Mother's Diabetes Ups Risk of ADHD in Offspring

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 and here. See also a new study in AJP in Advance here.

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