ArticleDepression and anxiety2022
Early exposure to flame retardants is prospectively associated with anxiety symptoms in adolescents: A prospective birth cohort study.
Article in Depression and anxiety, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gestational PBDE concentrations and functional connectivity in adolescents: The HOME Study.International journal of hygiene and environmental health · 2026Article
- Analysis of durations and frequencies of mouthing behaviors in children 6 months to 6 years: an advanced videotaping and translation approach.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Gestational PBDE concentrations and executive function in adolescents with self- and caregiver-report: The HOME study.Environmental research · 2025Article
- Mechanisms of Flame Retardant Toxicity and Their Impacts on Anxiety and Cognition in the Brain.Endocrinology · 2025Review
- Disparities in anxiety and related factors among Chinese older adults across different aged-care models: a comparison of two cross-sectional studies.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Gestational PBDE concentrations, persistent externalizing, and emerging internalizing behaviors in adolescents: The HOME study.Environmental research · 2024Article
- Organophosphate ester flame retardants and plasticizers in house dust and mental health outcomes among Canadian mothers: A nested prospective cohort study in CHILD.Environmental research · 2024Article
- Environmental chemical exposures and mental health outcomes in children: a narrative review of recent literature.Frontiers in toxicology · 2023Review
- Early exposure to flame retardants is prospectively associated with anxiety symptoms in adolescents: A prospective birth cohort study.Depression and anxiety · 2022Article
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10 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAnxiety disorders emerge during childhood and adolescence and are frequently preceded by subsyndromal anxiety symptoms. Environmental toxicants, including gestational polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) exposure, are associated with neuropsychiatric sequelae; however, the role of PBDEs as risk factors for anxiety in adolescence is unclear.
methodsUsing data from the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, a prospective pregnancy and birth cohort enrolled from 2003 to 2006, we investigated the relationship between gestational serum PBDE concentrations and anxiety symptoms in adolescents (N = 236). We measured five PBDE congeners (PBDE-28, -47, -99, -100, and -153) at 16 ± 3 weeks of gestation and calculated their sum (∑PBDE). We assessed self-reported anxiety symptoms using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) and depressive symptoms using the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI-2) at age 12 years. We estimated the associations of maternal PBDE concentrations with child anxiety and depressive symptoms using multivariable linear regression and modified Poisson regression. Covariates included child sex, maternal race, maternal age at delivery, maternal marital status, maternal education, and household income at the 12-year study visit as well as maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms. Sensitivity analyses were performed to control for maternal lead and mercury at delivery.
resultsAfter adjusting for predetermined covariates, each doubling in maternal PBDE concentrations was associated with increased SCARED scores (e.g., for ∑PBDE, SCARED total score, β = 1.6 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.3-2.9, p = .019) and a nonsignificant increase in depressive symptoms (e.g., for CDI total score, β = .8, 95% CI: -0.2-1.8, p = .11).
conclusionsGestational serum PBDE concentrations just before mid-pregnancy and during a period of active cortical and limbic neurogenesis, synaptogenesis and myelogenesis may be a risk factor for developing anxiety symptoms in early adolescence.
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