1Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, 100 Roberts Rd, Subiaco, WA 6009 Australia.
4Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, 100 Roberts Road, Subiaco, WA 6008 Australia.
Mol Autism. 2018 Jun 19;9:37. doi: 10.1186/s13229-018-0223-7. eCollection 2018.
Nausea and vomiting during pregnancy (NVP) is thought to be caused by changes in maternal hormones during pregnancy. Differences in hormone exposure during prenatal life have been implicated in the causal pathways for some cases of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, no study has investigated whether the presence and severity of NVP may be related to symptom severity in offspring with ASD.
A large sample of children with ASD (227 males and 60 females, aged 2 to 18 years) received a clinical assessment, during which parents completed questionnaires regarding their child's social (Social Responsiveness Scale, SRS) and communication (Children's Communication Checklist-2nd edition, CCC-2) symptoms. Parents also reported on a 5-point scale the frequency and severity of NVPs during the pregnancy of the child being assessed: (1) no NVP during the pregnancy, (2) occasional nausea, but no vomiting, (3) daily nausea, but no vomiting, (4) occasional vomiting, with or without nausea, and (5) daily nausea and vomiting.
Impairments in social responsiveness in offspring, as indexed by SRS total score, significantly increased as a function of the frequency and severity of their mothers' NVP, as did the level of language difficulties as indexed by the Global Communication Composite of the CCC-2.
The strong, positive association between increasing frequency and severity of NVP and ASD severity in offspring provides further evidence that exposure to an atypical hormonal environment during prenatal life may affect neurodevelopment and contribute to the ASD phenotype. Given that the measure of NVP symptoms in the current study was based on retrospective recall, replication of this finding is required before strong conclusions can be drawn.
妊娠恶心和呕吐（NVP）被认为是由妊娠期间母体激素变化引起的。产前生活中激素暴露的差异与某些自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）病例的因果途径有关。然而，尚无研究调查 NVP 的存在和严重程度是否与 ASD 患儿的症状严重程度有关。
大量 ASD 儿童（227 名男性和 60 名女性，年龄 2 至 18 岁）接受了临床评估，在此期间，父母完成了有关其孩子社交（社会反应量表，SRS）和沟通（儿童沟通检查表第 2 版，CCC-2）症状的问卷。父母还在 5 分制上报告了孩子怀孕期间 NVP 的频率和严重程度：（1）怀孕期间无 NVP，（2）偶尔恶心，但无呕吐，（3）每天恶心，但无呕吐，（4）偶尔呕吐，伴有或不伴有恶心，和（5）每天恶心和呕吐。
SRS 总分指数显示，后代社交反应受损程度随着母亲 NVP 频率和严重程度的增加而显著增加，CCC-2 的全球沟通综合指数所索引的语言困难水平也是如此。
NVP 频率和严重程度与 ASD 患儿严重程度之间的强烈正相关关系进一步证明，产前生活中接触异常激素环境可能会影响神经发育并导致 ASD 表型。鉴于当前研究中 NVP 症状的测量是基于回顾性回忆，因此在得出强有力的结论之前，需要对这一发现进行复制。
