Placental Barrier and Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Roles of Prolactin and Dopamine in the Developing Fetal Brain-Part II

The inverse relationship between prolactin and dopamine is important in the context of treatment with antipsychotic medications in men and nonpregnant women with thought disorders. Likewise, increased levels of prolactin as confirmation of recent seizure and the reciprocal levels of prolactin and dopamine in both eclampsia (seizures) and pre-eclampsia might have significant potential effects on a growing fetus. In this article, we attempt to outline the influence of these associations on autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in children born to mothers with established diagnoses of eclampsia and/or pre-eclampsia. Our previously published paper, "Placental Barrier and Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Role of Prolactin and Dopamine on the Developing Fetal Brain," summarized evidence for dysregulated dopamine and prolactin levels in the etiology of ASDs and suggested a possible method for assessing whether such aberrations increase the risk of ASDs. The present paper as Part 2 expands on the published data that support this theory and proposes a study design to corroborate this hypothesis.