Addictive gene makes quitting challenging
British researchers have discovered the “addictive gene” that makes it difficult for some women to quit smoking during pregnancy.
Previous studies had linked maternal smoking to a wide range of pregnancy complications such as low birth weight, placental problems and premature delivery.
They had also reported that prenatal exposure to tobacco not only has adverse neurobehavioral outcomes, including conduct disorder and hyperactivity, but also increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) or having low birth weight.
Scientists therefore had urged women to give up smoking as soon as they were pregnant; many mothers, however, find it as a real challenge.
Many factors including the mothers’ age, education and whether or not their partners smoke influence the quitting chance.
According to a study published in Human Molecular Genetics, women who have a specific genetic variant have a lower chance to break the habit once they became pregnant.
Overall, 28 percent of expectant mothers manage to quit smoking in the first trimester of pregnancy. This figure was only 21 percent in the women with two copies of the smoking addiction gene.
Many women therefore succeeded to quit smoking despite the presence of the gene variant, previously found to be associated with the number of cigarettes an individual smoke when they start.
Scientists stressed that expectant mothers should quit smoking adding that the findings of the present study should not be used as an excuse to avoid giving up the habit.
