Mothers that were hospitalized during their pregnancy with an infection have a higher risk for their newborn child to have autism, suicide and depression later in life. This was said according to a study at University of Washington and Sahlgrenska Academy in Sweden.
Researches before have shown that specific infections can cause brain injury, risk for psychiatric disorders and abnormal brain development.
This study published, says that even other infections that do not invade the fetal brain, may have an increased risk of developing depression and autism in the child.
Benjamin Al-Haddad, the lead author said that preventing infections in the mother during pregnancy, is important to the long-term child’s health.
The lead researchers were Benjamin Al-Haddad and Kristina ADams Waldorf.
In this research were analyzed around 1.8 million people born between 1973 and 2014 from 0 to 41 years old in Sweden. People with mothers that had an infection during pregnancy and were hospitalized, had a higher risk to diagnose with autism around 79 percent and to diagnose with depression around 24 percent.
By now is unclear how a microbe that does not attack the fetal brain directly could affect its development.