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Commentary: How can family‐based quasi‐experimental designs and national registers be used to address confounding in risk factor studies of psychopathology? A reflection on Obel et al. (2016)
Author(s) -
Larsson Henrik
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/jcpp.12519
Subject(s) - confounding , psychopathology , sibling , psychology , observational study , offspring , risk factor , pregnancy , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , psychiatry , medicine , pathology , biology , genetics
Standard observational studies have reported a robust correlation between maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk of ADHD in offspring. In the accompanying article, Obel et al. used sibling‐comparisons to explore the extent to which unmeasured familial confounding explains this association. This commentary highlights three important implications of the study. At a general level, Obel et al. illustrates how (1) family‐based quasi‐experimental designs and (2) national registers can be used to address confounding in risk factor studies of psychopathology. At a more specific level, the study suggests that maternal smoking during pregnancy is probably not a causal risk factor for ADHD .