ORLANDO FLA – Pre- and postnatal depression in women influences neuroendocrine function in their infants, Laura R. Stroud, Ph.D., reported at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.
Prenatal depression, reported in approximately 10% of all pregnant women, has been linked with deficits in infants such as attenuated response to social stimuli, excessive crying, increased sleep problems, and lower vagal tone. Moreover, women with prenatal depression are also at increased risk for postnatal depression, which has also been linked to adverse effects in infants. Little is known about the influence of pre- and early postnatal depression on infant neuroendocrine functioning, said Dr. Stroud of Brown University, Providence, R.I.
In the first of two studies, cortisol responses to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) were measured in 1- to 2-day-old newborns of 49 nondepressed mothers and 13 mothers who scored high for depression (greater than 11) on the Beck Depression Inventory before delivery.
Baseline and poststress cortisol responses were significantly attenuated among the infants of the depressed mothers, compared with those of nondepressed mothers. These results persisted after maternal age, smoking, birth weight, and alcohol use were factored in, Dr. Stroud reported.
In a second study involving 62 different mother-infant pairs, scores higher than 17 on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale, which was used to evaluate postnatal depressive symptoms, were a better predictor than high prenatal depression of cortisol responses to stress in infants at 10-30 days of life. The 13 infants of mothers with high postnatal depression scores showed attenuated baseline but elevated poststress cortisol responses, compared with those of nondepressed mothers.
This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.