Prenatal Stress and AutismPrenatal stress, consisting of exposure to life events or environmental factors that distress anexpectant mother, has been hypothesized to contribute to autism, possibly as part of agene-environment interaction.
Autism has been reported to be associated with prenatal stress bothwith retrospective studies that examined
stressors such as job loss and family discord, and withnatural experiments involving prenatal exposure to storms;
animal studies have reported that prenatal stress can disrupt brain development and produce behaviors resembling
symptoms ofautism. |