Risk for Psychiatric Disorders Up for Offspring of Moms With Eating Disorder
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 23, 2024 -- Offspring of mothers with an eating disorder or prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) outside the normal weight range have an increased risk for psychiatric disorders, according to a study published online Oct. 22 in JAMA Network Open.
Ida A.K. Nilsson, Ph.D., from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues conducted a population-based cohort study using Finnish national registers to examine the association of maternal eating disorders and prepregancy BMI with offspring psychiatric diagnoses.
The study included 392,098 mothers, of whom 1.60 percent had a history of an eating disorder and 5.89 and 53.13 percent had prepregnancy underweight and overweight or obesity, respectively. The researchers found that 16.43 percent of the 649,956 offspring had received a neurodevelopmental or psychiatric diagnosis. Even after adjusting for potential covariates, maternal eating disorders, prepregnancy underweight, and overweight or obesity were associated with most of the studied mental diagnoses in offspring. The largest effect sizes were seen for maternal eating disorders not otherwise specified with offspring sleep disorders (hazard ratio, 3.34) and social functioning and tic disorders (hazard ratio, 2.79), and for maternal severe prepregnancy obesity with offspring intellectual disabilities (hazard ratio, 2.04). The risks for offspring having other feeding disturbances of childhood and infancy (e.g., hazard ratio, 4.53 for maternal eating disorders) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder (e.g., hazard ratio, 2.27 for maternal anorexia nervosa) were further increased in association with adverse birth outcomes.
"Furthering the knowledge about these associations and underlying biological mechanisms can provide information of value for the development of relevant management and treatment," the authors write.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted October 2024
Read this next
Worse Mental Health Trajectories Seen for Survivors of Teen, Young Adult Cancer
WEDNESDAY, May 28, 2025 -- Survivors of adolescent and young adulthood (AYA) cancer have significantly worse mental health trajectories into middle or older adulthood, according...
Patients Who Fear Cataract Surgery Less Likely to Believe Surgery Will Improve Vision
TUESDAY, May 27, 2025 -- Neither health literacy nor understanding of cataract pathology is associated with fear of cataract surgery, according to a study published online March...
American Psychiatric Association, May 17-21
The annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association was held from May 17 to 21 in Los Angeles. Participants included clinicians, academicians, allied health...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.