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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Apr 21.
Published in final edited form as: Schizophr Res. 2015 Mar 7;164(1-3):277–278. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2015.02.012

Prenatal exposure to maternal smoking and symptom severity among offspring with first-episode nonaffective psychosis

Francesco Bernardini 1, Claire Ramsay Wan 2, Anthony Crisafio 3, Suena H Massey 4, Michael T Compton 5,*
PMCID: PMC4839588  NIHMSID: NIHMS778418  PMID: 25754270

Dear Editors,

Prenatal exposure to maternal smoking (PEMS) has been linked to diverse negative perinatal outcomes (Cnattingius, 2004) and far-reaching neurobehavioral consequences, including impaired cognition, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorder (Cornelius and Day, 2009; Gaysina et al., 2013). Although one study did not demonstrate a link between PEMS and risk for schizophrenia (Baguelin-Pinaud et al., 2010), Stathopoulou et al. (2013) found that prenatal tobacco exposure was independently associated with a later schizophrenia diagnosis. Ekblad et al. (2010) reported that the exposure is associated with increased risk of psychiatric morbidity including broadly defined psychosis. Other studies suggested that PEMS might increase risk for psychotic symptoms in offspring (Spauwen et al., 2004; Zammit et al., 2009). PEMS could conceivably impact illness manifestation among individuals with psychotic disorders. Smith et al. (2010) showed no association with symptom type or severity, or with symptom change across one year, among first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients, but Stathopoulou et al. (2013) found that PEMS was related to greater severity of negative symptoms.

Given limited/inconsistent findings to date, we examined associations between PEMS and symptom severity among FEP patients, while controlling for effects of gender and the patient’s own smoking status. Participants (N = 93; age = 22.7 ± 3.7 years; 75.3% male; 91.4% African American) were recruited during an initial hospitalization as part of a larger study. Their biological mothers completed a questionnaire including items on smoking during the pregnancy. Data on current/past-month symptom severity were collected with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (Kay et al., 1987). Comparisons between those with and without PEMS were made using Student’s t-tests, and factorial analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to examine effects of gender and current smoking status.

Among the 93 mothers, 19 (20.4%) had smoked during pregnancy. The average number of cigarettes smoked per month during pregnancy was 113.7. As shown in Table 1, the two groups of FEP patients did not significantly differ on mean PANSS positive symptom severity. However, those with PEMS had greater severity of reality distortion: 13.6 ± 2.8 vs. 11.6 ± 3.0; t = 2.64, df = 91, p = .01; the difference being driven by greater hallucination severity (5.2 ± 1.3 vs. 4.0 ± 1.6; t = 3.06, df = 91, p = .003). Controlling for potential effects of gender and smoking status did not eliminate the effect of PEMS on reality distortion. Gender and smoking status were not significant predictors, but there was a main effect of PEMS (F(1, 79) = 4.94, p = .029). No interactions were observed.

Table 1.

Differences in mean PANSS subscale scores in first-episode psychosis patients exposed and not exposed to prenatal maternal smoking (n = 93).

First-episode patients exposed to prenatal maternal tobacco smoking (n = 19) First-episode patients not exposed to prenatal maternal tobacco smoking (n = 74) t df p
PANSS positive symptom subscale 24.9 ± 6.3 23.9 ± 5.5 .715 91 .476
PANSS reality distortion subscale 13.6 ± 2.8 11.6 ± 3.0 2.64 91 .01
PANSS negative symptom subscale 22.3 ± 7.3 23.7 ± 6.9 .776 91 .439
PANSS proxy for the deficit symptom score −7.1 ± 3.1 −4.0 ± 3.3 3.69 91 <.001
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The two groups did not differ significantly on mean PANSS negative symptom severity (Table 1). However, those with PEMS had lower severity of deficit symptoms (PANSS proxy for the deficit syndrome score): −7.1 ± 3.1 vs. −4.0 ± 3.3; t = 3.69, df = 91, p < .001. Controlling for potential effects of gender and smoking status did not eliminate the effect of PEMS on deficit symptom severity. Gender was not a significant predictor, but there were independent main effects of PEMS (F(1, 79) = 4.66, p = .034), and current smoking status (F(1, 79) = 4.57, p = .036). There were no interactions.

Although these initial results require replication, there appears to be an association between PEMS and greater hallucination severity at initial hospitalization for FEP. This is consistent with limited prior studies indicating that PEMS may elevate risk for psychotic symptoms/disorders (Spauwen et al., 2004; Zammit et al., 2009; Ekblad et al., 2010). We found a lower severity of deficit symptoms, which is inconsistent with the prior report indicating that PEMS was associated with greater negative symptom severity (Stathopoulou et al., 2013).

Several methodological limitations must be acknowledged: the cross-sectional/retrospective nature of the study, potential for social desirability bias among the mothers, and limited sample size. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that—in addition to potentially increasing risk for psychotic symptoms/disorders—this fetal environmental exposure might worsen severity of hallucinations among those with early-course psychosis.

Acknowledgments

Role of funding source

This work was supported by grant R01 MH081011 from the National Institute of Mental Health to the last author. The funding source had no role in data analyses, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit it for publication.

The authors express gratitude to the participants involved in this study and the clinicians at the referral sites who identified eligible and interested patients. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01 MH081011. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Footnotes

Contributors

All authors contributed to the conceptualization and writing of this article, and all approved the final article for publication.

Conflict of interest

The authors know of no conflicts of interest pertaining to this research.

Contributor Information

Francesco Bernardini, University of Perugia, School of Psychiatry, Perugia, Italy Lenox Hill Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, USA.

Claire Ramsay Wan, Tufts University School of Medicine, Physician Assistant Program, Boston, MA, USA.

Anthony Crisafio, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Washington, DC, USA.

Suena H. Massey, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Chicago, IL, USA. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Medical Social Sciences, Chicago, IL, USA

Michael T. Compton, Lenox Hill Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, USA. Hofstra North Shore–LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra University, Department of Psychiatry, Hempstead, NY, USA.

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