More Evidence Maternal Obesity Linked to Psychosis in Children

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More Evidence Maternal Obesity Linked to Psychosis in Children

The adult children of mothers who had prepregnancy obesity have a significantly increased risk for psychosis, new research shows.

“This is now the fourth large study to show a positive association between maternal prepregnancy obesity and psychosis outcomes,” said lead author James Scott, MD, of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. “It appears that prepregnancy obesity may be casting a long shadow into lives of offspring,” he added.

The findings were presented here at the 15th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR).

Although previous studies have linked maternal obesity with the risk for psychosis in offspring, few large studies have adjusted for a variety of potentially important confounders, including birth complications, he said.

For the study, Dr Scott and his colleagues evaluated data from the large, population-based Mater University Study of Pregnancy, looking at factors that included maternal body mass index (BMI), which was reported at the first confinement visit.

“In order to evaluate the data on the adult offspring, we had to look back to birth data on the mothers from the 1980s, and we know that obesity rates have increased since then,” he said.

The findings nevertheless underscore more troubling effects of obesity that can cross generations, he said.

“We know that the consequences of prepregnancy obesity on adult offspring include the risk of a wide range of metabolic disorders, including obesity, hypertension, and insulin resistance and diabetes, and we now see that it also increases the risk of atypical neurodevelopment,” Dr Scott said.

In a study published in Schizophrenia Bulletin in 2000, researchers first showed a significant relationship between a woman’s prepregnancy BMI and schizophrenia in adult offspring in a birth cohort study.

The body of research adds more strength to the argument to avoid obesity before and during pregnancy.

“While obesity should always be a priority in management, this suggests that women of reproductive age or those planning a pregnancy should be especially monitored for weight gain and measures to move closer to ideal body weight, through management of caloric intake and exercise, for instance, which should be especially emphasized.”

Dr Scott is on the advisory boards for Lundbeck and Roche. Dr Brown reports no relevant financial relationships.

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