Prenatal Maternal Smoking and Tourette Syndrome: A Nationwide Register Study

This is the first nationwide register-based study to examine the relationship between prenatal maternal smoking and Tourette syndrome. A total of 767 children diagnosed with Tourette syndrome were identified from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register. Each case was matched to four controls. Information on maternal smoking during pregnancy was obtained from the Finnish Medical Birth Register. Conditional logistic regression models were used for statistical analyses. Prenatal maternal smoking was associated with Tourette syndrome when comorbid with ADHD (OR 4.0, 95 % CI 1.2-13.5, p = 0.027 for exposure during first trimester, OR 1.7, 95 % CI, 1.05-2.7, p = 0.031 for exposure for the whole pregnancy). There was no association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and Tourette syndrome without comorbid ADHD (OR 0.5, 95 % CI 0.2-1.3, p = 0.166, OR 0.9, 95 % CI 0.7-1.3, p = 0.567). Further research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms behind the association between prenatal maternal smoking and Tourette syndrome with comorbid ADHD.