A mother's eating disorder history could influence her child's risk of psychiatric problems

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-10-23 02:00

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Children born to mothers who had an eating disorder or were classified under- or overweight before pregnancy may be at higher risk of some mental health and brain development problems, according to international research. Using Finnish national health data, the researchers collected information on nearly 400,000 mothers' history of various eating disorders and BMI before pregnancy and compared this with psychiatric and neurodevelopmental diagnosis data for 650,000 children born to these mothers from 2004 to 2014. The researchers say overall, children born to mothers with an eating disorder history, underweight, overweight or obesity were all more likely to have had a neurodevelopmental or psychiatric diagnosis, with the link typically stronger for eating disorder history.

Media release

From: JAMA

About The Study: In this population-based cohort study including 392,000 mothers and 649,000 offspring, offspring from mothers with an eating disorder history or pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) outside normal weight were at higher risk of psychiatric disorders. The results differed somewhat between the 2 exposures with regard to which offspring diagnoses had associations, and effect sizes were typically larger for maternal eating disorders vs BMI. These findings suggest a need to consider these 2 exposures clinically to help prevent offspring mental illness.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Funder: This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council (2022-01188 to Dr Lavebratt), the regional agreement on medical training and clinical research between Region Stockholm and the Karolinska Institutet (SLL2021-0855 to Dr Lavebratt), the Swedish Brain Foundation (FO2023-0335 to Dr Lavebratt), and funds from the Karolinska Institutet to Dr Nilsson.

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