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Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: linking immune function to mental health status

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is known to cause a variety of cognitive, behavioral, and neurological changes. Importantly, mental health problems are also overrepresented in individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), the group of neurodevelopmental conditions that can occur following...

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Autores principales: Bodnar, Tamara S., Chao, Amanda, Holman, Parker J., Ellis, Linda, Raineki, Charlis, Weinberg, Joanne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10394466/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37539379
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1214100
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author Bodnar, Tamara S.
Chao, Amanda
Holman, Parker J.
Ellis, Linda
Raineki, Charlis
Weinberg, Joanne
author_facet Bodnar, Tamara S.
Chao, Amanda
Holman, Parker J.
Ellis, Linda
Raineki, Charlis
Weinberg, Joanne
author_sort Bodnar, Tamara S.
collection PubMed
description Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is known to cause a variety of cognitive, behavioral, and neurological changes. Importantly, mental health problems are also overrepresented in individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), the group of neurodevelopmental conditions that can occur following PAE. Approximately 90% of individuals with FASD report experiencing mental health problems over their lifespan, compared to approximately 30% in the overall population. Individuals with FASD also display impairments in coping skills and increased vulnerability to stress. Here, we investigated whether the COVID-19 pandemic would have a differential impact on mental health and inflammation-to-mood associations in adults with FASD, compared to unexposed controls (no PAE). We capitalized on our pre-pandemic study examining health and immune function and invited past-participants to enroll in the current study. Participants completed mental health assessments and COVID-related questionnaires by phone. In addition, blood samples collected at baseline (pre-pandemic) were used to probe for inflammation-to-mood associations. Overall, our results indicate that lower SES was predictive of higher coronavirus anxiety scores, with no differences between adults with FASD and controls. In addition, while there were no differences in depression or anxiety measures at baseline (pre-pandemic) or during the pandemic, examination of inflammation-to-mood associations identified differential relationships in adults with FASD compared to unexposed controls. Specifically, there was a positive association between baseline neutrophil counts and both baseline and pandemic mental health scores in unexposed controls only. In addition, for unexposed controls there was also a negative association between baseline interferon-ɣ (IFN-ɣ) and pandemic mental health scores. By contrast, only adults with FASD showed positive associations between baseline interleukin-12p70 (IL-12p70), IL-8, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) and pandemic mental health scores. Taken together, to our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the impact of the pandemic in adults with FASD. And while it may be too soon to predict the long-term effects of the pandemic on mental health, our data suggest that it will be important that future work also takes into account how immune function may be modulating mental health outcomes in this population.
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spelling pubmed-103944662023-08-03 Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: linking immune function to mental health status Bodnar, Tamara S. Chao, Amanda Holman, Parker J. Ellis, Linda Raineki, Charlis Weinberg, Joanne Front Neurosci Neuroscience Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is known to cause a variety of cognitive, behavioral, and neurological changes. Importantly, mental health problems are also overrepresented in individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), the group of neurodevelopmental conditions that can occur following PAE. Approximately 90% of individuals with FASD report experiencing mental health problems over their lifespan, compared to approximately 30% in the overall population. Individuals with FASD also display impairments in coping skills and increased vulnerability to stress. Here, we investigated whether the COVID-19 pandemic would have a differential impact on mental health and inflammation-to-mood associations in adults with FASD, compared to unexposed controls (no PAE). We capitalized on our pre-pandemic study examining health and immune function and invited past-participants to enroll in the current study. Participants completed mental health assessments and COVID-related questionnaires by phone. In addition, blood samples collected at baseline (pre-pandemic) were used to probe for inflammation-to-mood associations. Overall, our results indicate that lower SES was predictive of higher coronavirus anxiety scores, with no differences between adults with FASD and controls. In addition, while there were no differences in depression or anxiety measures at baseline (pre-pandemic) or during the pandemic, examination of inflammation-to-mood associations identified differential relationships in adults with FASD compared to unexposed controls. Specifically, there was a positive association between baseline neutrophil counts and both baseline and pandemic mental health scores in unexposed controls only. In addition, for unexposed controls there was also a negative association between baseline interferon-ɣ (IFN-ɣ) and pandemic mental health scores. By contrast, only adults with FASD showed positive associations between baseline interleukin-12p70 (IL-12p70), IL-8, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) and pandemic mental health scores. Taken together, to our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the impact of the pandemic in adults with FASD. And while it may be too soon to predict the long-term effects of the pandemic on mental health, our data suggest that it will be important that future work also takes into account how immune function may be modulating mental health outcomes in this population. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-07-19 /pmc/articles/PMC10394466/ /pubmed/37539379 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1214100 Text en Copyright © 2023 Bodnar, Chao, Holman, Ellis, Raineki and Weinberg. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Bodnar, Tamara S.
Chao, Amanda
Holman, Parker J.
Ellis, Linda
Raineki, Charlis
Weinberg, Joanne
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: linking immune function to mental health status
title Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: linking immune function to mental health status
title_full Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: linking immune function to mental health status
title_fullStr Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: linking immune function to mental health status
title_full_unstemmed Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: linking immune function to mental health status
title_short Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: linking immune function to mental health status
title_sort impact of the covid-19 pandemic on adults with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: linking immune function to mental health status
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10394466/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37539379
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1214100
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