Another Possible Risk Factor for Autism: Pregnant Mother Beware
It has often been said that the best way to deal with a problem is to not have it in the first place. A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In the case of autism, we are always looking for risk factors. Things that someone who is concerned about the possibility of having a child with autism should consider. As the risk factors add up then one becomes mores concerned with an undesired outcome. Previous risk factors such as the maternal or paternal age of the parents have been studied. We know that a boy is more likely to have autism that a girl. Having a familial history of Autism such as another child or relation to the parents increases the probability of Autism. And now, as you will see below, mothers with less knowledge regarding toxic exposure are more likely to have a child with Autism than those that are aware and conscious of potential toxic exposure.That is, mothers who showed a greater possibility to exposure to toxins were more likely than the mother with less exposure to have a child with Autism. Many in the autism community are already taking into account heavy metal exposure however things such as canned foods and plastics were also included in this study. The take home message is be aware of toxic exposure if you are pregnant. Be more aware if you are having a boy, are older and have a history of Autism in the family.
Psychiatry Investig.2010 Jun;7(2):122-7. Epub 2010 May 12.
Exposure to environmental toxins in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder.
Kim SM, Han DH, Lyoo HS, Min KJ, Kim KH, Renshaw P.
Department of Psychiatry, Chung Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Environmental pollutants, especially environmental toxins (ET), may have the potential to disrupt neurodevelopmental pathways during early brain development. This study was designed to test our hypothesis that mothers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children would have less knowledge about ET and more chance to be exposed to ET than mothers with healthy children (MHC). METHODS: One hundred and six biologic mothers with ASD children (MASD) and three hundred twenty four biologic mothers with healthy children MHC were assessed using two questionnaires asking about ET. RESULTS: The total score in response to questions related to knowledge about ET in MHC was higher than that in MASD. The possibility of exposure to ET was higher in MASD than MHC. MASD showed higher sub-scale scores in terms of exposures to canned food, plastics, waste incinerators, old electronics, microwavable food, and textiles. CONCLUSION: The current results show that reduced knowledge about ET and greater exposure to ET may be associated with autism spectrum disorder.
PMID: 20577621 [PubMed - in process]