ArticlePloS one2013
Prenatal glucocorticoid treatment and later mental health in children and adolescents.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Individual differences in glucocorticoid regulation: Does it relate to disease risk and resilience?Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2020Pooled it
- Psychiatric research in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 - a systematic review.International journal of circumpolar health · 2019Pooled it
- Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia Due to Steroid 21-Hydroxylase Deficiency: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2018Guideline
- Glucocorticoids and cell fate in the developing brain: Neuroendocrine mechanisms shaping developmental trajectories.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Review
- Prenatal stress selectively enhances locomotor hyperactivity in male mice with embryonic loss ofFrontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Multiple Sclerosis Relapse Treatment During Pregnancy and Offspring Functional and Structural Neurodevelopment: A Cross-Sectional Study.Neurology · 2025Observational
- The long-term development outcomes of the offspring born to patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: a cross-sectional study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Linking pregnancy- and birth-related risk factors to a multivariate fusion of child cortical structure.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Linking Pregnancy- and Birth-Related Risk Factors to a Multivariate Fusion of Child Cortical Structure.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Mental Disorders Among Offspring Prenatally Exposed to Systemic Glucocorticoids.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Identification of a DNA methylation signature in whole blood of newborn guinea pigs and human neonates following antenatal betamethasone exposure.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Glucocorticoids and cognitive function: a walkthrough in endogenous and exogenous alterations.Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2023Review
- Prevention of Chronic Morbidities in Extremely Premature Newborns with LISA-nCPAP Respiratory Therapy and Adjuvant Perinatal Strategies.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Long-term childhood outcomes for babies born at term who were exposed to antenatal corticosteroids.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2023Article
- Glucocorticoid production in the thymus and brain: Immunosteroids and neurosteroids.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2021Article
- The association between maternal lifetime interpersonal trauma experience and perceived mother-infant bonding.Journal of affective disorders · 2021Article
- Prenatal Glucocorticoid-Exposed Infants Do Not Show an Age-Typical Fear Bias at 8 Months of Age - Preliminary Findings From the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders and pregnancy: therapeutic considerations.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2020Review
- Does Antenatal Betamethasone Alter White Matter Brain Development in Growth Restricted Fetal Sheep?Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2020Article
- Predictive value of the quantitative fetal fibronectin levels for the management of women presenting with threatened preterm labour - A revised cut off level: A retrospective cohort study.European journal of obstetrics & gynecology and reproductive biology: X · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAnimal studies demonstrate a clear link between prenatal exposure to glucocorticoids (GC) and altered offspring brain development. We aim to examine whether prenatal GC exposure programs long-term mental health in humans.
methodsUsing propensity-score-matching, children prenatally exposed to synthetic glucocorticoids (sGC), n=37, and controls, n=185, were balanced on important confounders related to sGC treatment--gestational age and pre-pregnancy BMI. We also used mixed-effects modeling to analyse the entire cohort--matching each sGC case, n=37, to all possible controls, n=6079, on gestational age and sex. We obtained data from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 at four waves--pregnancy, birth, 8 and 16 years. Data on pregnancy and birth outcomes came from medical records. Mental health was assessed at 8 years by teachers with the Rutter B2 scale, and at 16 years by parents with the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD symptoms and Normal behavior (SWAN) scale and adolescents by the Youth Self-Report (YSR) scale.
resultsPrenatal sGC treatment was consistently associated with adverse mental health in childhood and adolescence, as shown by both the propensity-score method and mixed-effects model. Using the propensity-score-matched subsample, linear multiple regression showed prenatal sGC was significantly linked with general psychiatric disturbance (B=8.34 [95% CI: .23-16.45]) and inattention (B= .97 [95% CI: .16-1.80]) at 8 years after control for relevant confounders. Similar findings were obtained at 16 years, but did not reach statistical significance. Mediation by birthweight/placental weight was not detected.
conclusionsThis study is the first to prospectively investigate the long-term associations between prenatal exposure to sGC treatment and mental health in children and adolescents. We report an association between prenatal exposure to sGC and child mental health, supportive of the idea that sGC has a programming effect on the fetal brain.
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Registered trials
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