Prevalence of ADHD in children born by mothers consuming Frankincense during pregnancy

In Iranian culture, due to some narratives from the prophet Mohammad about the use of frankincense during pregnancy for increasing IQ in children, some women consume frankincense during expectancy. This study's goal is to evaluate the relationship between frankincense used during pregnancy and the incidence of ADHD.

In this study, the case group comprised children 4-17 years old referring to Shahid Chamran Pharmacy in Yazd from summer to winter 2018 for receiving Methylphenidate, those with whom a psychologist had identified ADHD based on DSM-V factors.  The control group included children of the same age group but without ADHD. For data gathering, a checklist was used with some questions on smoking, family history of ADHD, presence/absence of a specific disease during pregnancy, frankincense used during pregnancy, and a chemical medication consumed during pregnancy.

The main result demonstrated that the children whose mothers used frankincense during pregnancy were 0.67 times less likely to be affected by ADHD than those whose mothers did not use this substance. However, the difference failed to be statistically significant (P>0.05).

Some studies report that frankincense can bear a positive effect on the development of the brain and possibly adequate formation of dendrites trees, axons and induce proper communication between them, so the impact of frankincense on the brain may be justified by its protective effect against the hyperactive child.