Prenatal and Early Childhood Infections and Subsequent Risk of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Tic Disorders: A Nationwide, Sibling-Controlled Study.
- Authors
- Zhang, Tianyang; Brander, Gustaf; Isung, Josef; Isomura, Kayoko; Sidorchuk, Anna; Larsson, Henrik; Chang, Zheng; Mataix-Cols, David; Fernández de la Cruz, Lorena
- Year
- 2023
- Journal
- Biological psychiatry
- PMID
- 36155699
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.07.004
BACKGROUND: Postinfectious autoimmune processes are hypothesized to be causally related to both obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and tic disorders, but current evidence is conflicting. This study examined whether prenatal maternal (and paternal, as an internal control) infections and early childhood infections in the offspring (i.e., during the first 3 years of life) were associated with a subsequent risk of OCD and Tourette syndrome or chronic tic disorder (TS/CTD). METHODS: Individuals exposed to any prenatal maternal infection (n = 16,743) and early childhood infection (n = 264,346) were identified from a population-based birth cohort consisting of 2,949,080 singletons born in Sweden between 1973 and 2003 and were followed through 2013. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs). Sibling analyses were performed to control for familial confounding. RESULTS: At the population level, and after adjusting for parental psychiatric history and autoimmune diseases, a significantly increased risk of OCD and TS/CTD was found in individuals exposed to prenatal maternal (but not paternal) infections (OCD: HR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.12-1.57; TS/CTD: HR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.23-2.09) and early childhood infections (OCD: HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.14-1.25; TS/CTD: HR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.24-1.44). However, these associations were no longer significant in the sibling analyses. CONCLUSIONS: The results do not support the hypothesis that prenatal maternal or early-life infections play a direct causal role in the etiology of either OCD or TS/CTD. Instead, familial factors (e.g., genetic pleiotropy) may explain both the propensity to infections and the liability to OCD and TS/CTD.
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In this knowledge base
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|---|---|---|
| Genome-wide analyses identify 30 loci associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder. | 2025 | 40360802 |
External
| Title | Authors | Journal | Year | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key aspects to consider in the design of prevention efforts for obsessive-compulsive disorder. | Mataix-Cols D et al. | — | 2026 | → |
| Proneness to infections and familial risk of tic disorders. | Pol-Fuster J et al. | — | 2026 | → |
| A Population-Based Multigenerational Family Coaggregation Study of Severe Infections and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. | Pol-Fuster J et al. | — | 2025 | → |
| Epigenetic, ribosomal, and immune dysregulation in paediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome. | Han VX et al. | — | 2025 | → |
| Genome-wide analyses identify 30 loci associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder. | Strom NI et al. | — | 2025 | → |
| Maternal autoimmune diseases and the risk of tics and Tourette's disorder in offspring: insights from Taiwan's real-world data. | Lee YF et al. | — | 2025 | → |
| NDD-ECHO: A standardised digital assessment tool to capture early life environmental and inflammatory factors for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. | Patel S et al. | — | 2025 | → |
| The Immune/Inflammatory Underpinnings of Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome: A Scoping Review. | Gagliano A et al. | — | 2025 | → |
| Association between severe childhood infections and subsequent risk of OCD is largely explained by shared familial factors. | Pol-Fuster J et al. | — | 2024 | → |
| Genome-wide analyses identify 30 loci associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder | Strom NI et al. | — | 2024 | — |
| Unraveling the Boundaries, Overlaps, and Connections between Schizophrenia and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). | Pardossi S et al. | — | 2024 | → |
| Association of Primary Immunodeficiencies in Parents With Psychiatric Disorders and Suicidal Behavior in Their Offspring. | Isung J et al. | — | 2023 | → |
| Beyond TORCH: A narrative review of the impact of antenatal and perinatal infections on the risk of disability. | Devaraju M et al. | — | 2023 | → |
| In search of environmental risk factors for obsessive-compulsive disorder: study protocol for the OCDTWIN project. | Mataix-Cols D et al. | — | 2023 | → |
| Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Tic Disorders, and Early-Life Infections. | Andrade C | — | 2023 | → |
| Reply to: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Tic Disorders, and Early-Life Infections. | Zhang T et al. | — | 2023 | → |