Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy connected to elevated risk of ADHD
February 10, 2020
Science Daily/University of Turku
The risk of ADHD was 34 percent higher in children whose mother had a vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy than in those children whose mother's vitamin D level was sufficient during the first and second trimesters. The result was adjusted for maternal age, socioeconomic status and psychiatric history.
"Alongside genotype, prenatal factors such as vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy, can influence the development of ADHD" says MD Minna Sucksdorff from the University of Turku, Finland.
The study is the first population-level research to demonstrate an association between low maternal vitamin D level in early to mid-pregnancy and an elevated risk for diagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder ADHD in the offspring.
The study included 1,067 children born between 1998 and 1999 diagnosed with ADHD in Finland and the same number of matched controls. The data was collected before the current national recommendation in Finland for the intake of vitamin D during pregnancy, which is 10 micrograms per day throughout the year.
Vitamin D deficiency still a problem
The primary investigator, Professor Andre Sourander says that, despite the recommendations, vitamin D deficiency is still a global problem. In Finland, for example, mothers' vitamin D intake among several immigrant groups is not at a sufficient level.
"This research offers strong evidence that a low level of vitamin D during pregnancy is related to attention deficiency in offspring. As ADHD is one of the most common chronic diseases in children, the research results have a great significance for public health" says Professor Sourander.
The study is part of a larger research project that aims to discover the connections between the mother's health during pregnancy and ADHD in offspring. The goal is to produce information for developing preventative treatments and measures for identifying children with ADHD risk.
The study was done in collaboration between researchers from the University of Turku, Finland, and Columbia University, New York and it was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health NIHM (USA) and the Academy of Finland, and it is part of the INVEST flagship programme of the University of Turku.
In the study, the researchers used the exceptionally comprehensive Finnish Maternity Cohort (FMC) consisting of approximately 2 million serum specimens collected during the first and early second trimester of pregnancy.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200210104120.htm
Fewer indications of ADHD in children whose mothers took vitamin D during pregnancy
October 7, 2016
Science Daily/University of Southern Denmark Faculty of Health Sciences
Children of mothers who took vitamin D during pregnancy with resultant high levels of the vitamin in the umbilical blood have fewer symptoms of ADHD at the age of 2½ years.
These were the findings in a new study from the Odense Child Cohort just published in The Australia & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.
"And for every 10 nmol/L increase in the vitamin D concentration in umbilical blood, the risk of a being among the 10% highest score on the ADHD symptom scale fell by 11%," explains one of the study's initiators, Professor Niels Bilenberg.
1,233 children from Odense Municipality were monitored in the study. Vitamin D was measured in umbilical blood, and mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) when their child was 2½ years old. The CBCL questionnaire can be used to identify early symptoms of ADHD, even though an ADHD diagnosis cannot be made at that age.
"And the trend was clear: those mothers who had taken vitamin D, and had a vitamin D level (25OHD) in their umbilical blood over 25 nmol/L, had children with lower ADHD scores," continues Bilenberg. "This was after we had corrected for other factors that could explain the link, such as the mother's age, smoking, alcohol, obesity, education, number of children, psychiatric disease in the parents, child's sex, age and seasonal variation."
The link between vitamin D and early ADHD symptoms has not been described before, and has therefore attracted attention.
"We were very surprised that the link was so clear," say two of the study's other authors, medical students Jens Bull Aaby and Mats Mossin, "as there was no previous awareness that this link could be identified at such an early age. It's impossible to say with which children will develop ADHD later on, but it will be interesting to further follow up those children who were at the highest end versus the normal range of the ADHD scale."
The study offers no explanation as to how vitamin D can protect against ADHD, but other studies have shown that vitamin D plays an important role in the early development of the brain.
"We had an idea about it," says Aaby, "but we cannot say with certainty that vitamin D protects against early symptoms of ADHD. Our study only indicates that there is a link that we cannot explain in any other way."
Facts: Odense Børnekohorte is a joint study between Odense University Hospital, the Psychiatric Service of the Region of Southern Denmark, Odense Municipality, and the University of Southern Denmark. In the study, 2,500 mothers and their children are being monitored from early pregnancy to the child's 18th birthday. The children are now 3-5 years old and a number of follow-up studies are planned.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161007105202.htm