Immunological and other biological correlates of the impact of antenatal depression on the mother-infant relationship

The mitigation efforts of COVID-19 have led to significant changes to the delivery of routine healthcare globally. In Australia, the way maternal health services have been delivered since the beginning of the pandemic has also changed. Maternity care and support are known to influence maternal mental health. One hundred and eighty-eight English speaking pregnant women residing in Australia were recruited using social media advertising between September and November 2020 as part of a larger study. Participants were aged between 19 and 42 (M = 31.05, SD = 4.68). Compared with previous Australian prevalence rates of around 7% for antenatal depression, rates in this study were 15.9% overall and 19% for those in Melbourne. It is suggested that increased vigilance with screening and assessment will be required to identify and support this cohort of mothers who are not coping.

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Depressive symptoms in early pregnancy disrupt attentional processing of infant emotion

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291709990961 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 40 (4) ◽

pp. 621-631 ◽

Cited By ~ 71

Author(s):

R. M. Pearson ◽

R. M. Cooper ◽

I. S. Penton-Voak ◽

S. L. Lightman ◽

J. Evans

Keyword(s):

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Perinatal Depression ◽

Antenatal Depression ◽

Interview Schedule ◽

Attentional Processing ◽

Infant Outcomes ◽

Community Midwives ◽

Infant Faces ◽

The Impact

BackgroundGrowing evidence suggests that perinatal depression is associated with disrupted mother–infant interactions and poor infant outcomes. Antenatal depression may play a key role in this cycle by disrupting the development of a maternal response to infant stimuli. The current study therefore investigated the impact of depressive symptoms on the basic cognitive processing of infant stimuli at the beginning of pregnancy.MethodA total of 101 women were recruited by community midwives and tested at an average gestation of 11 weeks. An established computerized paradigm measured women's ability to disengage attention from infant and adult faces displaying negative positive and neutral emotions. Depressive symptoms were measured using a computerized interview (the Clinical Interview Schedule).ResultsThe effect of infant emotion on women's ability to disengage from infant faces was found to be influenced by depressive symptoms. Non-depressed pregnant women took longer to disengage attention from distressed compared with non-distressed infant faces. This bias was not, however, seen in women experiencing depressive symptoms. There was a difference of −53 (s.d.=0.7) ms (95% confidence interval −90 to −14, p=0.007) between those with and without depressive symptoms in this measure of attentional bias towards distressed infant faces.ConclusionsOur results suggest that depressive symptoms are already associated with differential attentional processing of infant emotion at the very beginning of childbearing. The findings have potential implications for our understanding of the impact of depressive symptoms during pregnancy on the developing mother–infant relationship.

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Midwives' role in screening for antenatal depression and postnatal depression

British Journal of Midwifery ◽

10.12968/bjom.2020.28.9.666 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 28 (9) ◽

pp. 666-672

Author(s):

Caroline Joy Hollins Martin ◽

Gail Norris ◽

Colin Robert Martin

Keyword(s):

Postnatal Depression ◽

Clinical Importance ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Antenatal Depression ◽

Self Report ◽

Depression Screening ◽

Mental Health Team ◽

Screening Questionnaires ◽

The Uk ◽

The Impact

This is an educational paper which aims to inform midwives of tools available to help them make appropriate provisional diagnosis of perinatal depression. A second aim of the paper is to increase midwives' awareness of the relatively newer diagnosis of antenatal depression (AND). Of additional clinical importance, midwives need to recognise that postnatal depression (PND) may be a continuation of AND. To date, screening for AND has received relatively little attention compared with PND, with the evidence-base supporting that the impact can be as severe. It is important for midwives to know that screening for AND can be undertaken using valid and reliable psychometric self-report depression screening questionnaires which have known validity characteristics and threshold cut-off scores. There are several of these tools available to help midwives make the decision about whether or not to refer the women to the mental health team. Current practice in the UK involves the midwife asking an initial short two-item ‘Whooley Question’ screen which, if indicates depression, can be followed up by the women completing a self-report depression screening questionnaire. To highlight their availability, a selection of valid and reliable psychometric self-report depression screening questionnaires are discussed herein, with it being important for midwives to develop a toolkit that can be given to women at clinics, in pamphlets, online or embedded into mobile applications.

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Maternal antenatal depression and child mental health: Moderation by genomic risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579420001418 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (5) ◽

pp. 1810-1821

Author(s):

Lawrence M. Chen ◽

Marieke S. Tollenaar ◽

Shantala A. Hari Dass ◽

Andrée-Anne Bouvette-Turcot ◽

Irina Pokhvisneva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Attention Deficit ◽

Child Mental Health ◽

Antenatal Depression ◽

Synaptic Function ◽

Polygenic Risk Score ◽

Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Novel Approach ◽

The Impact

AbstractMaternal antenatal depression strongly influences child mental health but with considerable inter-individual variation that is, in part, linked to genotype. The challenge is to effectively capture the genotypic influence. We outline a novel approach to describe genomic susceptibility to maternal antenatal depression focusing on child emotional/behavioral difficulties. Two cohorts provided measures of maternal depression, child genetic variation, and child mental health symptoms. We constructed a conventional polygenic risk score (PRS) for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (PRSADHD) that significantly moderated the association between maternal antenatal depression and internalizing problems at 60 months (p = 2.94 × 10−4, R2 = .18). We then constructed an interaction PRS (xPRS) based on a subset of those single nucleotide polymorphisms from the PRSADHD that most accounted for the moderation of the association between maternal antenatal depression and child outcome. The interaction between maternal antenatal depression and this xPRS accounted for a larger proportion of the variance in child emotional/behavioral problems than models based on any PRSADHD (p = 5.50 × 10−9, R2 = .27), with similar findings in the replication cohort. The xPRS was significantly enriched for genes involved in neuronal development and synaptic function. Our study illustrates a novel approach to the study of genotypic moderation on the impact of maternal antenatal depression on child mental health and highlights the utility of the xPRS approach. These findings advance our understanding of individual differences in the developmental origins of mental health.

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A novel murine model to study the impact of maternal depression and antidepressant treatment on biobehavioral functions in the offspring

Molecular Psychiatry ◽

10.1038/s41380-021-01145-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Joseph Scarborough ◽

Flavia S. Mueller ◽

Ulrike Weber-Stadlbauer ◽

Daniele Mattei ◽

Lennart Opitz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Isolation ◽

Antidepressant Treatment ◽

Antenatal Depression ◽

Model System ◽

Experimental Investigations ◽

Obstetric Outcomes ◽

Molecular Abnormalities ◽

Socially Isolated ◽

The Impact

AbstractAntenatal psychopathology negatively affects obstetric outcomes and exerts long-term consequences on the offspring’s wellbeing and mental health. However, the precise mechanisms underlying these associations remain largely unknown. Here, we present a novel model system in mice that allows for experimental investigations into the effects of antenatal depression-like psychopathology and for evaluating the influence of maternal pharmacological treatments on long-term outcomes in the offspring. This model system in based on rearing nulliparous female mice in social isolation prior to mating, leading to a depressive-like state that is initiated before and continued throughout pregnancy. Using this model, we show that the maternal depressive-like state induced by social isolation can be partially rescued by chronic treatment with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, fluoxetine (FLX). Moreover, we identify numerous and partly sex-dependent behavioral and molecular abnormalities, including increased anxiety-like behavior, cognitive impairments and alterations of the amygdalar transcriptome, in offspring born to socially isolated mothers relative to offspring born to mothers that were maintained in social groups prior to conception. We also found that maternal FLX treatment was effective in preventing some of the behavioral and molecular abnormalities emerging in offspring born to socially isolated mothers. Taken together, our findings suggest that the presence of a depressive-like state during preconception and pregnancy has sex-dependent consequences on brain and behavioral functions in the offspring. At the same time, our study highlights that FLX treatment in dams with a depression-like state can prevent abnormal behavioral development in the offspring.

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The Impact of Antenatal Depression on Perinatal Outcomes in Australian Women

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0169907 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. e0169907 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

John Eastwood ◽

Felix A. Ogbo ◽

Alexandra Hendry ◽

Justine Noble ◽

Andrew Page ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Perinatal Outcomes ◽

Antenatal Depression ◽

The Impact

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The impact of antenatal depression on pregnancy outcomes in women with gestational diabetes mellitus and normal glucose tolerant women

Endocrine Abstracts ◽

10.1530/endoabs.71.020 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Minschart Caro ◽

De Weerdt Kyara ◽

Elegeert Astrid ◽

Van Crombrugge Paul ◽

Moyson Carolien ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Diabetes Mellitus ◽

Gestational Diabetes ◽

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus ◽

Pregnancy Outcomes ◽

Antenatal Depression ◽

Normal Glucose Tolerant ◽

Normal Glucose ◽

Glucose Tolerant ◽

The Impact

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Antenatal depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study in pregnant women from routine health care contact in Greece

Journal of Perinatal Medicine ◽

10.1515/jpm-2020-0473 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Ioannis Tsakiridis ◽

Themistoklis Dagklis ◽

Apostolos Mamopoulos ◽

Apostolos Athanasiadis ◽

Rebecca Pearson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pregnant Women ◽

Trait Anxiety ◽

Unplanned Pregnancy ◽

Depression Scale ◽

Population Level ◽

Antenatal Depression ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

The State ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

The Impact

Abstract Objectives The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the public health measures introduced to control it, on mental health, is largely unknown. Research conducted during past epidemics found that pregnant women are more vulnerable psychologically. The aim of this study was to investigate antenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms during this pandemic in Greece. Methods All women receiving routine antenatal care, during a three-month period, starting one week after the total lockdown in Greece, in a University department, were asked to fill in two questionnaires, the Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Results Overall, 505 women (93.3% of the eligible population) agreed to participate. The prevalence of antenatal depression (EPDS score≥13) in the population of the study was 13.5%. Unplanned pregnancy (OR: 2.447; 95% CI: 1.235–4.846), smoking (OR: 2.268; 95% CI: 1.166–4.411) and antenatal anxiety (OR: 5.074; 95% CI: 2.898–8.883) increased the risk of antenatal depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. State (current)-anxiety affected 34.1% of the participants, whereas Trait (lifetime)-anxiety affected 15.8%. The State-anxiety score (median) was significantly higher than the Trait-anxiety (median) (41 vs. 36; p<0.001), revealing an increase in the levels of anxiety in the pandemic, while there was also a positive linear correlation between the two scales (rho=0.592; p<0.001). Conclusions The unprecedented situation of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased anxiety, but not depression levels of pregnant women in Greece. Population level interventions to address adverse effects on anxiety status in the initial phases of similar situations may be helpful in the future.

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Formation of Lunar Craters and Bright Rays as a Result of Meteorite Impacts

Symposium - International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s0074180900178404 ◽

1962 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

pp. 415-418

Author(s):

K. P. Stanyukovich ◽

V. A. Bronshten

Keyword(s):

Explosive Charge ◽

The Moon ◽

Meteorite Impacts ◽

The Earth ◽

Lunar Craters ◽

The Impact

The phenomena accompanying the impact of large meteorites on the surface of the Moon or of the Earth can be examined on the basis of the theory of explosive phenomena if we assume that, instead of an exploding meteorite moving inside the rock, we have an explosive charge (equivalent in energy), situated at a certain distance under the surface.

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