University of Southampton.
St. John's Medical College Hospital.
Dev Psychopathol. 2018 Aug;30(3):725-742. doi: 10.1017/S0954579418000615.
This article extends the research focusing on the early origins of psychopathology into the prenatal period, by exploring the association between maternal prenatal depression and offspring (fetal and infant) neurobehavior. The sample is recruited from a rural population in South India where women in the third trimester of pregnancy were assessed for depression and the heart rate responses of their fetuses to extrinsically applied vibroacoustic stimuli were studied. At 2 months postbirth, infant temperament and cortisol responsivity to immunization were assessed. The association between maternal prenatal depression and fetal responsivity to vibroacoustic stimulation, and infant responsivity to immunization, was U shaped with higher levels of responsivity noted in the offspring of mothers with very high and very low depression scores, and lower levels noted in the offspring of mothers with moderate depression scores. Maternal prenatal depression was not associated with infant temperament. The findings highlight the importance of environmental influences in the developmental origins of neurobehavior, suggesting that such differences, not evident at baseline, may emerge upon exposure to stressors. The study also emphasizes the need for further investigation in low- and middle-income contexts by providing preliminary evidence of the differing patterns of association observed between high- and low-income populations.
本文将关注精神病理学早期起源的研究扩展到产前阶段，探索母体产前抑郁与后代（胎儿和婴儿）神经行为之间的关系。该样本是从印度南部的一个农村地区招募的，在那里对怀孕第三个三个月的妇女进行了抑郁评估，并研究了她们胎儿对外部施加的振动声刺激的心率反应。在出生后 2 个月，评估了婴儿的气质和对免疫接种的皮质醇反应性。母体产前抑郁与胎儿对振动声刺激的反应性以及婴儿对免疫接种的反应性之间呈 U 形相关，在抑郁评分非常高和非常低的母亲的后代中观察到更高的反应性，而在抑郁评分中等的母亲的后代中观察到较低的反应性。母体产前抑郁与婴儿气质无关。研究结果强调了环境影响在神经行为发展起源中的重要性，表明这些在基线时不明显的差异可能在暴露于应激源时出现。该研究还强调了在低收入和中等收入环境中进一步调查的必要性，为观察到的高收入和低收入人群之间的关联模式提供了初步证据。
