MATERNAL EXPOSURE TO STRESSFUL/TRAUMATIC EVENTS AND AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS IN OFFSPRING: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS OF A CASE CONTROL PILOT STUDY.

The correlation between maternal exposure to stressful and traumatic events during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring has been studied in the literature. Fewer studies, however, have considered the mother's exposure to traumatic events during childhood. This work focuses on maternal exposure to these events in childhood and/or adulthood, relating it to autism spectrum disorder in offspring. A questionnaire was used to assess whether and to what type of event the mothers have been exposed, and to assess eventual peri-traumatic dissociation related to the traumatic event. The mothers involved in this study were recruited at the Child Neuropsychiatry Outpatient Clinic of…