Flu During Pregnancy Increases Risk of Having a Bipolar Offspring

A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that the risk of a child suffering from bipolar disorder increases if the mother had suffered from flu infection during her pregnancy. The study was conducted by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center who looked at 814 women who were expecting during the 1960s and found that the risk of bipolar disease was four times high in children whose mothers suffered from flu during their pregnancies compared to children born to mothers who did not suffer from flu infection.

“Offspring exposed to maternal influenza infection at any time during pregnancy were nearly four times more likely to develop bipolar disorder than those who were not exposed”, the researchers wrote in their report.



Source-Medindia