Prenatal depression and risk of child autism-related traits among participants in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes program

Lyndsay A Avalos¹, Aruna Chandran², Marie L Churchill², Xingyu Gao², Jennifer L Ames¹, Sara S Nozadi³, Danielle Roubinov⁴, Patricia A Brennan⁵, Nicole R Bush^{4

6}, Carlos A Camargo⁷, Kecia N Carroll⁸, Camille C Cioffi⁹, Assiamira Ferrara¹, Brandon Goldson⁸, Monique M Hedderson¹, Alison E Hipwell¹⁰, Jean M Kerver¹¹, Thomas G O'Connor¹², Christina A Porucznik¹³, Lauren C Shuffrey¹⁴, Maria M Talavera-Barber¹⁵, Rosalind J Wright⁸, Yeyi Zhu¹, Lisa A Croen¹; Program Collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes

Collaborators, Affiliations

Collaborators

Program Collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes:
K L Newby, L P Jacobson, D J Catellier, J Mansbach, J Spergel, M Stevenson, C Bauer, S Deoni, A Elliott, J Gern, C Seroogy, C Bendixsen, I Hertz-Picciotto, C Karr, S Sathyanarayana, L Leve, J Ganiban, J Neiderhiser, S Weiss, G O'Connor, R Zeiger, L Bacharier, H Volk, R Schmidt, H Simhan, J Stanford, M Bosquet-Enlow, R Nguyen

Affiliations

¹ Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, California, USA.
² Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
³ Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Health Sciences Center, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁷ Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁸ Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
⁹ Prevention Science Institute, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
¹¹ Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Pediatrics and Human Development, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
¹² Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, Neuroscience, Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA.
¹³ Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York, USA.
¹⁵ Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center, Avera Research Institute, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.

PMID: 37526980
PMCID: PMC10857745
DOI: 10.1002/aur.2988

Prenatal depression and risk of child autism-related traits among participants in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes program

Lyndsay A Avalos et al. Autism Res. 2023 Sep.

. 2023 Sep;16(9):1825-1835.

doi: 10.1002/aur.2988. Epub 2023 Aug 1.

Authors

Collaborators

Program Collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes:
K L Newby, L P Jacobson, D J Catellier, J Mansbach, J Spergel, M Stevenson, C Bauer, S Deoni, A Elliott, J Gern, C Seroogy, C Bendixsen, I Hertz-Picciotto, C Karr, S Sathyanarayana, L Leve, J Ganiban, J Neiderhiser, S Weiss, G O'Connor, R Zeiger, L Bacharier, H Volk, R Schmidt, H Simhan, J Stanford, M Bosquet-Enlow, R Nguyen

Affiliations

¹ Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, California, USA.
² Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
³ Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Health Sciences Center, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁷ Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁸ Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
⁹ Prevention Science Institute, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
¹¹ Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Pediatrics and Human Development, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
¹² Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, Neuroscience, Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA.
¹³ Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York, USA.
¹⁵ Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center, Avera Research Institute, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.

PMID: 37526980
PMCID: PMC10857745
DOI: 10.1002/aur.2988

Abstract

This study evaluated the association between prenatal depression and offspring autism-related traits. The sample comprised 33 prenatal/pediatric cohorts participating in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes program who contributed information on prenatal depression and autism-related traits. Autism-related traits were assessed continuously and at the diagnostic cut-off using the Social Responsiveness Scale for children up to 12 years of age. Main analyses included 3994 parent-child pairs with prenatal depression diagnoses data; secondary analyses included 1730 parent-child pairs with depression severity data. After confounder adjustment, we observed an increase in autism-related traits among children of individuals with prenatal depression compared to those without (adjusted β = 1.31 95% CI: 0.65, 1.98). Analyses stratified by child sex documented a similar significant association among boys (aβ = 1.34 95%CI: 0.36, 2.32) and girls (aβ = 1.26 95% CI: 0.37, 2.15). Prenatal depression was also associated with increased odds of moderate to severe autism-related traits (adjusted odds ratio: 1.64, 95%CI: 1.09, 2.46), the screening threshold considered high risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis. Findings highlight the importance of prenatal depression screening and preventive interventions for children of pregnant individuals with depression to support healthy development. Future research is needed to clarify whether these findings reflect overlap in genetic risk for depression and ASD-related traits or another mechanism.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder; depression; female; male; parent-child relations; pregnancy.

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References

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Prenatal depression and risk of child autism-related traits among participants in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes program

Collaborators

Affiliations

Prenatal depression and risk of child autism-related traits among participants in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes program

Authors

Collaborators

Affiliations

Abstract

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical