Tag: pregnancy

Categories : Metabolic Disorders Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

Metformin for Gestational Diabetes may Negatively Impact Offspring

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With the rise in gestational diabetes and metabolic disorders during pregnancy, metformin is also being prescribed more frequently. Although it is known that the oral antidiabetic agent can cross the placental barrier, the impacts on the brain development of the child are largely unknown. Now, researchers have been able to demonstrate in a mouse model that although metformin has positive effects in pregnant animals, it does not in the offspring. The researchers, from German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE), published their findings in Molecular Metabolism.

Around one in six pregnant women worldwide are affected by gestational diabetes. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 63 000 women in Germany were affected by the disease in 2021, and the trend is increasing. Excessively high blood sugar levels during pregnancy are associated with negative consequences for mother and child. It increases the risk of affected women developing type 2 diabetes later on and their children have a higher risk of developing metabolic disorders and being overweight.

Long-term effect of metformin on offspring is unclear

The placenta-crossing oral antidiabetic agent metformin has been gaining importance as an alternative to insulin administration when lifestyle changes fail to treat gestational diabetes. But there are currently only a few studies on the long-term effects of metformin on the health of offspring. It is known that metformin has an impact on the AMPK signaling pathway, which regulates the networking of nerve cells during brain development.

The interdisciplinary team of DIfE researchers led by Junior Research Group Leader Dr Rachel Lippert therefore grappled with two central questions:

Firstly, is metformin treatment only beneficial for the mother or also the child?

Secondly, does metformin treatment lead to long-term negative physiological changes in the offspring, especially in connection with the development of neuronal circuits in the hypothalamus, a critical region in the regulation of energy homeostasis?

Mouse models shed some light

To answer the key questions, the researchers used two mouse models with high-fat or control diets to represent the main causes of gestational diabetes, ie, severe obesity of the mother before pregnancy and excessive weight gain during pregnancy. The antidiabetic treatment of female mice and their offspring took place during the lactation period as this corresponds to the third trimester of a human pregnancy in terms of brain development.

The mice were treated with insulin, metformin, or a placebo, with dosage based on standard human treatments. The research team collected data on the body weight of the mice, analysed various metabolic parameters and hormones, and examined molecular signaling pathways in the hypothalamus.

Maternal metabolic state is crucial

“As a result of antidiabetic treatment in the early postnatal period, we were able to identify alterations in the weight gain and hormonal status of the offspring, which were critically dependent on the metabolic state of the mother,” explains Lippert. Furthermore, sex-specific changes in hypothalamic AMPK signalling in response to metformin exposure were also observed. Together with the metformin-induced shift in the examined hormone levels, the results indicate that the maternal metabolic state must be taken into account before starting the treatment of gestational diabetes.

Focusing on prevention

According to Rachel Lippert, treatment of gestational diabetes in future could entail developing a medication that is available for all and does not cross the placenta. “Given the increasing prevalence, education about gestational diabetes and preventive measures are of vital importance. If we can find a way to manage lifestyle and diet more proactively, we are in a better position to exploit the potential of gestational diabetes treatment,” says Lippert.

Source: Deutsches Zentrum fuer Diabetesforschung DZD

Categories : Mental Health Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

Study Reveals Great Variability in Pregnant Women’s Body Images

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A new study published in the journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth has found considerable variability in the ways pregnancy affects women’s perceptions of their own body, including experiences of negative body image.

Negative body image during pregnancy is known to have serious adverse effects on both the mother and baby. Overall, average levels of body image dissatisfaction were found to be similar for pregnant women compared to the general female population, but on an individual basis, the research discovered large differences, both positive and negative.

The study is thought to be the first meta-analysis comparing pregnant and non-pregnant women, and was led by academics from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and the University of York.

The researchers initially screened 2017 separate academic studies, before focusing on 17 studies that provided comparable data. In total, the research included 5200 responses from women who were pregnant and 4172 responses from women who were not pregnant.

By synthesising results from multiple studies, the new research found women’s body image dissatisfaction overall was not statistically different during pregnancy compared with when not pregnant. However, when looking at the separate studies that formed part of the meta-analysis, there are significant variations on an individual level.

Body image dissatisfaction in pregnancy is made up of a combination of complex factors related to the positive and negative experiences of each woman, the researchers believe. For some, body image satisfaction will worsen during pregnancy because of ‘feeling fat’, while others describe feeling that their body is out of their control because they are aware their body will change but cannot stop it. Unrealistic portrayals of pregnant women in the media, often edited to remove uneven skin tone and stretch marks, are also believed to contribute to body image dissatisfaction.

Other pregnant women report having improved body positivity compared to when not pregnant, as they no longer compare their body to the ‘thin ideal’. Some say the improvement is because they place less attention on how their body looks and more on its functionality, focusing on the foetus’s health and their maternal role.

Understanding the causes of body image dissatisfaction in pregnant women is important since it can have physical and mental consequences for mother and baby. Many women who display body image dissatisfaction during pregnancy also exhibit depression and anxiety, both postnatally and longer term. This can lead to negative emotional, cognitive, and behavioural outcomes for the child, as well as poor quality mother-infant interactions.

In addition, body image dissatisfaction has been linked with physical illness as the expectant mother may engage in practices such as unhealthy eating, dieting, purging, and fasting. This can have unwanted negative effects on the foetus, such as low birth weight and premature birth.

Lead author Anna Crossland, University of York, said: “Due to the impact that body dissatisfaction can have on the expectant mother and foetus, it is vital to understand how body image dissatisfaction may change on an individual basis when women are pregnant. What our study has found is there is no universal experience during pregnancy, and so we shouldn’t assume how people feel. Pressures about how we look are still felt by some people during pregnancy and it is much more helpful to ask how someone is, rather than commenting on their appearance.”

Co-author Dr Elizabeth Kirk, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “Our earlier work found that women who didn’t feel good about their changing bodies in pregnancy reported lower feelings of bonding with their unborn baby. Therefore, it is crucial that we better understand and support women’s body image during pregnancy, to help women on an individual basis.”

Source: Anglia Ruskin University

Categories : Obstetrics & Gynaecology Substance UseTags :

Before Birth, Substance Use by Father can Also Increase Risk of Intellectual Disability for Child

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Children of a parent with alcohol or drug use disorder have a greater risk of intellectual disability, even if the problem only lies with the father, researchers from Karolinska Institutet report. According to the study, which is published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, preventive measures should be directed at both parents.

A woman’s consumption of alcohol during pregnancy has been well established as increasing the risk of the child developing. Research from Karolinska Institutet now shows that all forms of substance abuse, both in the mother and the father, and not only during pregnancy, can constitute a risk factor.

Previous efforts aimed at mothers

“Preventative measures, such as educating healthcare professionals and public health recommendations, have focused for decades on mothers with alcohol-related problems,” says Lotfi Khemiri, researcher at Karolinska Institutet. “Our findings highlight the importance of also directing such measures towards fathers with different types of substance use disorder.”

The study drew on data from Swedish registries with almost two million babies born between 1978 and 2002 and their parents. The researchers found that 1.2% of babies born to parents without such a disorder were diagnosed with an intellectual disability, compared with 3% of the babies who had one parent with a diagnosis related to a substance use disorder (alcohol or drug abuse).

Higher risk before birth

The elevated risk was greater if the parent had received a diagnosis before or during pregnancy rather than after birth. A substance use disorder diagnosis registered before birth was associated with more than twice the risk of intellectual disability in the baby, regardless of which parent had the diagnosis. The correlation was weaker but still statistically significant after adjustment of socioeconomic factors and psychiatric comorbidity in the parents.

“Since it was an observational study, we can draw no conclusions about the underlying mechanism, but we suspect that both genetic and environmental factors, including harmful effects of substance abuse on foetal development, may play a part,” says Dr Khemiri. “We hope that the results will contribute to the preventative efforts, as well as to the improved diagnosis of children with an intellectual disability and to timely intervention directed both to the child as well as parents in need of substance use disorder treatment.”

Alcohol a major risk factor

Intellectual disability was observed to be much more likely in alcohol-related problems during pregnancy, where the risk was five and three times higher depending on whether it was the mother or father who had the alcohol use disorder diagnosis.

Source: Karolinska Institutet

Categories : Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

AI Finds Face Shape Changes in Children with in Utero Alcohol Exposure

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Using artificial intelligence, researchers have found a link between alterations in the shape of young children’s faces and the amount of alcohol their mothers drank, before and during pregnancy. Even alcohol in small amounts – 12g a week, or less than one glass of wine – made a difference.

The study, published in Human Reproduction, is the first to detect this association in the children of mothers who drank alcohol up to three months before becoming pregnant but stopped during pregnancy.

The finding is important because the shape of children’s faces can be an indication of health and developmental problems.

Study leader Gennady Roshchupkin, assistant professor at Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, said: “I would call the face a ‘health mirror’ as it reflects the overall health of a child. A child’s exposure to alcohol before birth can have significant adverse effects on its health development and, if a mother regularly drinks a large amount, this can result in foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, FASD, which is reflected in children’s faces.”

FASD is defined as a combination of growth retardation, neurological impairment and recognisably abnormal facial development. Symptoms include cognitive impairment, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning difficulties, memory problems, behavioural problems, and speech and language delays. FASD is already known to be caused by a mother’s drinking during pregnancy, particularly heavy drinking. However, until now, little was known about the effect of low alcohol consumption on children’s facial development and, therefore, their health. This is also the first study to examine the question in children from multiple ethnic backgrounds.

The researchers used AI and deep learning to analyse three-dimensional images of children taken at the ages of nine (3149 children) and 13 (2477 children). The children were part of an ongoing population-based study of pregnant women and their children from foetal life onwards. The children in this analysis were born between April 2009 and January 2006.

“The face is a complex shape and analysing it is a challenging task. 3D imaging helps a lot, but requires more advanced algorithms to do this,” said Prof Roshchupkin. “For this task, we developed an AI-based algorithm, which takes high-resolution 3D images of the face and produce 200 unique measurements or ‘traits’. We analysed these to search for associations with prenatal alcohol exposure and we developed heat maps to display the particular facial features associated with the mothers’ alcohol consumption.”

Information on the mothers’ alcohol consumption was gained from questionnaires completed by the women in early, mid-, and late pregnancy. The researchers divided them into three groups: mothers who did not drink before or during pregnancy, mothers who drank during the three months before becoming pregnant but stopped when they became pregnant, and mothers who drank during pregnancy, including those who only drank during the first trimester of pregnancy, and those who continued to drink throughout pregnancy.

“We found a statistically significant association between prenatal alcohol exposure and face shape in the nine-year-old children. The more alcohol the mothers drank, the more statistically significant changes there were. The most common traits were turned-up nose tip, shortened nose, turned-out chin and turned-in lower eyelid,” said Mr Xianjing Liu, first author of the study and a PhD student in Prof Roshchupkin’s group, who developed the AI algorithm.

“Among the group of mothers who drank throughout pregnancy, we found that even if mothers drank very little during pregnancy, less than 12g a week, the association between alcohol exposure and children’s facial shape could be observed. This is the first time an association has been shown at such low levels of alcohol consumption.”

At older ages, the alcohol consumption and face shape association weakened. No significant association was found when the researchers looked at data for the children at the age of 13 years.

“It is possible that as a child ages and experiences other environmental factors, these changes may diminish or be obscured by normal growth patterns. But that does not mean that alcohol’s effect on the health will also disappear. Therefore, it is crucial to emphasise that there is no established safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and that it is advisable to cease drinking alcohol even before conception to ensure optimal health outcomes for both the mother and the developing foetus,” said Prof. Roshchupkin. “Further investigations on the mechanism of association are needed to fully understand how the association develops and then weakens with age.”

In the nine-year-olds, researchers found statistically significant facial traits were associated with mothers’ alcohol consumption when they compared those who drank before pregnancy but stopped on becoming pregnant with mothers who continued drinking throughout pregnancy.

They also looked at data for women who drank during the first trimester but then stopped, and those who continued to drink. The results were similar, which suggests that the associations were explained mainly by the foetus’s exposure to alcohol in the first three months of pregnancy.

According to the researchers, previous studies of childhood development after prenatal exposure to alcohol have suggested that possible mechanisms of action may be metabolic disorders in the mothers, such as problems with blood sugar levels and fatty liver disease, and that this could also explain the link with face shape. However, further investigations are needed.

The large number of children from multiple ethnic backgrounds is a strength of the study. Limitations include that there were no data on alcohol consumption more than three months before pregnancy, and that mothers may not have completed the questionnaire about their drinking habits correctly, possibly underestimating their consumption. Causation also cannot be established in this observational study.

Categories : Mental Health Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

During Pregnancy, Experiencing Racism Worsens Depression

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In a recent study published in The Journal of Advanced Nursing that included pregnant Black women from multiple US states, feeling upset by experiences of racism in the 12 months prior to delivery was associated with significantly higher odds of depression during pregnancy.

Perinatal depression is defined as major or minor depressive episodes that occur during pregnancy or in the first 12 months after birth. Mothers with perinatal depression often report symptoms including depressed mood; loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities; changes in weight, appetite and sleep; poor concentration; feelings of hopelessness; and suicidal ideations. Non-Hispanic Black women are twice as likely to experience symptoms of depression and suicidal ideations during the perinatal period than White women.

For this study, 7328 women answered survey questions. The findings showed that 11.4% of respondents reported feeling upset due to experiences of racism, and 11.4% reported experiencing depression during pregnancy. After adjusting for confounding factors, respondents who reported feeling upset due to the experience of racism had over two-fold higher odds of experiencing depression during pregnancy compared with respondents who did not report feeling upset due to the experience of racism.

“Our findings reinforce the importance of respectful maternity care, given the mental health impacts of experiences of racism during the perinatal period,” the authors wrote. “Racism is a powerful structural determinant of health with roots in a historical system of oppression that persists today in health care practices and policies. Perinatal health care providers, in collaboration with public health and other health disciplines, are ideally positioned to address inequities in maternal and child health that are rooted in racism.”

Source: Wiley

Categories : Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

Pregnant Women Over 4 Times as Likely to Use Cannabis if it is Legal

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US scientists conducting a nationwide study found that pregnant women living in states where cannabis is legally available are far more likely to use the substance, prompting a call for pregnant women to be screened for the drug.

Published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, the findings show that pregnant women were around 4.6 times more likely to report using cannabis in states where it is legal for medical and recreational purposes, compared to where only CBD oil is allowed.

A large proportion of women reported using the drug for medical purposes, which is in keeping with “a growing body of evidence” that suggests in order to alleviate pregnancy symptoms cannabis is being used as a substitute for medical drugs in legalised areas.

“Therefore it is increasingly important to evaluate the risk-benefit profile of cannabis as compared to other medical treatments to understand any potential therapeutic indications for cannabis use in pregnancy,” says lead author Kathak Vachhani.

The team is calling for prenatal and primary care providers to screen and counsel patients regarding cannabis use in pregnancy, particularly in states where it is legal, for the potential effects on foetal development.

They also state public messaging “around the risks” of cannabis in pregnancy is “particularly relevant now,” as many states have recently implemented cannabis laws and established cannabis markets.

The legalisation of cannabis products has increased exponentially in the last decade in the United States. The legalisation has been piecemeal, as some states allow CBD oil, or marijuana for medical or recreational purposes. Use of these products has risen among all demographics.

Among the least studied are pregnant women. Because cannabis has been known to be used to treat some symptoms associated with pregnancy—notably nausea and vomiting.

Here, the team used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 2017 to 2020 to analyse the consumption of cannabis by 1,992 pregnant women.

While previous studies have examined the use of cannabis by pregnant women in restricted geographic areas and under particular legislative parameters, this study used a broader dataset to compare use across legalisation frameworks in 27 states.

Self-reported use was found to be “significantly higher” in pregnant women residing in states that allow medical and adult use, compared to those residing in states with restricted use.

“The unweighted dataset consisted of 426 CBD-only, 1114 medical, and 394 reactional group respondents,” the authors wrote claim. Weights were applied to each datapoint to obtain the population they represented. Of this weighted data, 2.4% from CBD-only regions reported cannabis use, while 7.1% from medical regions and 6.9% from adult-use regions reported the same. Respondents from the medical and recreational areas were 4.5 and 4.7 times more likely to use cannabis than those in CBD-only areas.

Most respondents who reported cannabis use smoked it partially or mostly for recreational purposes. “Mode of intake and reason for consumption did not differ between state groups,” the authors observe.

But what impact is this having on the mother or the foetus?

Previous studies have shown that medical cannabis usage during pregnancy can be effective for nausea and vomiting. Medical cannabis may be suitable to treat pregnancy-specific conditions which, if untreated, could be more harmful to the foetus than cannabis.

However, safe usage depends on having a comprehensive understanding of the benefits and risks of cannabis when weighed against the risks of untreated or refractory conditions such as hyperemesis gravidarum.

Therefore, more research is needed, states Vachhani, who is also from the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“Cannabis is a complex substance and its use is further complicated by factors such as the form of intake and frequency of use.

“From the mother’s health standpoint, our current understanding is rudimentary regarding the complex interplay between use (whether CBD or THC-based) and long-term health outcomes for the mother.

“There is currently no accepted therapeutic indication or safe amount of cannabis that may be consumed during pregnancy.

“Although further studies may lead to an accepted therapeutic indication, based on the current consensus the positive association between cannabis use and legalisation found in our study warrants further inquiry.”

The analysis carried out here was limited by a relatively small sample size, a lack of information regarding timing of use in pregnancy, lack of information about the chemical composition of cannabis consumed, and the potential for self-reporting biases.

Source: Taylor & Francis

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

Diet and Exercise for Obese Mothers Lowers Cardiovascular Risk in Infants

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A new study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, found that 3-year-old children were more likely to exhibit risk factors for future heart disease if their mother was clinically obese during pregnancy. A behavioural lifestyle intervention reduced this risk.

There is increasing evidence to suggest that obesity in pregnancy is associated with cardiometabolic dysfunction in children, and that serious cardiovascular disease may begin in the womb.

The UPBEAT trial, conducted at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, randomised women with obesity (a BMI of over 30 kg/m2) in early pregnancy to a diet and exercise intervention or to standard pregnancy care. The intervention included one-to-one counselling, restricting dietary intake of saturated fat, eating foods with a low glycaemic index such as vegetables and legumes, moderate and monitored physical activity and tools to record exercise. The intervention arm saw improvements in weight gain in pregnancy, physical activity, a healthier diet, and a healthier metabolic profile across pregnancy.

Follow-up of the children at age three showed that children of women with clinical obesity had evidence of cardiac remodelling, a risk factor for future cardiovascular disease. Changes included increased heart muscle thickness, elevated resting heart rate, evidence of early impairment to the heart’s relaxation function and increased sympathetic nerve activity compared to women of normal weight. The children of women who were allocated to the intervention arm were protected from these early changes in heart structure and function.

Study lead Dr Paul Taylor, from King’s College London, said: “Maternal obesity appears to adversely impact the developing foetal nervous system and foetal heart development which is apparent up to 3 years-of-age. A complex lifestyle intervention in pregnancy was associated with protection against cardiac remodelling in infants. We can hypothesise that these changes to the heart and its function will get worse over time, putting the child at increased risk of cardiovascular disease in the future.”

The study suggests that maternal obesity may have a lasting impact on the child’s cardiovascular health. Promoting dietary changes and physical activity during pregnancy may reduce this risk.

Source: King’s College London

Categories : Addiction Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

Falling Pregnant Unconsciously Curbs Smoking

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Pregnant smokers reduced their smoking by an average of one cigarette per day before becoming aware they were pregnant, according to a new study in in Addiction Biology. In the month after learning of their pregnancy, participants reduced smoking by another four cigarettes per day.

“Our findings suggest that pregnancy could curb smokers’ desire to smoke before they are even aware of having conceived,” said the study’s lead author and principal investigator, Dr Suena Huang Massey, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences and medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“While recognition of pregnancy is a common motivation to reduce or quit smoking, if biological processes in early pregnancy are also involved as suggested by this study, identifying precisely what these processes are can lead to the development of new smoking-cessation medications.”

The vast majority of research in this field focuses on the impact of a person’s smoking on the pregnancy and the baby. This study examines, instead, the impact of pregnancy on a person’s smoking behaviour.

Though it is well known that smoking is reduced in pregnancy, it was not known when it started and whether the smokers knew they were pregnant.

“Before this paper, it was largely assumed that the only thing causing pregnant smokers to cut down was a desire to protect the baby,” Dr Massey said. “While our study does support the discovery of pregnancy as a salient event, levels of pregnancy smoking began to decline before smokers suspected they were pregnant.”

These findings support a new line of research into what happens biologically during pregnancy that might be interrupting addictive behaviours, Massey said. Her hope is that the answer to this question will lead to the discovery of new and improved ways to treat addiction.

Pregnancy hormones a contributing factor?

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a hormone produced by the placenta in early pregnancy that is linked to morning sickness (nausea and vomiting during pregnancy).

“Strikingly, we observed the steepest declines in smoking precisely when hCG levels typically peak – between five and 10 weeks of pregnancy,” Massey said. “What’s more, pregnant smokers who do not quit during the first trimester (when hCG levels are elevated) are unlikely to quit before delivery, even with assistance from medications or financial incentives.”

Study methodology

Scientists estimated changes in cigarettes per day smoked, reported retrospectively, by 416 participants from two independent cohorts (145 from 2000 to 2005 and 271 from 2006 to 2009). Every participant was a smoker prior to becoming pregnant. Women in the study were interviewed about their smoking habits at 16 weeks of pregnancy and provided urine samples, so researchers could verify their reports.

On average, participants smoked about 10 cigarettes per day before conception. Between conception and the date they realised they were pregnant (highly variable and reported by each participant), smoking fell by an average of one cigarette per day. In the month after recognising the pregnancy, smoking dropped from an average of 9 cigarettes per day to five. Importantly, these declines were seen whether pregnancies were planned or unplanned, and whether smokers quit or did not quit.

Source: Northwestern University

Categories : Mental Health Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

Biological Changes in Mothers Experiencing Postpartum Depression

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Newly discovered biological changes in mothers who suffer postpartum depression may help explain the condition, yield long-sought treatments and let doctors identify those at risk even before their babies are born. The findings were published in Molecular Psychiatry.

Postpartum depression strikes up to 20% of new mothers, and roughly 20% of maternal deaths after childbirth are from suicide. Postpartum depression can cause anxiety and irritability, feelings of self-doubt and difficulty bonding with the baby, cognitive impairment, and interfering with sleeping and eating. For the child, maternal postpartum depression can lead to cognitive, emotional and social development problems.

Risk factors for postpartum depression are thought to include the mother’s age at childbirth, diabetes and prior history of mental health issues. But the new discovery suggests a previously unknown biological contributor: an impairment of the body’s ability to clean up old genetic material and other cellular debris.

“The finding that cells aren’t cleaning out old proteins and cellular debris, called autophagy, occurs before women develop depression symptoms, indicating that it could be part of the disease process,” explained Jennifer L. Payne, MD, director of the Reproductive Psychiatry Research Program at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. “There are several medications that promote autophagy in cells, so this finding might open the door to new treatments and to identification of women at risk of postpartum depression before they become ill.”

Understanding Postpartum Depression

Dr Payne and colleagues wanted to determine if ‘extracellular RNA communication’, a newly discovered form of communication among cells, might contribute to postpartum depression. Extracellular RNA communication is heightened during pregnancy and is critical in embryo implantation and in the body’s inflammatory response afterward.

The researchers analysed blood plasma samples from 14 research participants with and without postpartum depression, collected during and after their pregnancies. The researchers found that extracellular RNA communication in immune cells was altered extensively in women who suffered postpartum depression. Further, they determined that this “large and consistent” change significantly limited the women’s bodies’ ability to perform important cellular cleanup – suggesting a potential biological cause for their depression.

“Deficits in autophagy are thought to cause toxicity that may lead to the changes in the brain and body associated with depression,” Dr Payne said. “We have never fully understood the biological basis for postpartum depression, and this finding gets us closer to an understanding.”

Source: University of Virginia Health System

Categories : Paediatrics Substance UseTags :

Prenatal Cannabis Exposure Impacts Persist to Pre-adolescence

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Children who were exposed to cannabis in the womb continue to show elevated rates of symptoms of psychopathology (depression, anxiety and other psychiatric conditions), even as they reach pre-adolescence (aged 11–12), according to research published in JAMA Pediatrics.

The study, led by Ryan Bogdan, associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis, is a follow-up to 2020 research from the Bogdan lab that revealed younger children who had been prenatally exposed to cannabis were slightly more likely to have had, inter alia, sleep problems, lower birth weight and lower cognitive performance.

In both cases, the effect is strongest when looking at exposure to cannabis after the pregnancy is known. To find out whether or not these associations persisted as the children aged, David Baranger, a postdoctoral researcher in the BRAIN Lab, revisited the more than 10 500 children from the 2020 analysis, who were an averaged of 10 years old in 2020.

The data on the children and their mothers came from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study (ABCD Study), an ongoing study of nearly 12 000 children, beginning in 2016 when they were 9–10 years old, and their parents or caregivers.

This seemingly small change in age – from 10 to 12 – is an important one. “During the first wave, they were just children. Now they’re edging up on adolescence,” Baranger said. “We know this is a period when a large proportion of mental health diagnoses occur.”

An analysis of the more recent data showed no significant changes in the rate of psychiatric conditions as the children aged; they remain at greater risk for clinical psychiatric disorders and problematic substance use as they enter the later adolescent years.

“Once they hit 14 or 15, we’re expecting to see further increases in mental health disorders or other psychiatric conditions – increases that will continue into the kids’ early 20s,” Baranger said.

Source: University of Washington in St. Louis