A long held suspicion that contracting influenza during gestation had an effect on the fetus' emotional health is being corroborated by the new studies.
In fact, a mother who is infected with the flu virus during gestation has four times, or 400%, the risk of having a child who has bipolar disorder in adulthood.
There is also a growing suspicion that such illness during pregnancy might be to blame for other forms of mental disorders, such as schizophrenia.
The study renews calls for flu shots in early pregnancy or before, to ward off the chance of such infection.
Unfortunately, very few women in pregnancy take advantage of vaccinations.
The study noted births between `1959 and 1966, and found that there was nearly a fourfould increase in bipolar disorder in those children who were matched to mothers that had contracted the flu during pregnancy.
A separate study, also in California, also found that there was a threefold increase in schizophrenia in those children whose mothers were likewise infected. Now the researchers are shifting their attention towards autism, who also seems to have been linked to first trimester viral infections.
Some of the research was funded by the Eunice Shriver foundation.
Source : France 24/ 5.18.13
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