Prenatal Depression Affects Brain Functional Connectivity in Infants

Barbara Geller, MD reviewing Qiu A et al. Transl Psychiatry 2015 Feb 17.

Evidence for the need to screen for prenatal depression and anxiety becomes compelling.

Children of mothers who were depressed during pregnancy are at increased risk for depression (J Affect Disord 2009; 113:236), and depressed people across the age span have altered amygdala activity. Thus, several lines of evidence supported this investigation of amygdala function in infants.

Researchers assessed 24 pregnant women for depression at 26 months' gestation and at 3 and 12 months postnatally; their infants underwent structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging at 6 months. In analyses controlling for mothers' postnatal depressive symptoms, prenatal depressive-symptom scores correlated significantly with heightened left amygdala connections to multiple regions, including the anterior cingulate, insula, temporal cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex — i.e., regions affected in adult depression.

Citation(s):

Qiu A et al. Prenatal maternal depression alters amygdala functional connectivity in 6-month-old infants. Transl Psychiatry 2015 Feb 17; 5:e508.