Mental disorders in pregnancy and 5-8 years after delivery

Brain structural and functional outcomes in the offspring of women experiencing psychological distress during pregnancy

In-utero exposure to maternal psychological distress is increasingly linked with disrupted fetal and neonatal brain development and long-term neurobehavioral dysfunction in children and adults. Elevated maternal psychological distress is associated with changes in fetal brain structure and function, including reduced hippocampal and cerebellar volumes, increased cerebral cortical gyrification and sulcal depth, decreased brain metabolites (e.g., choline and creatine levels), and disrupted functional connectivity. After birth, reduced cerebral and cerebellar gray matter volumes, increased cerebral cortical gyrification, altered amygdala and hippocampal volumes, and disturbed brain microstructure and functional connectivity have been reported in the offspring months or even years after exposure to maternal distress during pregnancy. Additionally, adverse child neurodevelopment outcomes such as cognitive, language, learning, memory, social-emotional problems, and neuropsychiatric dysfunction are being increasingly reported after prenatal exposure to maternal distress. The mechanisms by which prenatal maternal psychological distress influences early brain development include but are not limited to impaired placental function, disrupted fetal epigenetic regulation, altered microbiome and inflammation, dysregulated hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, altered distribution of the fetal cardiac output to the brain, and disrupted maternal sleep and appetite. This review will appraise the available literature on the brain structural and functional outcomes and neurodevelopmental outcomes in the offspring of pregnant women experiencing elevated psychological distress. In addition, it will also provide an overview of the mechanistic underpinnings of brain development changes in stress response and discuss current treatments for elevated maternal psychological distress, including pharmacotherapy (e.g., selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and non-pharmacotherapy (e.g., cognitive-behavior therapy). Finally, it will end with a consideration of future directions in the field.

Hospital Outcomes in Antepartum Mental Disorders: A Study on 897,397 Pregnant Inpatients

Objective: To evaluate the impact of antepartum mental disorders (AMD) in medical and psychiatric comorbidities, and inpatient outcomes during hospitalizations for pregnancy/birth-related complications. Methods: We used the national inpatient sample (NIS) data and included 19,170,562 female patients (age, 12–40 years) with a principal diagnosis of pregnancy/birth-related complications and grouped by co-diagnoses of AMD (N = 897,397). We used a binomial logistic regression model to evaluate the odds ratio (OR) for major severity of illness and adjusted for demographic confounders. Results: The hospitalizations with AMD increased by 22.1% (p < 0.001) from 2010 to 2014. White females (66.1%) and those from low-income families (<25th percentile, 31.8%) majorly had comorbid AMD. Depression (43.8%) and drug abuse (27%) were prevalent psychiatric disorders in AMD inpatients. Comorbid AMD inpatients had a higher likelihood for major severity of illness (OR 2.475, 95% CI 2.459–2.491, p < 0.001). They also had a longer hospitalization stay with a mean difference of 0.486 days (95% CI 0.480–0.491) and higher total charges by $1889.420 per admission (95% CI 1852.670–1926.170) than non-AMD inpatients. Conclusions: AMD is associated with worsening of severity of illness in pregnancy/birth-related complications and require acute inpatient care. Mental health assessment and treatment of AMD, and education about efficacy and safety of psychiatric medications may help to improve outcomes in these patients.