Longitudinal neuroprotective effects of periconceptional folic acid supplements in help-seeking youth with psychiatric symptoms and healthy controls

产前环境大大增加了可能出现的严重精神疾病的风险 出生后几十年。因此，产前生活可能是以降低风险的方式进行干预的有利时机。 事实上，最近的公共卫生研究中重复的强有力证据表明，产前早期暴露于 叶酸可以降低大约50%的自闭症风险。此外，我们最近的工作增加了 胎儿暴露于全人群叶酸强化的谷物产品中，大脑发生特异性变化 发育，特征是青春期大脑皮层延迟变薄， 降低精神病症状的风险。这些变化在以下地区最为明显： 额顶叶控制和边缘系统网络，这些网络广泛涉及精神疾病的各个类别。 疾病，特别是与健康成人和患有癌症的患者血液叶酸水平的变化有关。 精神分裂症。这些发现是前所未有的，

The prenatal environment contributes substantially to risk for serious mental illnesses that can emerge decades after birth. As such, prenatal life may be a propitious time to intervene in ways that reduce risk. Indeed, replicated, robust evidence from recent public health studies associates early prenatal exposure to folic acid with an approximately 50% reduction in autism risk. Further, our recent work associated increased fetal exposure to population-wide folic acid fortification of grain products with specific changes in brain development, characterized by delayed thinning of the cerebral cortex during adolescence and associated reduction in risk for psychosis symptoms. These changes were most pronounced in regions subserving frontoparietal control and limbic networks, which have been broadly implicated across categories of psychiatric illness, and specifically linked to variation in blood folate levels in healthy adults and patients with schizophrenia by our group. These findings are unprecedented, and of potentially substantial