Prenatal Anxiety, Depression Associated With MH Symptoms in Children, Independent of Genetic Risk

Anxiety and depression among pregnant mothers was associated with a greater risk of internalizing and externalizing symptoms among their children even after controlling for the child ’s genetic risk for mental disorders, according to astudy published this week in theJournal of the American Academy of Child& Adolescent Psychiatry.“Our findings suggest that genetics alone do not fully account for the association between prenatal depression and child mental health,” wrote Lawrence Chen, B.Sc., and Kieran O’Donnell, Ph.D., of the Douglas Research Centre at McGill University in Canada, and colleagues.Chen, O ’Donnell, and colleagues used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which included women who were pregnant between April 1, 1991, and December 31, 1992, and their children.Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed when mothers were 32 weeks pregnant using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), while anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Crown Cusp Experiential Index (CCEI). The children ’s internalizing, externalizing, and total emotional/behavioral symptoms were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Mothers completed the questionnaire when their children were four, seven, eight, nine, 11, 13, and 16 years of age. The authors analyzed the children’s polygenic risk score for depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia, all of which have been previously associated wi...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: ALSPAC externalizing symptoms internalizing symptoms polygenic risk score prenatal anxiety prenatal depression Source Type: research