Prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal factors associated with autism

Abstract

Background:The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal risk factors for children autism.Methods:PubMed, Embase, Web of Science were used to search for studies that examined the prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal risk factors for children autism. A fixed-effects model or random-effects model was used to pool the overall effect estimates.Results:Data from 37,634 autistic children and 12,081,416 nonautistic children enrolled in 17 studies were collated. During the prenatal period, the factors associated with autism risk were maternal and paternal age≥35 years, mother's and father's race: White and Asian, gestational hypertension, gestational diabetes, maternal and paternal education college graduate+, threatened abortion, and antepartum hemorrhage. During perinatal period, the factors associated with autism risk were caesarian delivery, gestational age≤36 weeks, parity≥4, spontaneous labor, induced labor, no labor, breech presentation, preeclampsia, and fetal distress. During the postnatal period, the factors associated with autism risk were low birth weight, postpartum hemorrhage, male gender, and brain anomaly. Parity≥4 and female were associated with a decreased risk of autism. In addition, exposure to cigarette smoking, urinary infection, mother's and father's race: Black and Hispanic, mother's country of birth outside Europe and North America, umbilical cord around neck, premature membrane rupture, 5-minutes Apgar score<7, and respiratory infection were not associated with increased risk of autism.Conclusion:The present meta-analysis confirmed the relation between some prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal factors with autism. All these factors were examined individually, thus it was still unclear that whether these factors are causal or play a secondary role in the development of autism. Further studies are needed to verify our findings, and investigate the effects of multiple factors on autism, rather than the single factor.

Prenatal Tetanus, Diphtheria, Acellular Pertussis Vaccination and Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…43 -46 Although Tdap increased the risk for chorioamnionitis, the investigators in the referenced studies found that the resulting chorioamnionitis was not associated with a preterm birth, a potential risk factor for ASD. 47 Given that maternal Tdap vaccination alone or mediated by chorioamnionitis did not translate to a preterm birth or any clinically relevant adverse event in newborns, 9,46 a direct or mediated relationship between maternal Tdap and ASD is not supported.…”

The GABA Developmental Shift Is Abolished by Maternal Immune Activation Already at Birth

“…Birth is a highly complex and stressful event with a high degree of vulnerability (Boksa et al 2006;Chudal et al 2014;Say et al 2016;Brander et al 2017;Wang et al 2017). We reported in earlier studies that birth is associated with a neuroprotective oxytocin-mediated abrupt reduction of intracellular chloride ([Cl − ] i ) allowing for hyperpolarizing actions of GABA (Tyzio et al 2006).…”

Oxytocin administration for induction and augmentation of labour in Polish maternity units– an observational study

“…Moreover, some studies suggest that there may be a link between the use of synthetic oxytocin in labour and autism in children, but links to behavioural disorders remain unclear [21,22].…”