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.”