Healio (9/13, VanDewater) reports, “The association between maternal infection during pregnancy and children’s diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability was not causal, according to a Swedish register-based cohort study.” One researcher wrote, “We found no evidence to suggest that having an infection during pregnancy would increase the child’s risk of autism. … Instead, it may be unmeasured genetic and/or environmental factors that cause both infections in these mothers and autism in their children separately.” The findings were published online in The Lancet Psychiatry.

HealthDay (9/13, Mann) reports, “When researchers compared siblings, those exposed to an infection during pregnancy were no more likely to develop autism than their brothers or sisters who weren’t exposed.” Also, “women who had an infection a year before they became pregnant were linked to a similar autism risk as infections during pregnancy, but not linked to risk of intellectual disability.”

Related Links:

— “Link between maternal infection, offspring’s autism not causal, study shows “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, September 13, 2022

The Hill (9/12, Hou) says, “Mental health in children and teenagers has suffered during the coronavirus pandemic,” and now, a “report from Clarify Health” of “data covering 2016 through 2021 for mental health related insurance claims for children ages 1 to 19” has found that “overall, there were increases in most claims related to mental health, sometimes very sharp increases starting in 2020.” The report (PDF) found “a 61 percent increase in mental health inpatient admissions” and “a 20 percent increase in emergency department (ED) visits.” Also, “teenagers aged 12 to 15 and 16 to 19 fared worse than the younger age groups.”

Related Links:

— “Children’s mental health issues have increased, insurance claims suggest “Chia-Yi Hou, The Hill, September 12, 2022

Psychiatric News (9/12) reports research indicates that “the more limited the resources of the neighborhood into which young refugees are settled, the more likely they are to go on to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder,” investigators concluded in a study that “used multiple Danish health and census registers to monitor the outcomes of 18,709 child and adolescent refugees (ages 0-16) who resettled in Denmark between 1986 and 1998.” The findings were published online Sept. 12 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Socioeconomic Status of Neighborhood Matters for Mental Health of Refugee Children, Adolescents, Psychiatric News, September 12, 2022

Healio (9/9, Downey) reported, “Older adults with dementia are at greater risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and death, highlighting the need for close monitoring of these patients, researchers reported” in a “retrospective, population-based study” of patients in Italy. The team “reported a crude risk for infection of 6.7%, with an increased risk for infection in both women…and men,” and “also reported the crude risk for death was 31%,” according to the findings published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Related Links:

— “Increased risk for COVID-19 infection, death among adults with dementia “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, September 9, 2022

Parkinson’s News Today (9/9, Wexler) reported, “The use of antipsychotic medications is substantially more common among people with Parkinson’s disease than in the general population,” investigators concluded in a study that “included data for 20,994 people diagnosed with Parkinson’s between 1996 and 2015 as well as data for 142,944 people without Parkinson’s who were not on antipsychotics in the year before the follow-up period started.” The study also revealed that “antipsychotic use among Parkinson’s patients is evident several years before the disease is diagnosed.” The findings were published online in the journal Parkinsonism and Related Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Antipsychotics Use Climbs in Years Before Parkinson’s Diagnosis: Study “Marisa Wexler, Parkinson’s News Today, September 9, 2022