Nutritional Supplements During Gestation and Autism Spectrum Disorder: What Do We Really Know and How Far Have We Gone?

Abstract

Nutritional interventions are gaining remarkable attention as complementary management options for autism. Our aim is to provide literature data about the impact of the administration of dietary supplements during pregnancy on the risk of autism spectrum disorder in the offspring. A comprehensive search was undertaken by 2 reviewers independently using PubMed as the medical database source. Prospective clinical and experimental studies were considered and no year-of-publication restriction was placed. We were able to identify 4 basic (conducted in rodents) and 3 clinical research papers fulfilling our selection criteria. Supplements studied included folic acid, iron, multivitamins, choline, vitamin D, and docosahexaenoic acid. Choline and folic acid had a significant impact on the expression of autism-related genes. However, from a clinical point of view, prenatal folate administration did not reduce the risk of autism. Similarly, iron had no significant impact, while the use of multivitamins in moderate frequency had a protective effect. The use of vitamin D and docosahexaenoic acid during gestation decreased the incidence of autism in animal models. In conclusion, available data are controversial and cannot change current routine practice. More large-scale prospective studies are needed to identify the real effect of nutritional supplements and also optimize their administration.

Key teaching points

• Multivitamins use during pregnancy can exert a protective effect on the risk of autism, although depending on the frequency of use. Nevertheless, prenatal iron and folate were not shown to have any significant impact.

• Research based on animal models showed that choline and folic acid can have a significant impact on the expression of autism-related genes in a sex-specific manner.

• Furthermore, the use of vitamin D and docosahexaenoic acid during gestation seem to decrease the incidence of autism in animal offspring.

• In the future, more clinical, large-scale prospective and methodologically homogenous clinical studies are needed to further investigate the effect of the periconceptional use of nutritional supplements on autism risk.

Keywords:

• Children
• preventative nutrition and chronic disease
• general nutrition
• vitamin D
• supplements and functional foods