Department of Radiology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, United States.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, United States.
Cereb Cortex. 2023 Jul 5;33(14):8980-8989. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhad176.
Depression during pregnancy is common and the prevalence further increased during the COVID pandemic. Recent findings have shown potential impact of antenatal depression on children's neurodevelopment and behavior, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Nor is it clear whether mild depressive symptoms among pregnant women would impact the developing brain. In this study, 40 healthy pregnant women had their depressive symptoms evaluated by the Beck Depression Inventory-II at ~12, ~24, and ~36 weeks of pregnancy, and their healthy full-term newborns underwent a brain MRI without sedation including resting-state fMRI for evaluation of functional connectivity development. The relationships between functional connectivities and maternal Beck Depression Inventory-II scores were evaluated by Spearman's rank partial correlation tests using appropriate multiple comparison correction with newborn's gender and gestational age at birth controlled. Significant negative correlations were identified between neonatal brain functional connectivity and mother's Beck Depression Inventory-II scores in the third trimester, but not in the first or second trimester. Higher depressive symptoms during the third trimester of pregnancy were associated with lower neonatal brain functional connectivity in the frontal lobe and between frontal/temporal lobe and occipital lobe, indicating a potential impact of maternal depressive symptoms on offspring brain development, even in the absence of clinical depression.
怀孕期间抑郁很常见，而在 COVID 大流行期间其患病率进一步增加。最近的研究结果表明，产前抑郁可能对儿童的神经发育和行为产生影响，但潜在机制尚不清楚。孕妇的轻度抑郁症状是否会影响发育中的大脑也不清楚。在这项研究中，40 名健康孕妇在妊娠约 12、24 和 36 周时使用 Beck 抑郁量表 II 评估其抑郁症状，其健康足月新生儿在无需镇静的情况下进行脑部 MRI 检查，包括静息态 fMRI 以评估功能连接发育。使用新生儿性别和出生时的胎龄进行适当的多次比较校正，通过 Spearman 秩相关部分相关检验评估功能连接性与母亲 Beck 抑郁量表 II 评分之间的关系。在第三个孕期，新生儿大脑功能连接与母亲 Beck 抑郁量表 II 评分之间存在显著的负相关，但在第一个或第二个孕期没有这种相关性。在妊娠第三个孕期时，抑郁症状越严重，新生儿额叶及额叶/颞叶与枕叶之间的大脑功能连接越低，表明母亲抑郁症状对后代大脑发育可能有潜在影响，即使没有临床抑郁。
