Background: Early Life Stress (ELS) describes a broad spectrum of adverse and stressful prenatal events, namely prenatal maternal stress (PMS), or early postnatal events, which can have detrimental long-term influences on the physiology, cognition, and behavior of an individual. There is abundant evidence indicating that ELS exerts its lasting effects on the physical and mental health of the individual, likely acting through a number of mediating mechanisms, including the disruption of developmental programming of the fetus. Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), for example, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are a group of conditions that typically manifest during infancy, childhood, or adolescence and are characterized by developmental deficits in various domains. Summary: The scope of the current mini-review is to provide an up-to-date summary of the findings regarding the association of ELS and NDDs and the possible hormonal mechanisms through which PMS exerts its impact on neurodevelopment. We focus on the available evidence regarding children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD or ASD. ELS exposure during developmental vulnerability windows may increase the risk for either subclinical neuropsychological alterations or clinical conditions, such as NDDs. In fact, a large body of evidence underlies the association of ELS exposure and increased risk for NDDs in the offspring. Key Messages: The majority of data suggest that ELS, including PMS, may be associated with ADHD and ASD in the offspring, although there is no consensus regarding the critical developmental periods. Carefully controlled prospective studies are needed to determine the possible causal processes and mechanisms underlying the association of ELS and NDDs.


中文翻译：

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早年生活压力、激素和神经发育障碍

背景：早期生活压力 (ELS) 描述了广泛的不良和压力性产前事件，即产前母体压力 (PMS) 或产后早期事件，这些事件可能对婴儿的生理、认知和行为产生长期不利影响。个人。有大量证据表明 ELS 对个体的身心健康产生持久影响，可能通过多种中介机制发挥作用，包括破坏胎儿的发育程序。神经发育障碍 (NDD)，例如注意力缺陷多动障碍 (ADHD) 和自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD)，是一组通常在婴儿期、儿童期或青春期出现的病症，其特征是各个领域的发育缺陷。概括：当前小型评论的范围是提供有关 ELS 和 NDD 关联以及 PMS 对神经发育产生影响的可能激素机制的最新发现总结。我们专注于有关被诊断患有 ADHD 或 ASD 的儿童和青少年的可用证据。在发育脆弱性窗口期间暴露于 ELS 可能会增加亚临床神经心理学改变或临床状况（例如 NDD）的风险。事实上，大量证据表明 ELS 暴露与后代 NDD 风险增加之间存在关联。关键信息：大多数数据表明，包括 PMS 在内的 ELS 可能与后代的 ADHD 和 ASD 相关，尽管对于关键发育时期尚无共识。