Maternal infection and stress during pregnancy and depressive symptoms in adolescent offspring

Abstract

Maternal infection during pregnancy has been linked to increased risk of offspring depression. Additionally, maternal stress during pregnancy has been consistently linked with adverse offspring outcomes associated with depression. Relatedly, stress has been associated with increased risk of infection; however no study has investigated stress-infection interactions during pregnancy and risk for offspring depression. Participants were drawn from the Child Health and Development Study (CHDS), a prospective, longitudinal study that enrolled pregnant women from 1959-1966. Maternal health and birth outcome information were collected, as well as open-ended interviews about worrisome events during pregnancy. The present study included participants from a subsample of women whose offspring (n = 1,711) completed self-reports of depressive symptoms during adolescence. Results indicated that maternal infection during only the second trimester was associated with higher scores on adolescent offspring depressive symptoms, while controlling for maternal education at birth, adolescent age, and maternal depressive symptoms at adolescence. Maternal experiences of daily stress during pregnancy moderated this association, such that mothers diagnosed with second trimester infection and who experienced daily stress had offspring with significantly higher depression scores than mothers of adolescents diagnosed with an infection alone. Findings have potential implications for prevention and intervention strategies.

Long-term Risk of Neuropsychiatric Disease After Exposure to Infection In Utero

“…A few studies have investigated the lifetime risk of depression for the child after exposure to particular infections, but they have yielded mixed results. 43,44 Although vulnerable to possible loss to follow-up bias, our study provides suggestive evidence for a fetal origin for depression, with separate support using suicide data from the Swedish National Death Registry. Although little is known about the scientific basis to link aberrant fetal neurodevelopment with subsequent risk for depression, infection and inflammation in the pregnant mouse lead to alterations in placental serotonin production and dysgenesis of serotonergic neurons in the fetal brain.…”

Maternal influences on fetal brain development: The role of nutrition, infection and stress, and the potential for intergenerational consequences

“…infection to modulate offspring neurodevelopmental outcome. For example concurrent infection and stress during the second trimester result in a higher adolescent depression score in offspring then either alone [ 101 ].…”

Prenatal Maternal Stress and the Cascade of Risk to Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders in Offspring

“…This study suggests inflammation in the placenta may contribute to sex differences observed in offspring following PNMS [47]. Moreover, we previously found that prenatal infection during the second trimester was associated with offspring depressive symptoms only if the mother also reported daily life stress [48]. These findings cumulatively support the possibility that PNMS may not only increase the likelihood of getting an infection, but also increase the vulnerability of the fetus to the damaging effects of the infection, subsequently increasing the possibility of neurodevelopmental sequelae.…”