Pre- and postnatal maternal depressive symptoms associate with white matter integrity in 5-year-olds in sex-specific manner - Centre for Population Health Research (POPC) - A joint centre by the University of Turku and the municipal authority of the Hospital District of Southwest Finland. The goal of Centre for Population Health Research is to promote health and well-being of society by enhancing research and development work on clinical-epidemiological population research.

Biol Psychiatry. 2023 May 21:S0006-3223(23)01301-X. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.05.014. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Pre- and postnatal maternal psychological distress predicts various detrimental consequences on social, behavioural, and cognitive development of the offspring and especially in girls. Maturation of white matter (WM) continues from prenatal development into adulthood and is thus susceptible to exposures both before and after birth.

METHODS: White matter microstructural features of 130 five-year-olds (mean 5.36, 5.04-5.79 years; 63 girls) and their association with maternal pre- and postnatal depressive and anxiety symptoms were investigated with diffusion tensor imaging, tract-based spatial statistics, and regression analyses. Maternal questionnaires were collected during 1st, 2nd, and 3rd trimesters and at 3, 6 and 12 months postpartum with Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) for depressive symptoms and Symptom Checklist -90 (SCL-90) for general anxiety. The covariates included child’s sex, child’s age, maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, maternal age, socio-economic status, and exposures to smoking, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and synthetic glucocorticoids during pregnancy.

RESULTS: Prenatal 2nd trimester EPDS scores were positively associated with fractional anisotropy (FA) in boys (p<0.05, 5000 permutations) after controlling for EPDS scores 3 months postpartum. In contrast, postpartum EPDS scores at 3 months correlated negatively with FA (p<0.01, 5000 permutations) in widespread areas only in girls after controlling for prenatal 2nd trimester EPDS scores. Perinatal anxiety was not associated with WM structure.

CONCLUSION: These results suggest that pre- and postnatal maternal psychological distress associates with brain WM tract developmental alterations in a sex and timing-dependent manner. Future studies including behavioural data are required to consolidate associative outcomes for these alterations.

PMID:37220833 | DOI:10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.05.014