BDNF and Iron deficiency anemia: Neonatal iron deficiency anemia has been shown to induce such effects on targeted genes (e.g., BDNF) and also on networks of genes that are associated with psychopathologies such as schizophrenia and autism (Tran, Kennedy, Lien, Simmons, & Georgieff, 2014; Tran et al., 2016).