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Depression in pregnancy may affect offspring behavior, stress response
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Researchers from King’s College London found that offspring born to mothers with major depressive disorder in pregnancy showed altered behavior and biological stress response compared with those born to healthy mothers.
These behavioral and biological changes were linked to maternal depression-induced inflammation, according to findings published in Psychoneuroendocrinology.
“The importance of research on the topic of depression in pregnancy and the effect on the offspring is two-fold,” Sarah Osborne, PhD, senior research associate, section of perinatal psychiatry, division of psychological medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, told Healio Psychiatry.
“Firstly, depression in pregnancy is common (approximately 10% of women), so it is important to understand any negative consequences for both mother and child,” she continued. “Secondly, this type of research informs on possible mechanisms of developmental programming — the hypothesis that adversity in the environment of a developing organism affects the subsequent developmental trajectory. This is an important and much researched area, concerned with understanding the molecular origins of health and disease.”
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Using a prospective longitudinal design, researchers examined the effect of maternal MDD and associated antenatal biology — inflammatory and cortisol biomarkers — on offspring stress response at 8 weeks and at 12 months, early neurobehavior at day 6 and cognitive, language and motor development at 12 months. The investigators assessed blood samples taken from women — 49 with depression and 57 healthy controls — at 27 weeks’ gestation to measure inflammation; saliva samples were taken at 32 weeks’ and cortisol levels were also measured, according to the press release.
The results showed that infants born to mothers with major depression in pregnancy showed altered behavior soon after birth, as measured on the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale at day 6 and showed increased cortisol response to stress at 1 year of age (P < .001), compared with those born to healthy mothers. Compared with healthy women, those with major depression in pregnancy had increased:
- interleukin (IL) IL-6 (P = .031);
- IL-10 (P = .043);
- tumor necrosis factor alpha (P = .003);
- vascular endothelial growth factor (P = .008);
- diurnal cortisol secretion (P = .006); and
- evening cortisol (P = .004).
Women with MDD in pregnancy also had blunted cortisol awakening response (P = .02) and an 8-day shorter gestation period (P = .005) compared with healthy controls. Osborne and colleagues also found that maternal inflammatory biomarkers and cortisol levels correlated with infant stress response, which suggests a mechanistic link.
“Our study provides preliminary evidence of some important negative consequences of depression in pregnancy on both maternal and offspring stress-related biology in addition to neonatal neurobehavior,” Osborne told Healio Psychiatry. “Although it requires replication in a larger sample, our study will highlight the importance of active screening for depression in pregnancy and will inform risk-benefit decisions when deciding upon the treatment of depression in pregnancy.” – by Savannah Demko
Disclosures: Osborne reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.