Savoca Paul W, Glynn Laura M, Fox Molly M, Richards Misty C, Callaghan Bridget L
Department of Psychology, University of California, Psychology Building 1285, Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
Department of Psychology, Chapman University, Orange, USA.
Arch Womens Ment Health. 2025 Feb;28(1):15-24. doi: 10.1007/s00737-024-01504-7. Epub 2024 Aug 19.
Pregnancy is a sensitive period of development in adult life characterized by massive changes in physical, emotional, and cognitive function. Such changes may be adaptive, e.g., facilitating adjustment to physical demands, but they may also reflect or contribute to risks inherent to this stage of life, e.g., prenatal depression. One cognitive ability that may undergo change during pregnancy and contribute to mental wellness is interoception - the ability to perceive, integrate, and model sensory information originating from the body. Strong interoceptive abilities are associated with lower rates of depression in non-pregnant adult populations, and interoception is generally weaker in individuals at higher risk for depression, for example, exposure to early life adversity (ELA). In the present online, cross-sectional study, we investigated whether interoception in pregnant women differed based on histories of ELA, in ways that increased their relative risk for prenatal depression symptoms.
The pregnant individuals were in the second trimester of their first pregnancy and were compared to a group of nulliparous, non-parenting women.
Previous exposure to ELA significantly moderated pregnancy-related differences in self-reported interoception (interoceptive sensibility). A further moderated-mediation analysis revealed that the extent to which interoceptive sensibility buffered against depressive symptoms was conditional on ELA exposure, suggesting more ELA is associated with lower interoceptive sensibility during pregnancy, which increased prenatal depression risk.
Together this work suggests that levels of interoception during pregnancy are sensitive to previous adversity exposure. It also suggests that interoceptive-focused interventions for preventing/treating prenatal depressive symptoms in high-risk women may be worth exploring.
孕期是成年生活中一个敏感的发育阶段，其特点是身体、情绪和认知功能发生巨大变化。这些变化可能具有适应性，例如有助于适应身体需求，但它们也可能反映或促成这一生命阶段固有的风险，例如产前抑郁。一种可能在孕期发生变化并有助于心理健康的认知能力是内感受——感知、整合和模拟源自身体的感觉信息的能力。在未怀孕的成年人群中，较强的内感受能力与较低的抑郁发生率相关，而在抑郁风险较高的个体中，例如经历过早期生活逆境（ELA）的个体，内感受通常较弱。在本项在线横断面研究中，我们调查了孕妇的内感受是否因ELA经历的不同而有所差异，以及这些差异是否会增加她们出现产前抑郁症状的相对风险。
将处于首次怀孕中期的孕妇与一组未生育、未养育子女的女性进行比较。
既往暴露于ELA显著调节了自我报告的内感受（内感受敏感性）方面与怀孕相关的差异。进一步的调节中介分析表明，内感受敏感性缓冲抑郁症状的程度取决于ELA暴露情况，这表明更多的ELA与孕期较低的内感受敏感性相关，从而增加了产前抑郁风险。
综合这项研究结果表明，孕期的内感受水平对既往的逆境暴露很敏感。这也表明，针对高危女性预防/治疗产前抑郁症状的以内感受为重点的干预措施可能值得探索。
