Third trimester lead exposure linked to major depressive disorder in adulthood

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-10-23 02:00

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Exposure to lead in late pregnancy appears to have an especially strong link to major depressive disorder, according to international researchers who used donated baby teeth to study the impact of lead exposure at different times in a baby's early development. The researchers say baby teeth form tracks as they grow that can be used to assess lead exposure pre- and post-birth, with hundreds of people who were born in the lead-exposed St Louis area of the US state of Missouri during the 1950s-1970s donating their baby teeth to science. Just under 700 of these donors filled out depression and anxiety questionnaires in adulthood, and the researchers say while lead exposure was linked to anxiety symptoms but not anxiety disorder, increased lead in the the teeth was linked to nearly two times the odds of depression in adulthood.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Psychiatry

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA

Funder: This work was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES031943, P42ES030990, P30ES000002, and T32ES007069) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R24GM141194).

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