Huizink Anja C, Robles de Medina Pascale G, Mulder Eduard J H, Visser Gerard H A, Buitelaar Jan K
University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Rudolf Magnus Institute for Neurosciences, Netherlands.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2003 Sep;44(6):810-8. doi: 10.1111/1469-7610.00166.
Animal studies show that prenatal maternal stress may be related to cognitive impairments in offspring. Therefore, we examined whether psychological and endocrinologic measures of stress during human pregnancy predicted developmental outcome of the infant at 3 and 8 months.
Self-report data about daily hassles and pregnancy-specific anxiety and salivary cortisol levels were collected in 170 nulliparous women in early, mid- and late pregnancy in a prospective design, in which healthy infants born at term were followed up after birth.
High levels of pregnancy-specific anxiety in mid-pregnancy predicted lower mental and motor developmental scores at 8 months (p < .05). High amounts of daily hassles in early pregnancy were associated with lower mental developmental scores at 8 months (p < .05). Early morning values of cortisol in late pregnancy were negatively related to both mental and motor development at 3 months (p < .05 and p < .005, respectively) and motor development at 8 months (p < .01). On average a decline of 8 points on the mental and motor development scale was found. All results were adjusted for a large number of covariates.
Stress during pregnancy appears to be one of the determinants of delay in motor and mental development in infants of 8 months of age and may be a risk factor for later developmental problems. Further systematic follow-up of the present sample is needed to determine whether these delays are transient, persistent or even progressive.
动物研究表明，孕期母亲压力可能与后代认知障碍有关。因此，我们研究了人类孕期压力的心理和内分泌指标是否能预测婴儿3个月和8个月时的发育结果。
采用前瞻性设计，收集了170名初产妇在孕早期、中期和晚期的关于日常烦恼、孕期特定焦虑和唾液皮质醇水平的自我报告数据，对足月出生的健康婴儿在出生后进行随访。
孕中期高水平的孕期特定焦虑预测8个月时较低的智力和运动发育评分（p <.05）。孕早期大量的日常烦恼与8个月时较低的智力发育评分相关（p <.05）。孕晚期清晨皮质醇值与3个月时的智力和运动发育均呈负相关（分别为p <.05和p <.005），与8个月时的运动发育呈负相关（p <.01）。在智力和运动发育量表上平均发现下降了8分。所有结果均针对大量协变量进行了调整。
孕期压力似乎是8个月大婴儿运动和智力发育延迟的决定因素之一，可能是后期发育问题的一个风险因素。需要对本样本进行进一步系统的随访，以确定这些延迟是短暂的、持续的还是甚至会进展的。
