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. 2019 Jan;49(1):376-382.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-018-3721-8.

Brief Report: Maternal Opioid Prescription from Preconception Through Pregnancy and the Odds of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Autism Features in Children

Eric Rubenstein  1 , Jessica C Young  2 , Lisa A Croen  3 , Carolyn DiGuiseppi  4 , Nicole F Dowling  5 , Li-Ching Lee  6 , Laura Schieve  5 , Lisa D Wiggins  5 , Julie Daniels  2
Affiliations

Brief Report: Maternal Opioid Prescription from Preconception Through Pregnancy and the Odds of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Autism Features in Children

Eric Rubenstein et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2019 Jan.

Erratum in

Abstract

Opioid use during pregnancy is associated with suboptimal pregnancy outcomes. Little is known about child neurodevelopmental outcomes. We examined associations between maternal opioid prescriptions preconception to delivery (peri-pregnancy) and child's risk of ASD, developmental delay/disorder (DD) with no ASD features, or ASD/DD with autism features in the Study to Explore Early Development, a case-control study of neurodevelopment. Preconception opioid prescription was associated with 2.43 times the odds of ASD [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.99, 6.02] and 2.64 times the odds of ASD/DD with autism features (95% CI 1.10, 6.31) compared to mothers without prescriptions. Odds for ASD and ASD/DD were non-significantly elevated for first trimester prescriptions. Work exploring mechanisms and timing between peri-pregnancy opioid use and child neurodevelopment is needed.

Keywords: ASD; Developmental disorder; Opioid; Pregnancy; Risk factor.

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Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of interest There are no conflicts of interest to report Eric Rubenstein had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the data analysis.

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