Infants whose mothers received interpersonal psychotherapy during pregnancy had smaller right hippocampi and lower negative emotionality at six months, an observational study found.
A study published this month suggests that treating depression during pregnancy may do more than improve a mother’s mental health: it may also shape an infant’s brain development and later emotional response. Drugs.com, reporting via HealthDay, said the research appeared online on 16 October and examined how interpersonal psychotherapy during pregnancy was linked with early brain measures and emotional function in babies.
According to the study details reported by Drugs.com and the abstract indexed by PubMed, Catherine H. Demers of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus led an observational follow-up of 109 infants born to mothers who had taken part in a randomised trial of interpersonal psychotherapy during pregnancy. The children were scanned at six weeks of age to measure hippocampal and amygdala volume, and their negative emotionality was later assessed at six months.
The researchers found that infants whose mothers received interpersonal psychotherapy had smaller right hippocampal volumes than those whose mothers received enhanced usual care. Left hippocampal volume and amygdala volume did not differ significantly between groups. Smaller hippocampal volume was then linked with lower negative emotionality at six months, suggesting that early brain differences may be tied to later temperament. Related summaries of the study published by PubMed and Psychiatric News Alert describe the work as part of a broader effort to understand how prenatal mental health treatment may affect infant development.
Elysia Poggi Davis, a co-author from the University of Denver, said in a statement quoted by HealthDay that the findings suggest that treating a mother’s depression during pregnancy may help support a healthier developmental path for the baby’s brain. She added that pregnancy is a critical window for intervention and that maternal mental health should be viewed as an investment in child health. The results do not mean every baby will respond the same way, but they add to evidence that treating depression during pregnancy may have benefits that extend beyond the mother alone.
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