---
title: "Psych News Alert: Mother's Diabetes Ups Risk of ADHD in Offspring"
description: A study of 17,642 children in Germany confirms associations between several early risk factors and development of attention-deficit/hyperact...
image: https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Boy-ADHD_68157889-Jun-24-2025-03-29-38-6162-PM.jpg
---

 6/24/24 11:16 AM

# Mother's Diabetes Ups Risk of ADHD in Offspring

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A study of 17,642 children in Germany confirms associations between several early risk factors and development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Parents’ lower socioeconomic position (education, professional status, and income), along with presence of gestational diabetes in the mother, increased the likelihood of a child having ADHD, wrote Jochen Schmitt, M.D., M.P.H., of the Technical University Dresden and Marcel Romanos, M.D., of the University Hospital of Würzburg, online September 10 in the *Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.*

Furthermore, the combination of middle- or lower-class socioeconomic position with maternal gestational diabetes had an additive effect on outcomes. Other factors, such as a baby’s medical problems following birth, atopic eczema, or maternal smoking during pregnancy also contributed significantly to risk of ADHD. Schmitt and Romanos did offer some good news: breastfeeding reduced risk. "Modification of these environmental risk factors by evidence-based prevention programs may help to decrease the burden of ADHD,” they concluded.

For more in *Psychiatric News* about the origins of ADHD, click [here](http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=110211) and [here](http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=181087). See also a new study in *AJP in Advance* [here](http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=1358785).

(Image: Suzanne Tucker/Shutterstock.com)

[ADHD](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/adhd), [psychiatry](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/psychiatry), [risk factor](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/risk-factor), [breastfeeding](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/breastfeeding), [socioeconomic status](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/socioeconomic-status), [gestational diabetes](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/gestational-diabetes)

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