Developmental brain alterations in 17 year old boys are related to antenatal maternal anxiety

Abstract

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Antenatal maternal anxiety is associated with problem behaviour at age five

“…Current results corroborate findings from previous comparable studies, which have reported adverse effects of antenatal anxiety on child behaviour [5][6][7][8][9][10]19,20,30]. Children of mothers who reported higher levels of anxiety during their pregnancy showed more overall problem behaviour, hyperactivity/inattention problems, emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, conduct problems and showed less prosocial behaviour when mothers had rated their child's behaviour.…”

“…Results from animal studies have indicated sex differences in the programming effects of antenatal maternal stress or anxiety [17]. In humans, antenatal anxiety or stress during pregnancy was associated with cognitive impairments [18][19][20], ADHD symptoms and externalising problems [7,8] in boys and with more emotional symptoms, conduct problems [5,6] and self-reported depressive symptoms [9] in girls. Hence, both male and female offspring seem at risk for these antenatal programming effects, although in each sex these effects seem to be represented in different outcomes.…”

Prenatal stress exposure is associated with increased dyspnoea perception in adulthood

“…The study examines the neurobehavioral effects of prenatal exposure to maternal stress on fetal, infant and childhood development, continuing into adulthood [10]. At study entry, the sample of mothers consisted of healthy Belgian women without history of psychiatric disorders.…”

“…For the analyses, subjects were grouped into a low prenatal stress group (LS) and a high prenatal stress group (HS) as in previous studies [10]. Grouping was based on trait anxiety ratings [11] of their mothers during the 12th to 22nd week of pregnancy (low <75th versus high ⩾75th percentile).…”

Effectiveness of Selected Mind Body Interventions on Cortisol Level Among Antenatal Women With Anxiety Related to Childbirth

“…11 . Altered brain structure and its function are associated with prenatal stress 12 . It has been found that changes in brain development will leads to changes in the child's fingerprint pattern 13 .…”