Archival ReportPrenatal Maternal Depression Associates with Microstructure of Right Amygdala in Neonates at Birth
Section snippets
Subjects
One hundred eighty-nine infants of mothers who participated in a birth cohort study, Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes, were recruited for neuroimaging. The GUSTO cohort consisted of pregnant Asian women attending the first trimester antenatal ultrasound scan clinic at the National University Hospital and KK Women's and Children's Hospital in Singapore. Birth outcome and pregnancy measures were obtained from hospital records. The parents were Singapore citizens or permanent
Demographics
Among 189 neonates who underwent MRI scans, our study excluded 11 with gestational age less than 37 weeks, 12 with birth weight less than 2500 g, 4 with a 5-minute Apgar score less than 7, and 9 with large motion in the MRI data via visual inspection. In addition, nine neonates whose mothers did not return the EPDS questionnaire were also excluded from this study. Hence, the sample size in this study was 157 neonates. Among them, 42 mothers had an EPDS score less than or equal to 5 (low-normal
Discussion
Our findings reveal an association between antenatal maternal depressive symptomatology and brain microstructure in very early neonatal life. The mechanism for this association is unclear and may include genomic and environmental influences operating during fetal development with the potential to later affect infant behavior and temperament. Nevertheless, we expect that the nature of these associations is not wholly genomic, as studies of antenatal maternal depression reveal effects on child
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