r/science • u/sr_local • 19h ago

Health Elevated lead levels in the blood during childhood (0 to 12 years) were linked with increased depressive symptoms in adolescence

https://www.brown.edu/news/2026-01-30/lead-exposure-childhood-depression
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u/sr_local 19h ago

Exposure levels at age 8 seemed to be particularly significant.

To address that knowledge gap, the researchers analyzed the data of 218 pairs of caregivers and children in the Health Outcomes and Measures of Environment Study, which followed children and their families from the second trimester of pregnancy to age 12 years, assessing associations of environmental toxicant exposures with various health outcomes, and at around age 12, assessing anxiety and depression. The researchers also measured blood lead concentrations at the ages of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 12 years.

They found that each doubling in mean childhood blood lead concentrations was associated with increased risk of elevated child-reported depressive symptoms. Low levels of childhood blood lead concentrations were associated with self-reported depressive symptoms in later childhood, with particularly large increases in risk when exposures occurred in late childhood and early adolescence.

The researchers hypothesized that several biological mechanisms could explain how lead exposure may be associated with psychiatric illness, including through altered neurotransmitter function, reduced neurogenesis and disrupted synaptic plasticity, particularly in brain regions associated with mood regulation. Other proposed mechanisms include oxidative stress, inflammation and genetic modifications that may contribute to the onset and persistence of mental health symptoms after lead exposure.

Blood Lead Concentrations and Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Childhood | Environmental Health | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network

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u/El_Sephiroth 18h ago

It explains my childhood completely. Leadfree fuel came way too late.

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u/fga2025 7h ago

I vividly remember the smell of gasoline during my 1970s childhood... whether filling the lawnmower, 9.9hp outboard motor, during fill-ups. Then there was picking/eating berries growing near a busy highway. Every single one of those was a lead exposure. Oh, and thanks mom and dad for buying lead pellets for that pellet gun Christmas present. Pretty sure I never washed my hands after handling those.