# Prenatal and Neonatal Risk Factors for Adverse Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Childhood and Early Adulthood

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2020 · $174,410

## Abstract

Intrauterine life and infancy are critically sensitive periods in brain development. The role of preventable
prenatal and neonatal factors on the risk of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders is unclear. Maternal
characteristics influence risks of pregnancy, delivery, and neonatal complications which may in turn affect
neurodevelopmental processes. Nevertheless, a mechanistic sequence connecting these events has not been
described. Using linkage of nation-wide registries, we propose to conduct a population-based cohort study of
3.4 million singleton children born 1983-2016 in Sweden, to examine the associations of maternal factors as
well as pregnancy, delivery, and neonatal complications with the risks of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental
disorders (depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, suicide, schizophrenia, anorexia nervosa, autism, intellectual
disability, epilepsy, and cerebral palsy). We will pursue complementary analytic approaches to strengthen
causal inference including studies of exposure change between pregnancies, matched sibling case-control
studies, full mother-sibling pairs case-control studies, and mediation analyses. The Swedish nation-wide
registries constitute the largest and most complete data source worldwide to address these questions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9886282
- **Project number:** 5R21MH120824-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** EDUARDO VILLAMOR
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $174,410
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-03-05 → 2022-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9886282

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9886282, Prenatal and Neonatal Risk Factors for Adverse Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Childhood and Early Adulthood (5R21MH120824-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9886282. Licensed CC0.

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