One research focus yet to be fully explored is determining epigenetic mechanisms underlying psychological disorders associated with maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy. This could, perhaps, be described through mechanisms described in the theory of behavioral teratogenicity, such as fetal brain exposure to nicotine and the pathological activation of acetylcholine nicotinic receptors during early stages of brain development (Paz, Barsness, Martenson, Tanner, & Allan, 2007). Because there does exist a high degree of comorbidity between nicotine dependence and neuropsychiatric conditions (Maughan, Taylor, Caspi, & Moffitt, 2004), researchers have struggled to determine how influential exposure to cigarette smoke is on risk for developing psychological disorders.
