College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
BMC Pediatr. 2023 Oct 28;23(1):540. doi: 10.1186/s12887-023-04372-9.
Prior studies have reported conflicting results regarding the association of prenatal maternal depression with offspring cortisol levels. We examined associations of high levels of prenatal depressive symptoms with child cortisol biomarkers.
In Project Viva (n = 925, Massachusetts USA), mothers reported their depressive symptoms using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) during pregnancy, cord blood glucocorticoids were measured at delivery, and child hair cortisol levels were measured in mid-childhood (mean (SD) age: 7.8 (0.8) years) and early adolescence (mean (SD) age: 13.2 (0.9) years). In the Generation R Study (n = 1644, Rotterdam, The Netherlands), mothers reported depressive symptoms using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) during pregnancy, and child hair cortisol was measured at a mean (SD) age of 6.0 (0.5) years. We used cutoffs of ≥ 13 for the EPDS and > 0.75 for the BSI to indicate high levels of prenatal depressive symptoms. We used multivariable linear regression models adjusted for child sex and age (at outcome), and maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, education, social support from friends/family, pregnancy smoking status, marital status, and household income to assess associations separately in each cohort. We also meta-analyzed childhood hair cortisol results from both cohorts.
8.0% and 5.1% of women respectively experienced high levels of prenatal depressive symptoms in Project Viva and the Generation R Study. We found no associations between high levels of maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy and child cortisol biomarkers in either cohort.
The present study does not find support for the direct link between high levels of maternal depressive symptoms and offspring cortisol levels.
先前的研究报告了产前母亲抑郁与后代皮质醇水平之间关联的相互矛盾的结果。我们研究了产前抑郁症状与儿童皮质醇生物标志物之间的关联。
在 Viva 项目（美国马萨诸塞州，n=925）中，母亲在怀孕期间使用爱丁堡产后抑郁量表（EPDS）报告其抑郁症状，在分娩时测量脐带血糖皮质激素，在儿童中期（平均（SD）年龄：7.8（0.8）岁）和青少年早期（平均（SD）年龄：13.2（0.9）岁）测量儿童头发皮质醇水平。在 Generation R 研究（荷兰鹿特丹，n=1644）中，母亲在怀孕期间使用简明症状量表（BSI）报告抑郁症状，儿童头发皮质醇在平均（SD）年龄 6.0（0.5）岁时测量。我们使用 EPDS 的≥13 和 BSI 的>0.75 作为产前抑郁症状水平较高的标准。我们使用多变量线性回归模型，根据儿童性别和年龄（在结果时）以及母亲孕前 BMI、教育、来自朋友/家人的社会支持、孕期吸烟状况、婚姻状况和家庭收入进行调整，分别在每个队列中评估关联。我们还对两个队列的儿童头发皮质醇结果进行了荟萃分析。
Viva 项目和 Generation R 研究中分别有 8.0%和 5.1%的女性经历了产前抑郁症状水平较高的情况。我们在两个队列中均未发现母亲怀孕期间高水平抑郁症状与儿童皮质醇生物标志物之间存在关联。
本研究不支持母亲高水平抑郁症状与后代皮质醇水平之间的直接联系。
