https://www.dpa-international.com/trends-and-features/urn:newsml:dpa.com:20090101:261023-99-39840/
Any signs of mental health struggles during pregnancy should be quickly addressed for the good of the child’s development, according to a team of psychiatrists led by Catherine Demers of the University of Colorado Anschutz, which described the findings as evidence that a mother’s state of mind “can have intergenerational effects” on an infant’s brain.
“Babies whose mothers received psychotherapy for depression during pregnancy showed differences in the development of a brain region involved in emotion and memory,” the team said, associating such “brain differences” with “lower negative emotionality in infancy.”
“By using a randomized clinical trial, we were able to test whether treating depression during pregnancy can actually influence early brain development in infants,” said Demers.
Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study charted “brain development and subsequent negative emotionality” among 109 mother-and-baby duos after “brief interpersonal psychotherapy” was shown to have “significantly reduced prenatal depression symptoms.”
“Prenatal maternal depression is one of the most common perinatal complications with profound implications for both maternal and child well-being,” the team warned in their paper, citing estimates suggesting that between 20% and 40% of mothers are affected.
And while previous research had found a link between “maternal depression during pregnancy” and “an increased risk of emotional, behavioral and mental health challenges in children,” there was little to show whether or not improvements to a mother’s mental health could help babies in turn.
The tests showed that kids whose mammies were treated with psychotherapy during pregnancy “developed differently in the hippocampus,” a brain region that handles memory and emotions.
“This study highlights pregnancy as a critical window for intervention and reinforces that supporting maternal mental health is also an investment in child health,” said Elysia Davis, professor of psychology at the University of Denver.
Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder researchers have come up with an online service aimed at mothers and mother-to-be who are worried about pre or post-natal depression but who prefer to neither visit a therapist nor take pills.
“Cost, lack of transportation and a shortage of properly trained therapists also hinder access to care,” the university explained.
But in a paper published by Lancet Public Health, a medical journal, the team said their program lowers risk of maternal depression relapse by double digits.
