Prenatal Stress May Have Long-Term Effects

But another presenter in the session urged caution. "I do believe fetuses are sensitive to maternal stress but in a complex way," said Cécile Rousseau, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry at McGill. "In some studies, the more a family has been exposed to stress, the better the kids are doing. We should build complex models because these are huge stresses. Let’s look for links for autism and schizophrenia, but let’s be very, very careful. My gut feeling is there are relationships but this is utterly complex."

The investigators have no commercial relationships.