Abstract
Background
Previous studies have shown associations between maternal infections during pregnancy
and increased risks of schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder in the offspring.
However, large-scale studies investigating an association between parental infections
both during and outside the pregnancy period and the risk of any mental disorder in
the child are lacking.
Methods
A nationwide Danish cohort study identified 1,206,600 children born between 1996 and
2015 and followed them to a maximum of 20 years of age. Exposure included all maternal
and paternal infections treated with anti-infective agents or hospital contacts before,
during, or after pregnancy. The main outcome was a diagnosis of any mental disorder
in the child. Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox regression analysis.
Results
Maternal infections during pregnancy treated with anti-infective agents (n = 567,016) increased the risk of mental disorders (n = 70,037) in the offspring (HR, 1.09; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06–1.12), which
was more elevated (p < .001) than after paternal infections (n = 350,835; HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.98–1.03). Maternal hospital contacts for infections
(n = 39,753) conferred an increased HR of 1.21 (95% CI, 1.14–1.28), which was not significantly
(p = .08) different from the risk after paternal infections (n = 8559; HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.95–1.20). The increased risks observed during pregnancy
were not different from the similarly increased risks for maternal and paternal infections
before and after pregnancy. The risk of mental disorders increased in a dose-response
relationship with the number of maternal infections treated with anti-infective agents,
particularly during and after pregnancy (both p < .001).
Conclusions
Maternal infections were associated with an increased risk of mental disorder in the
offspring; however, there were similar estimates during and outside the pregnancy
period.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 01, 2018
Accepted:
September 15,
2018
Received in revised form:
September 5,
2018
Received:
March 13,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Society of Biological Psychiatry.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Interpreting New Evidence on Prenatal Infections and Mental DisordersBiological PsychiatryVol. 85Issue 4
- PreviewThe article by Lydholm et al. (1) in this issue of Biological Psychiatry examines the relationship between treated maternal infection during pregnancy and treated offspring psychiatric disorders up to 20 years of age. The study is based on linked data from Danish national registers for a cohort of more than 1.2 million children. The most salient result was that treatment for maternal infections during pregnancy did not show a stronger relationship to offspring mental disorders than treatment for maternal infections before or after pregnancy.
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