Maternal mental health could influence the neurocognitive development of their offspring. At the same time, genes play an important role in development.
Although the traits of autism spectrum disorder do not appear until the first years of life, the months in the womb can set the stage for the interaction between genes and the environment.
- The physical condition of a pregnant person can affect the development of the fetus. For example, gestational diabetes can increase the chance of a baby developing diabetes in the future (Zhuang et al., 2020). This could also apply to mental health and aspects of baby development.
- A study that included 194,494 mother-child pairs revealed that the possibility of autism in infants was more influenced by the mother’s symptoms of depression during pregnancy than by the use of antidepressants (Hagberg et al., 2018).
The study showed that both treated and untreated depression during pregnancy increased the chances of a baby having autism spectrum disorder. However, children of women who used antidepressants for reasons other than treating depression were not as likely to develop autism.
Overall, there isn’t much evidence that taking antidepressants during pregnancy affects the baby in any way. - Research indicates that depression is not the only mental health factor that can influence a baby’s mental health. High levels of stress during pregnancy may also be related to autism in infants (Beversdorf et al., 2018). This connection appears to have the greatest impact when mothers and fathers experience stress between 25 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. According to this study, the same connection may be true when it comes to maternal stress levels and fetal brain development.
- Along the same lines as chronic stress, experiencing being the victim of abusive behavior from a romantic partner before and during pregnancy has also been linked to a higher likelihood of autism in offspring, according to a nurse health study (Roberts et al. al., 2016). Their results suggest that when a woman is exposed to abuse from her partner in the two years before giving birth, including during pregnancy, the baby is more likely to develop autism later in life.
- Substance use disorder may also play a role in the development of autism in infants according to findings from a hospital study involving girls and boys between the ages of 6 and 14 (Sandtorv et al., 2018). The study found that when a fetus was exposed to substances such as opioids and illicit drugs, girls/boys were more likely to develop symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism years after birth.
Can autism be hereditary?
Heritability refers to a measure of how genes account for differences in personality traits between people. The highest heritability score is 1.0, meaning that a trait comes 100% from genes. The lowest score is 0.0, indicating that the genes are not involved at all.
The current heritability estimate for autism spectrum disorder is 0.83 (Beversdorf et al., 2018). This means that the development of autism is largely attributed to genetic differences.
However, it’s not just genes that determine how a baby’s brain develops. Other factors, such as the environment, can influence how a person’s genes are expressed.
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It refers to how behavior and the environment influence how genes work. In other words, having the gene for a certain trait does not mean that you will always develop the trait. This depends, in part, on the environment in which the person grows up, their temperament, and some of their experiences.
Research has shown that the combination of maternal genes and environmental factors during pregnancy influence the likelihood of a baby developing autism (Bastaki et al., 2020).
Can autism be detected during pregnancy?
There are several types of prenatal tests, but none are used to screen for autism. Some of the tests used during pregnancy to follow the development of the fetus include:
- Blood test. Blood taken from the pregnant person may indicate the possibility of certain conditions in the baby, such as Down syndrome or .
- Ultrasound. An ultrasound is a non-invasive test that uses sound to create images that can reveal fetal development.
- Fetal genetic testing. This type of test can check the baby’s genes for certain differences, such as extra chromosomes.
Examining archived pregnancy ultrasounds of 659 children (some with autism), a team of researchers found developmental differences in 29.3% of children who were later identified as autistic (Regev et al., 2022).
In comparison, the identified differences occurred less frequently in their allistic (non-autistic) siblings (15.9%).
This suggests the future possibility of establishing biomarkers that can be identified by ultrasound during pregnancy. These could help predict a baby’s chance of developing autism later in life.
Bibliographic references:
- Bastaki, K.N., Alwan, S., & Zahir, F.R. (2020). Maternal Prenatal Exposures in Pregnancy and Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Insight into the Epigenetics of Drugs and Diet as Key Environmental Influences. Advances in Neurobiology, 24, 143-162. https://doi.org/
- Beversdorf, D.Q., Stevens, HE, & Jones, KL (2018). Prenatal Stress, Maternal Immune Dysregulation, and Their Association With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Current Psychiatry Reports, twenty(9), 76. https://doi.org/
- Hagberg, KW, Robijn, AL, & Jick, S. (2018). Maternal depression and antidepressant use during pregnancy and the risk of autism spectrum disorder in offspring. Clinical Epidemiology, 10, 1599-1612. https://doi.org/
- Regev, O., Hadar, A., Meiri, G., Flusser, H., Michaelovski, A., Dinstein, I., Hershkovitz, R., & Menashe, I. (2022). Association between ultrasonography foetal anomalies and autism spectrum disorder. Brain: A Journal of Neurology. https://doi.org/
- Roberts, A.L., Lyall, K., Rich-Edwards, J.W., Ascherio, A., & Weisskopf, M.G. (2016). Maternal exposure to intimate partner abuse before birth is associated with autism spectrum disorder in offspring. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, twenty(1), 26-36. https://doi.org/
- Sandtorv, LB, Fevang, SKE, Nilsen, SA, Bøe, T., Gjestad, R., Haugland, S., & Elgen, IB (2018). Symptoms Associated With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorders in School-Aged Children Prenatally Exposed to Substances. Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment, 121178221818765773. https://doi.org/
- Zhuang, W., Lv, J., Liang, Q., Chen, W., Zhang, S., & Sun, X. (2020). Adverse effects of gestational diabetes-related risk factors on pregnancy outcomes and intervention measures. Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, twenty(4), 3361-3367. https://doi.org/
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