Moms are to blame again for autism

[Guest guest]

Yes, we moms are apparently to blame again for " unhealthy " behavior

during or right before pregnancy. I didn't engage in any " unhealthy "

behavior, for 12 months before I got pregnant, acted " as if " I was

pregnant, exercised, didn't take anything for my morning sickness.

Article in ScienceDaily:

Autism And Schizophrenia Share Common Origin, Review Suggests

ScienceDaily (Dec. 18, 2008) — Schizophrenia and autism probably

share a common origin, hypothesises Dutch researcher Annemie Ploeger

following an extensive literature study. The developmental

psychologist demonstrated that both mental diseases have similar

physical abnormalities which are formed during the first month of

pregnancy.

Developmental psychologist Annemie Ploeger has investigated whether

there is a connection between disorders in the first month of

pregnancy and the development of schizophrenia and autism.

Interestingly, many physical abnormalities of autistics are also

prevalent in schizophrenics. For example, both autistics and

schizophrenics sometimes have protruding ears and peculiar toes.

There are also differences: a large head and intestinal problems, for

example, are typical traits occurring in autistics. From this,

Ploeger concluded that the two disorders share a common origin. The

same error that occurs very early in pregnancy develops into autism

in one individual and schizophrenia in another.

Early vulnerability

Ploeger's research reveals that in the period between 20 and 40 days

after fertilisation, the embryo is highly susceptible to disruptions.

In this period, early organogenesis, there is a lot of interaction

between the different parts of the body. If something goes wrong with

a given part of the body, it greatly influences the development of

other parts of the body. As people with schizophrenia and autism

frequently have physical abnormalities to body parts formed during

early organogenesis, Ploeger concluded that the foundation for these

psychiatric disorders is laid very early during pregnancy.

The existence of a relationship between unhealthy behaviour during

pregnancy and the subsequent development of schizophrenia and autism

in the child was already known. However, Ploeger's hypothesis that

the early organogenesis stage is the most critical, is new. Ploeger

bases her hypothesis on an extensive study of scientific literature

in this area. She often had to make use of related studies; although

a lot of research has been done into prenatal influences on the

development of schizophrenia and autism, little is known about the

influence that the period between 20 to 40 days after fertilisation

has.

Toxic pregnancy medicine

For example, she acquired information about autism from a study into

softenon use. Softenon is a drug against morning sickness that was

administered to women in the 1960s and 1970s. Later it was discovered

that severely disabled children were born as a result of this

medicine. Autistic children were born in four percent of pregnancies

in which softenon was used, whereas normally this figure is 0.1

percent. Women could state exactly when they started to take

softenon. The women who had taken softenon between the 20th and 24th

day of the pregnancy had the greatest chance of giving birth to an

autistic child.

Ploeger advises women to stop risky behaviour such as smoking,

medicine use and stressful activities before they even become

pregnant. If you only start to live healthily once you know that you

are pregnant, the basis for a disrupted development of your child

could already have been laid.

Ploeger's research was partly financed by NWO is within the research

programme Evolution and Behaviour. The doctoral thesis " Towards an

integration of evolutionary psychology and developmental science: New

insights from evolutionary developmental biology " was defended on 3

December 2008. The supervisor was Prof. H.L.J. van der Maas,

associate supervisors: Dr M.E.J. Raijmakers, Dr F. Galis

----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------

Adapted from materials provided by NWO (Netherlands