Editorial: A Special Tree in the Forest: From Oak to Acorn to Oak

In this issue of the Journal, Sucksdorff et al.¹ present additional evidence of maternal health and nutrition during pregnancy affecting offspring mental health. In the Finnish National Registry, the authors identified 1,067 cases of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 1,067 matched controls. They found a highly significant negative association between maternal 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in the first half of pregnancy and later diagnoses of ADHD in offspring. The lower the level of vitamin D in mothers, the greater the risk of ADHD in offspring, even after adjusting for maternal age and socioeconomic status (p = .002). This finding confirms what had previously been reported less conclusively and raises several points worthy of comment. Among these are the special characteristics of vitamin D within an array of micronutrients necessary for brain health, development, and function; the possibility that vitamin D levels are markers for general micronutrient insufficiency; the importance of nutrition for maternal mental health in view of the psychological impact of maternal mental state on the child; and the need for further research on brain nutrition, including randomized clinical trials (RCTs).