Study Suggests Childhood Development Of ADHD Could Be Linked To Mothers Unhealthy Diet During Pregnancy

18 Aug 2016 --- New research from King's College London and the University of Bristol has found that a high-fat, high-sugar diet during pregnancy could result in the development of ADHD and early onset conduct problems in young children.

Published today in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the study is the first to indicate that epigenetic changes evident at birth may explain the link between unhealthy diet, conduct problems and ADHD.

Early onset conduct problems, which include behaviors such as lying and fighting, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are the leading causes of child mental health referral in the UK.

The two disorders tend to occur in tandem, with more than 40 per cent of children with a diagnosis of conduct disorder also having a diagnosis of ADHD. Often the two conditions can be traced back to very similar prenatal experiences such as maternal distress or poor nutrition.

The study looked at participants from the Bristol-based 'Children of the 90s' cohort. 83 children with early-onset conduct problems were compared with 81 children who had low levels of conduct problems. The researchers assessed how the mothers' nutrition affected epigenetic changes (or DNA methylation) of IGF2, a gene involved in fetal development and the brain development of areas implicated in ADHD, the cerebellum and hippocampus.

The researchers found that poor prenatal nutrition, comprising of high fat and sugar diets of processed food and confectionary, was associated with higher IGF2 methylation in children with early onset conduct problems and those with low conduct problems.

Higher IGF2 methylation was also associated with higher ADHD symptoms between the ages of 7 and 13, but only for children who showed an early onset of conduct problems.

Dr Edward Barker from King's College London said, “Our findings that poor prenatal nutrition was associated with higher IGF2 methylation highlights the critical importance of a healthy diet during pregnancy.”

Barker continued, “These results suggest that promoting a healthy prenatal diet may ultimately lower ADHD symptoms and conduct problems in children. This is encouraging given that nutritional and epigenetic risk factors can be altered.”

Dr Barker added, “We now need to examine more specific types of nutrition. For example, the types of fats such as omega 3 fatty acids, from fish, walnuts and chicken are extremely important for neural development.”

“We already know that nutritional supplements for children can lead to lower ADHD and conduct problems, so it will be important for future research to examine the role of epigenetic changes in this process.”