Is maternal prenatal exposure to lithium in drinking water associated with autism in offspring?
autside.substack.com
A recent Danish study attempts to link lithium to autism. The study suggests that naturally occurring lithium in drinking water may be a novel environmental risk factor for autism development that requires further scrutiny.
This nationwide population-based case-control study in Denmark identified 8,842 children diagnosed with autism born from 2000 through 2013 and 43,864 control participants matched by birth year and sex from the Danish Medical Birth Registry. Geocoded maternal residential addresses during pregnancy were linked to lithium level in drinking water estimated using kriging interpolation based on 151 waterworks measurements of lithium across all regions in Denmark.
Estimated maternal prenatal exposure to lithium from naturally occurring drinking water sources in Denmark was associated with an increased autism risk in their offspring.
Before we panic, let’s remember what risk is. Risk, in the medical sense, can be seen as the combination of the probability of an event occurring (the level of lithium in the water) and the consequences if that event does occur (autism diagnosis + severity level). Probabilities deal with correlations, not causations. Whilst an autism diagnosis may be correlated now (however weakly) with pre-natal lithium exposure, there is no data that shows that such exposures cause the genetic sequences necessary to create an autistic system.
Remember, to the system, being autistic is automatically a bad thing - a consequence. It’s almost as though there is No Place for Autism in society.
Is maternal prenatal exposure to lithium in drinking water associated with autism in offspring?
Is maternal prenatal exposure to lithium in drinking water associated with autism in offspring?
Is maternal prenatal exposure to lithium in drinking water associated with autism in offspring?
A recent Danish study attempts to link lithium to autism. The study suggests that naturally occurring lithium in drinking water may be a novel environmental risk factor for autism development that requires further scrutiny.
This nationwide population-based case-control study in Denmark identified 8,842 children diagnosed with autism born from 2000 through 2013 and 43,864 control participants matched by birth year and sex from the Danish Medical Birth Registry. Geocoded maternal residential addresses during pregnancy were linked to lithium level in drinking water estimated using kriging interpolation based on 151 waterworks measurements of lithium across all regions in Denmark.
Estimated maternal prenatal exposure to lithium from naturally occurring drinking water sources in Denmark was associated with an increased autism risk in their offspring.
Before we panic, let’s remember what risk is. Risk, in the medical sense, can be seen as the combination of the probability of an event occurring (the level of lithium in the water) and the consequences if that event does occur (autism diagnosis + severity level). Probabilities deal with correlations, not causations. Whilst an autism diagnosis may be correlated now (however weakly) with pre-natal lithium exposure, there is no data that shows that such exposures cause the genetic sequences necessary to create an autistic system.
Remember, to the system, being autistic is automatically a bad thing - a consequence. It’s almost as though there is No Place for Autism in society.