobacco. The good news is that 52% of the children’s mothers used NO alcohol and 87% did NOT smoke tobacco.  The remainder of children demonstrated significant brain wave aberrations in association with their mothers’ exposures.  Looking at alcohol exposures, children who mothers continued drinking through pregnancy evidenced double the EEG abnormalities compared with those who mothers discontinued drinking after the first trimester.  Tobacco smoking during pregnancy led to significant EEG changes in the young offspring, but, interestingly enough, more so in young boys. Other stu