Preconception Risk Factors for Autism Spectrum Disorder—A Pilot Study

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder of multifactorial etiology. Preconception risk factors are still poorly understood. A survey on preconception risk factors for ASD was conducted among parents of 121 ASD patients aged 3–12 years and parents of 100 healthy children aged 3–12 years. The exclusion criteria were as follows: the presence of associated problems such as intellectual disability, epilepsy or other genetic and neurological diseases. Thirteen parameters were considered, a few among which were conception problems, conception with assisted reproductive techniques, the use and duration of oral contraception, the number of previous pregnancies and miscarriages, time since the previous pregnancy (in months), the history of mental illness in the family (including ASD), other chronic diseases in the mother or father and maternal and paternal treatment in specialist outpatient clinics. Three factors statistically significantly increased the risk of developing ASD: mental illness in the mother/mother’s family (35.54% vs. 16.0%, p = 0.0002), maternal thyroid disease (16.67% vs. 5.0%, p = 0.009) and maternal oral contraception (46.28% vs. 29.0%, p = 0.01). Children of mothers with thyroid disorders or with mental illness in relatives should be closely monitored for ASD. Further studies are warranted to assess a potential effect of oral contraception on the development of offspring.

Pregnant Mothers’ Medical Claims and Associated Risk of Their Children being Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Contrary to this, other reviews find conflicting results [ 78 , 79 ] or no significant association [ 80 ]. However, recent investigations also examined the underlying mental illness, as many studies have shown that adjusting for depression attenuates the significant association of antidepressants while the association of mental illness remains strong [ 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 ]. Our analysis found a greater than 40% significantly increased risk associated with psychiatric services ( Table 7 ), that increased to greater than 60% during the first trimester and decreased with each trimester ( Table 8 ).…”

Labor epidural analgesia and risk of autism Spectrum disorders in offspring: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Considering the role of other environmental factors in offspring ASD, two studies ( 11 , 13 ) gradually added pregnancy-related and perinatal factors and in their adjusted models; the pooled adjusted HR was reduced to 1.13 and 1.15, suggesting that any observed association could be partially explained by potential confounding factors. Also, previous epidemiological studies ( 21 – 23 ) found that a family history of ASD and psychiatric diseases was strongly associated with an increased risk of ASD in the offspring. The study conducted by Qiu et al ( 10 ) reported the highest risk of ASD (adjusted HR = 1.37) among the included studies.…”

Caracterización de niños y adolescentes con trastornos del espectro autista en Barranquilla, Colombia

“…En el presente estudio se observó una frecuencia mayor de complicaciones en la gestación y perinatales como preeclampsia, diabetes gestacional, depresión materna y sangrado vaginal. En estudios prospectivos, tanto la baja edad gestacional y bajo peso al nacer se han asociado con un mayor riesgo de TEA (19,(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42). Este estudio, no se encontró datos significativos con respecto al tiempo de gestación, peso al nacer, periodo intergenésico, disfunción familiar u otras patologías maternas en la gestación.…”