The older the father, the higher the risk of head problems in children
Later fatherhood harms the child's psyche
This is reported in JAMA Psychiatry by researchers from Indiana University (USA) and the Karolinska Institute (Sweden), who analyzed data on 2.6 million Swedish children who were born from 1973 to 2001 (D'Onofrio et al., Paternal Age at Childbearing and Offspring Psychiatric and Academic Morbidity).
Scientists have tried to understand how the age of the father at the moment when he had a child affects the mental development of the latter. And when they compared the children of 20-24-year–old fathers with the offspring of those who are 45, it turned out that the latter have a 3.5–fold increased risk of autism, a 13-fold increase in the likelihood of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a 24-fold increase in the likelihood of developing manic-depressive disorder.
94-year-old Indian Ramjit Raghav (Ramjit Raghav) claims to be the oldest father in the world – BM.
In addition, later fatherhood is fraught with the development of psychoses, suicidal moods, the appearance of drug addiction in children, not to mention the fact that such children do not do very well at school and often remain ignorant. Not only the scale of the study (2.6 million children!) speaks in favor of the fact that these data are correct, but also the fact that the medical histories of brothers and sisters were included in the analysis: this made it possible to assess the influence of the father's age within the same family. In addition, the mental state could be affected by the order of birth (the fact that one child appeared after another), and in order to cut off this factor, the researchers separately analyzed the stories of cousins who were born at different times.
This is not the first time scientists have found a connection between the health of children and the age at which they were born by dad and mom. However, traditionally, more attention was still paid to late motherhood - apparently due to the fact that the mother needed not just to conceive, but also to endure, and the age of the father somehow faded into the background. In recent years, however, science has also reached fathers, and this is again not the first work linking the age of the father with mental risks for the child (we once reported in this regard about manic-depressive disorder). But so far, assessments of such risks have not been so daunting.
Although the study did not deal with specific molecular and genetic mechanisms of the phenomenon, it is still possible to guess what is the matter here. As you know, spermatozoa are produced throughout life, and with age, mutations transmitted from progenitor cells begin to appear in them. According to some estimates, 36-year-olds have two such mutations in sperm cells, and 50–year-olds have four times more than 20-year-olds. And it is these mutations that can negatively affect the mental development of a child.
At the same time, the researchers analyzed the relationship of mental risks for the child with the age of the mother. Here, too, it turned out that the older the mother, the higher the risk of autism, bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder in the child. (However, in terms of drug addiction and academic success, mature motherhood, according to some reports, can be very useful).
Scientists, of course, have yet to find out what mechanisms work here, but, anyway, this disturbing information should already be brought to the consciousness of those who are thinking about children, but constantly postpone it.
Prepared based on the materials of Indiana University:
IU study ties father's age at childbearing to higher rates of psychiatric, academic problems in kids.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru28.02.2014