Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Department of Chicano/Latino Studies, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2023 Oct;35(4):1997-2010. doi: 10.1017/S0954579422000621. Epub 2022 Aug 19.
Maternal depressive symptoms in pregnancy may affect offspring health through prenatal programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The biological mechanisms that explain the associations between maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and offspring HPA axis regulation are not yet clear. This pre-registered investigation examines whether patterns of maternal depressive symptoms in pregnancy are associated with infant cortisol reactivity and whether this association is mediated by changes in placental corticotropin-releasing hormone (pCRH).
A sample of 174 pregnant women completed assessments in early, mid, and late pregnancy that included standardized measures of depressive symptoms and blood samples for pCRH. Infant cortisol reactivity was assessed at 1 and 6 months of age.
Greater increases in maternal depressive symptoms in pregnancy were associated with higher cortisol infant cortisol reactivity at 1 and 6 months. Greater increases in maternal depressive symptoms in pregnancy were associated with greater increases in pCRH from early to late pregnancy which in turn were associated with higher infant cortisol reactivity.
Increases in maternal depressive symptoms and pCRH over pregnancy may contribute to higher infant cortisol reactivity. These findings help to elucidate the prenatal biopsychosocial processes contributing to offspring HPA axis regulation early in development.
孕妇的抑郁症状可能会通过下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴的产前编程影响后代的健康。然而，尚不清楚解释孕妇产前抑郁症状与后代 HPA 轴调节之间关联的生物学机制。本预先注册的研究旨在探讨孕妇在孕期的抑郁症状模式是否与婴儿皮质醇反应性相关，以及这种关联是否通过胎盘促肾上腺皮质激素释放激素（pCRH）的变化来介导。
174 名孕妇完成了早期、中期和晚期孕期的评估，包括抑郁症状的标准化测量和 pCRH 的血液样本。在 1 个月和 6 个月时评估婴儿的皮质醇反应性。
孕期中母亲抑郁症状的增加与婴儿在 1 个月和 6 个月时的皮质醇反应性升高有关。孕期中母亲抑郁症状的增加与从早期到晚期孕期 pCRH 的增加有关，而 pCRH 的增加与婴儿皮质醇反应性的升高有关。
孕期中母亲抑郁症状和 pCRH 的增加可能导致婴儿皮质醇反应性升高。这些发现有助于阐明产前生物心理社会过程对后代 HPA 轴调节的影响。
