Exposure To Flame Retardants During Pregnancy May Increase The Risk Of Anxiety Development During Adolescence, New Research Found

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic spurred a significant increase– twenty-five percent– in depression and anxiety worldwide.
But, one group has been particularly impacted by post-pandemic mental health struggles: adolescents.
One meta-analysis of over twenty-nine studies, which included more than eighty thousand children between the ages of four and seventeen, found that youth depression and anxiety have doubled.
So, researchers have shown a growing interest in the risk factors behind anxiety and depression among children.
One recent study, though, has looked past well-known early indicators– such as psychological risk factors, family relationships, and temperament– to analyze the impact of environmental factors like air pollution.
The work was led by researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati and specifically focused on a category of chemicals known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).
PBDEs were formerly used as flame retardants for various products ranging from furniture foam padding, rugs, and upholstery to appliances and computers.
But, it was found that early exposure to PBDEs during brain development may lead to reduced language skills, cognitive deficits, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
In turn, PBDEs were banned in the United States in 2004.

Olga Gordeeva – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
However, according to the study’s lead author Jeffrey Strawn, exposure to the chemicals remain common– and the potential effect on anxiety was unknown.
“One of the things that we know is that brain development starts relatively early in utero. We wanted to look at how different exposure points in a pregnancy impact brain development and how that potentially translates to risk for anxiety or depression symptoms, which we know tend to manifest a bit later,” Strawn explained.
Strawn and his team utilized data from the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment study– also known as HOME– which measured the impact of fetal and early childhood environmental toxicant exposure.
The HOME study consisted of four hundred and sixty-eight pregnant women from Cincinnati between 2003 and 2006. Then, twelve years later, the children of these women were followed up with.
Then, using data such as the mothers’ blood samples and self-reported depression and anxiety screenings that two hundred and thirty-six adolescents completed at the age of twelve, the team looked for any relationship between flame retardant exposure and mental health risk.
The study ultimately found that when a pregnant mother’s blood sample showed doubled PBDE levels, adolescents showed increased anxiety.
So now, the team believes that PBDE exposure in utero could be a risk factor for anxiety symptom development during early adolescence.
Strawn did underscore how an increased prevalence of anxiety symptoms does not necessarily mean that more adolescents are developing anxiety disorders.
Nonetheless, widespread exposure could have drastic implications for the greater population.
“When you look at a population level, and you see the effect of these ubiquitous chemicals increasing your baseline anxiety by ten percent or twenty percent, that’s really significant across the whole population,” Strawn said.
“That increase in anxiety across a population means that many individuals may cross the line between having manageable anxiety and having an anxiety disorder.”
Going forward, the team plans to focus further research on understanding what regions of the brain are impacted by PBDE exposure and whether or not there are specific time periods during pregnancy that show a heightened association with an increased risk of anxiety.
To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in Wiley Online Library, visit the link here.
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