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Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are risk factors for mental and physical illness and more likely to occur for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study aimed to clarify the contribution of poverty, intellectual disability and mental health conditions to this disparity. Data on child and family characteristics, mental health conditions and ACEs were analyzed in 67,067 youth from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health. In an income-stratified sample, the association of ASD and ACEs was greater for lower income children and significantly diminished after controlling for child mental health conditions, but not intellectual disability. Findings suggest that the association of ACEs and ASD is moderated by family income and contingent on co-occurring mental health conditions.

Epilepsy is reported to co-occur in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous studies across the world have found prevalence estimates ranging from 4 to 38%. We examined parent-reported prevalence of co-occurring epilepsy and ASD in the most recent U.S. National Survey of Children's Health, 2011-2012. All analyses accounted for survey weights to account for the complex sampling design. In the overall analytic sample of 85,248 children ages 2-17, there were 1,604 children with ASD (prevalence of 1.8%) and 1,083 children with epilepsy (prevalence of 1.2%). Epilepsy was reported to co-occur in 8.6% of ASD cases. In children with ASD, the co-occurrence of epilepsy was associated with increasing child age, female gender, intellectual disability, speech problems and lower socioeconomic status.

Maternal immune activity has been linked to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We examined maternal occupational exposure to asthma-causing agents during pregnancy in relation to ASD risk. Our sample included 463 ASD cases and 710 general population controls from the Study to Explore Early Development whose mothers reported at least one job during pregnancy. Asthmagen exposure was estimated from a published job-exposure matrix. The adjusted odds ratio for ASD comparing asthmagen-exposed to unexposed was 1.39 (95 % CI 0.96-2.02). Maternal workplace asthmagen exposure was not associated with ASD risk in this study, but this result does not exclude some involvement of maternal exposure to asthma-causing agents in ASD.

Objective: To examine antiseizure medication (ASM) prescription during pregnancy. Design: Population‐based drug utilisation study. Setting: UK primary and secondary care data, 1995–2018, from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD version. Population or Sample: 752 112 completed pregnancies among women registered for a minimum of 12 months with an 'up to standard' general practice prior to the estimated start of pregnancy and for the duration of their pregnancy. Methods: We described ASM prescription across the study period, overall and by ASM indication, examined patterns of prescription during pregnancy including continuous prescription and discontinuation, and used logistic regression to investigate factors associated with those ASM prescription patterns. Main Outcome Measures: Prescription of ASMs during pregnancy and discontinuation of ASMs before and during pregnancy. Results: ASM prescription during pregnancy increased from 0.6% of pregnancies in 1995 to 1.6% in 2018, driven largely by an increase in women with indications other than epilepsy. Epilepsy was an indication for 62.5% of pregnancies with an ASM prescription and non‐epilepsy indications were present for 66.6%. Continuous prescription of ASMs during pregnancy was more common in women with epilepsy (64.3%) than in women with other indications (25.3%). Switching ASMs was infrequent (0.8% of ASM users). Factors associated with discontinuation included age ≥35, higher social deprivation, more frequent contact with the GP and being prescribed antidepressants or antipsychotics. Conclusions: ASM prescription during pregnancy increased between 1995 and 2018 in the UK. Patterns of prescription around the pregnancy period vary by indication and are associated with several maternal characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a meta-analysis of 15 studies on maternal prenatal smoking and ASD risk in offspring. Using a random-effects model, we found no evidence of an association (summary OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.93-1.12). Stratifying by study design, birth year, type of healthcare system, and adjustment for socioeconomic status or psychiatric history did not alter the findings. There was evidence that ascertaining exposure at the time of birth produced a lower summary OR than when this information was gathered after birth. There was no evidence of publication bias. Non-differential exposure misclassification was shown to have the potential for negligible influence on the results. We found no evidence to support a measurable association between maternal prenatal smoking and ASD in offspring.

In a record-linkage study in Stockholm, Sweden, the year 2011 prevalence of diagnosed autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was found to be 0.40, 1.74, 2.46, and 1.76 % among 0-5, 6-12, 13-17, and 18-27 year olds, respectively. The corresponding proportion of cases with a recorded diagnosis of intellectual disability was 17.4, 22.1, 26.1 and 29.4 %. Between 2001 and 2011, ASD prevalence increased almost 3.5 fold among children aged 2-17 years. The increase was mainly accounted for by an eightfold increase of ASD without intellectual disability (from 0.14 to 1.10 %), while the prevalence of ASD with intellectual disability increased only slightly (from 0.28 to 0.34 %). The increase in ASD prevalence is likely contributed to by extrinsic factors such as increased awareness and diagnostics.

Mapping molecular structure to odor perception is a key challenge in olfaction. We used graph neural networks to generate a principal odor map (POM) that preserves perceptual relationships and enables odor quality prediction for previously uncharacterized odorants. The model was as reliable as a human in describing odor quality: On a prospective validation set of 400 out-of-sample odorants, the model-generated odor profile more closely matched the trained panel mean than did the median panelist. By applying simple, interpretable, theoretically rooted transformations, the POM outperformed chemoinformatic models on several other odor prediction tasks, indicating that the POM successfully encoded a generalized map of structure-odor relationships. This approach broadly enables odor prediction and paves the way toward digitizing odors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are risk factors for mental and physical illness and more likely to occur for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study aimed to clarify the contribution of poverty, intellectual disability and mental health conditions to this disparity. Data on child and family characteristics, mental health conditions and ACEs were analyzed in 67,067 youth from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health. In an income-stratified sample, the association of ASD and ACEs was greater for lower income children and significantly diminished after controlling for child mental health conditions, but not intellectual disability. Findings suggest that the association of ACEs and ASD is moderated by family income and contingent on co-occurring mental health conditions., Author(s): Connor Morrow Kerns [sup.1] , Craig J. Newschaffer [sup.2] , Steven Berkowitz [sup.3] , Brian K. Lee [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) 0000 0001 2181 3113grid.166341.7AJ Drexel Autism Institute, Department [...]

Epilepsy is reported to co-occur in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous studies across the world have found prevalence estimates ranging from 4 to 38 %. We examined parent-reported prevalence of co-occurring epilepsy and ASD in the most recent U.S. National Survey of Children's Health, 2011-2012. All analyses accounted for survey weights to account for the complex sampling design. In the overall analytic sample of 85,248 children ages 2-17, there were 1604 children with ASD (prevalence of 1.8 %) and 1083 children with epilepsy (prevalence of 1.2 %). Epilepsy was reported to co-occur in 8.6 % of ASD cases. In children with ASD, the co-occurrence of epilepsy was associated with increasing child age, female gender, intellectual disability, speech problems and lower socioeconomic status., Author(s): Shiny Thomas[sup.1] [sup.5] , Mary E. Hovinga[sup.1] , Dheeraj Rai[sup.2] [sup.3] , Brian K. Lee[sup.1] [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Drexel University School of Public [...]

Maternal immune activity has been linked to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We examined maternal occupational exposure to asthma-causing agents during pregnancy in relation to ASD risk. Our sample included 463 ASD cases and 710 general population controls from the Study to Explore Early Development whose mothers reported at least one job during pregnancy. Asthmagen exposure was estimated from a published job-exposure matrix. The adjusted odds ratio for ASD comparing asthmagen-exposed to unexposed was 1.39 (95 % CI 0.96-2.02). Maternal workplace asthmagen exposure was not associated with ASD risk in this study, but this result does not exclude some involvement of maternal exposure to asthma-causing agents in ASD., Author(s): Alison B. Singer[sup.1] [sup.4] , Gayle C. Windham[sup.2] , Lisa A. Croen[sup.3] , Julie L. Daniels[sup.4] , Brian K. Lee[sup.5] , Yinge Qian[sup.3] , Diana E. Schendel[sup.6] [sup.7] [sup.8] [...]

We investigated whether there is an association between increased risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) used during pregnancy. This study used Denmark's health and population registers to obtain information regarding prescription drugs, ASD diagnosis, and health and socioeconomic status. There were 1.5% of cases and 0.7% of controls exposed to SSRIs during the pregnancy period, and higher effect estimates observed with longer use. We found evidence that in utero exposure to SSRIs increases a child's risk associated with ASD. These results, while adding to the limited knowledge on prenatal pharmacological exposures as potential ASD risk factors, need to be balanced against the benefits of indicated medication use by pregnant mothers.

Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke is suggested as a potential risk factor for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Previous epidemiological studies of this topic have yielded mixed findings. We performed a case-control study of 3,958 ASD cases and 38,983 controls nested in a large register-based cohort in Sweden. ASD case status was measured using a multisource case ascertainment system. In adjusted results, we found that maternal smoking during pregnancy is not associated with increased risk of ASD regardless of presence or absence of comorbid intellectual disability. Apparent associations were attributable to confounding by sociodemographic characteristics of parents such as education, income, and occupation.

We sought to evaluate the potential for using historical web search data on autism spectrum disorders (ASD)-related topics as an indicator of ASD awareness. Analysis of Google Trend data suggested that National Autism Awareness Month and televised reports concerning autism are an effective method of promoting online search interest in autism.

We conducted a meta-analysis of 15 studies on maternal prenatal smoking and ASD risk in offspring. Using a random-effects model, we found no evidence of an association (summary OR 1.02, 95 % CI 0.93-1.12). Stratifying by study design, birth year, type of healthcare system, and adjustment for socioeconomic status or psychiatric history did not alter the findings. There was evidence that ascertaining exposure at the time of birth produced a lower summary OR than when this information was gathered after birth. There was no evidence of publication bias. Non-differential exposure misclassification was shown to have the potential for negligible influence on the results. We found no evidence to support a measurable association between maternal prenatal smoking and ASD in offspring., Author(s): Brittany N. Rosen [sup.1] , Brian K. Lee [sup.2] , Nora L. Lee [sup.2] , Yunwen Yang [sup.2] , Igor Burstyn [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Environmental [...]

In a record-linkage study in Stockholm, Sweden, the year 2011 prevalence of diagnosed autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was found to be 0.40, 1.74, 2.46, and 1.76 % among 0-5, 6-12, 13-17, and 18-27 year olds, respectively. The corresponding proportion of cases with a recorded diagnosis of intellectual disability was 17.4, 22.1, 26.1 and 29.4 %. Between 2001 and 2011, ASD prevalence increased almost 3.5 fold among children aged 2-17 years. The increase was mainly accounted for by an eightfold increase of ASD without intellectual disability (from 0.14 to 1.10 %), while the prevalence of ASD with intellectual disability increased only slightly (from 0.28 to 0.34 %). The increase in ASD prevalence is likely contributed to by extrinsic factors such as increased awareness and diagnostics., Author(s): Selma Idring[sup.1] [sup.2] , Michael Lundberg[sup.1] , Harald Sturm[sup.2] , Christina Dalman[sup.1] [sup.3] , Clara Gumpert[sup.4] , Dheeraj Rai[sup.1] [sup.5] [sup.6] , Brian K. Lee[sup.7] , Cecilia Magnusson[sup.1] [sup.3] [...]