Does Prenatal Famine Cause Later Antisocial Behaviors?

To the Editor: Dr Neugebauer and colleagues¹ relate the development of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in early adulthood to the effects of nutritional deprivation during pregnancy in a Dutch cohort and hypothesize a neurodevelopmental explanation. The authors have likewise, in the past, suggested higher risks for schizophrenia² and affective disorders³ with severe prenatal food deprivation in the Netherlands during the German blockade in World War II. Other studies have suggested similar causation for development of obesity in adulthood, decreased glucose tolerance in middle age, altered patterns of birth weight distribution in second-generation offspring (which Neugebauer et al quote), as well as coronary heart disease and hypertension in both humans and animal models.^4-5

The diseases or disorders associated with the lack of adequate diet during pregnancy are wide and varied and are multifactorial in nature. Also, these effects are not specific. The prenatal nutritional deprivation …