Comparison of neuropsychological factors in pregnant women who continue and quit smoking

Abstract

Objective: Little is known about the neuropsychological factors on quitting smoking. The pregnancy period is a natural process in which women are encouraged to quit smoking. This study aimed to compare trait and behavioural impulsivity and planning ability among pregnant women who continue smoking, quit smoking and never smoke. Method: Twenty-seven pregnant women who continue smoking, 15 pregnant women who quit smoking and 28 pregnant women who never smoke and 18 non-pregnant women completed psychometric cognitive tests and psychiatric rating scales. Decision making, planning, response inhibition and trait impulsivity were evaluated with Iowa Gambling Task, Tower of London Task, Stroop Task and Barratt Impulsivity Scale, respectively. The severity of physical addiction to nicotine was assessed with Fagerstrom Scale. Results: The non-planning impulsivity was higher in pregnant women who quit smoking rather than smoker, never smoke pregnant control and non-pregnant group (p=0.010). The logistic regression results revealed that non-planning impulsivity was a significant independent contributor to quitting smoking. The percentage of the variance explained by non-planning impulsivity in quitting smoking was 10%. Pregnant women who never smoke showed better performance on TOL rather than smoker group (p=0.021). Although statistically non-sig-nificant, motor and attentional impulsivity in never smoke group was lower than that in the ever been smoker group. Discussion: This study revealed that the non-planning impulsivity was statistically higher in pregnant women who quit smoking rather than smoker group. Increased non-planning impulsivity was found to be a significant factor that contributes to quit smoking.