Hypertension During Pregnancy May Increase Risk of Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children

Women experiencing hypertensive disorders during pregnancy may be at a higher risk of having children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than those without hypertensive disorders, reports astudy published today inJAMA Pediatrics.Judith S. Brand, Ph.D., of Örebro University in Sweden and colleagues analyzed health registry data of over 1 million individuals born in Sweden between 1987 and 1996 to identify associations between maternal hypertensive disorders (chronic hypertension, gestational-onset hypertension, or preeclampsia) and neurodevelopmental disorders in children. They also used data from over 285,000 men born between 1982 and 1992 who underwent military medical assessments at age 18 to examine the association between maternal hypertensive disorders and future cognitive performance; the military assessments included a full battery of c ognitive tests.Overall, 4% of the mothers of the health registry cohort and 5% of the mothers of the military cohort had a hypertensive disorder during pregnancy. After adjusting for various health and demographic factors, Brand and colleagues found that a maternal hypertensive disorder was associated with a 22% increased risk of ASD, 10% increased risk of ADHD, and 39% increased risk of intellectual disability in offspring. In the military cohort, maternal hypertensive disorders were associated with lower scores on the cognitive performance tests.Brand and colleagues next analyzed o...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder autism cognitive function hypertension intellectual disability JAMA Pediatrics preeclampsia Source Type: research