Even mother's mild depressive symptoms affect the child's emotional well-being
September 23, 2019
Science Daily/National Institute for Health and Welfare
Even mild long-term depressive symptoms among mothers are connected with emotional problems among small children such as hyperactivity, aggressiveness and anxiet
According to recent research, even mild long-term depressive symptoms among mothers are connected with emotional problems among small children such as hyperactivity, aggressiveness and anxiety.
The study investigated how the depressive symptoms of both parents affected the child by the age of two and five.
The father's depressive symptoms affected the child's emotional problems only if the mother was depressed as well. The mother's symptoms, however, affected the child even if the father was not depressed.
Moderate depressive symptoms can be observed in over 20% of parents in Finland. Most serious symptoms are seen in less than 9% of mothers and around 2.5% of fathers.
"Depression among parents both during and after pregnancy not only affects the person suffering from depression but also has a long-term impact on the well-being of the newborn child. Even in cases of mild depression, it is important that the symptoms are identified and the parents are offered support as early as possible, if necessary already during the pregnancy," explains Visiting Researcher Johanna Pietikäinen from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
"In families, depression experienced by the mother has a key impact on the child's well-being. In Finland, the maternity clinic system functions well, but attention should be paid to depressive symptoms among mothers over a longer period: from the pregnancy through to the end of the child's first year of age," she adds.
One parent's depression also puts the other at risk
The depression of one parent is a factor that can put the other parent at risk of depression as well. In addition, depressive symptoms among mothers and fathers are quite long-term: they can start already during pregnancy and continue past the child's first birthday.
"It is important to monitor the mental well-being of both parents during pregnancy and after the birth of the child, and if one parent shows symptoms of depression then the symptoms of the other parent should also be examined. Currently, however, fathers' psychological well-being is not necessarily covered by depression questionnaires in maternity clinics, for example," Pietikäinen points out.
Prior depression is the most significant risk factor
Long-term depression is an indication that the depression may have been experienced already before the pregnancy. Previous experience of depression was, in fact, one of the key risk factors for moderate or severe depressive symptoms.
Other significant risk factors included sleep deprivation during pregnancy, stress, anxiety and a bad family environment. These most prominent risk factors were predictors for depression among both mothers and fathers.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190923111249.htm
Mothers' pregnancy-related anxiety may alter how infants' brains respond to sad speech
November 12, 2019
Science Daily/Aalto University
A study has shown a potential link between pregnancy-related anxiety and how a baby's brains respond to sad speech. Researchers at Aalto University and the University of Turku in Finland showed that mothers with high anxiety scores at 24 weeks of pregnancy gave birth to babies who had reduced brain responses to sad-sounding speech. The effect was significantly smaller at 34 weeks of pregnancy, suggesting the effects of pregnancy-related anxiety may be transferred more easily to the unborn baby in mid- rather than late pregnancy. Studying a larger group would make it possible to understand the behavioral implications of the observed changes.
"Areas of the baby's brain that deal with emotion and speech were less active when listening to sad speech if the baby's mothers had reported high pregnancy-related anxiety" said Dr Ilkka Nissilä, a research fellow at Aalto University who is one of the authors of the study.
Pregnancy-related anxiety refers to worries specifically concerning the pregnancy, such as worries about changes in appearance, labor and birth, the health of the developing child and future parenting. Previous studies have already shown a link between anxiety during pregnancy and neurodevelopment in infants, which prompted the researchers to investigate emotional speech and anxiety in this study.
"While we can observe a change in brain response, we can't say for sure how it is related to behavior, or how the changes we've observed affect the child over time " said Dr Nissilä. "What we know for certain is that a larger study with more subjects is needed to understand how such observations made using neuroimaging are related to the development of the babies as they grow up."
Professor Hasse Karlsson, professor of integrative neuroscience and psychiatry at the University of Turku said "One of the advantages of the FinnBrain study is that the babies will be followed up for several years. This makes it possible to later find out if this finding is related to any clinically relevant outcomes."
The study examined the data of 19 mother-baby pairs from Finland. The brain scanning was done with a technique called diffuse optical tomography or DOT, which uses a set of light sources and detectors attached on the side of the baby's head to measure changes in blood flow [AM5] in the brain. The method allows the study to take place while the baby is in its mother's lap, and is almost silent, as opposed to the fMRI scans often used in functional neuroscience experiments which require lying still in a loud scanner. The DOT equipment meant that the researchers could easily play speech sounds to the babies whilst simultaneously scanning their brains. They hope to be able to improve the DOT technology further for future work by making it wireless.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191112090637.htm