ArticleBrain, behavior, and immunity2018
Maternal prenatal depression predicts infant negative affect via maternal inflammatory cytokine levels.
Article in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 71 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
71 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 103 citations in OpenAlex.
- From placenta to the foetus: a systematic review of in vitro models of stress- and inflammation-induced depression in pregnancy.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Maternal Mental Health and Offspring Brain Development: An Umbrella Review of Prenatal Interventions.Biological psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Micronutrients for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Youths: A Placebo-Controlled Randomized Clinical Trial.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Prenatal Origins of Stress Regulation: Maternal Psychological Distress and Inflammation During Pregnancy Prospectively Predict Infant Behavioral Reactivity and Regulation.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Examining the association between prenatal inflammation and postpartum depression in a large, prospective pregnancy cohort in New York City.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Does gestational vitamin D attenuate the negative effects of prenatal depression on offspring emotional and behavioral problems? Findings in the ECHO cohort.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Positive and negative maternal mental health demonstrate distinct pathways to childhood depression.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Psychedelic therapy and postpartum depression: priorities and prospects.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Infant emergency department visits, readmission, and mortality by maternal anxiety disorder during pregnancy occurring with and without other mental health conditions: a retrospective cohort study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Investigating the dynamic relations between maternal sleep and depression across pregnancy.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2025Article
- Maternal perinatal depression and infant self-regulation: A meta-analytic review.Development and psychopathology · 2025Review
- Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Efficacy of Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Management and Prevention.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Psychosocial stress and associations with inflammation in mid-gestation maternal, fetal, and placental tissue.Reproductive toxicology (Elmsford, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Neonatal neurobehavior and infant temperament amongst offspring born to parents with and without ADHD.Infant behavior & development · 2025Article
- Neuroinflammation and Natural Antidepressants: Balancing Fire with Flora.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Negative impact of maternal depressive symptoms on infancy neurodevelopment: a moderated mediation effect of maternal inflammation.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Higher prenatal dietary glycemic index in the third trimester of pregnancy is associated with infant negative affect at 6 months.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Integrative Analysis of the Impact of Prenatal Depression on the Newborn Intestinal Microbiota.Central nervous system agents in medicinal chemistry · 2025Article
- Integrative Analysis of the Impact of Prenatal Depression on the Newborn Intestinal Microbiota.Central nervous system agents in medicinal chemistry · 2025Article
- The interaction of second trimester prenatal maternal inflammation and psychosocial stress on offspring depressive symptoms in adolescence.Brain behavior and immunity integrative · 2024Article
11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy are associated with risk for offspring emotional and behavioral problems, but the mechanisms by which this association occurs are not known. Infant elevated negative affect (increased crying, irritability, fearfulness, etc.) is a key risk factor for future psychopathology, so understanding its determinants has prevention and early intervention potential. An understudied yet promising hypothesis is that maternal mood affects infant mood via maternal prenatal inflammatory mechanisms, but this has not been prospectively examined in humans. Using data from a pilot study of women followed from the second trimester of pregnancy through six months postpartum (N = 68) our goal was to initiate a prospective study as to whether maternal inflammatory cytokines mediate the association between maternal depressive symptoms and infant offspring negative affect. The study sample was designed to examine a broad range of likely self-regulation and mood-regulation problems in offspring; to that end we over-selected women with a family history or their own history of elevated symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Results supported the hypothesis: maternal pro-inflammatory cytokines during the third trimester (indexed using a latent variable that included plasma interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 concentrations as indicators) mediated the effect, such that higher maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher maternal inflammation, and this mediated the effect on maternal report of infant negative affect (controlling for maternal affect during the infant period). This is the first human study to demonstrate that maternal inflammatory cytokines mediate the association between prenatal depression and infant outcomes, and the first to demonstrate a biological mechanism through which depressive symptoms impact infant temperament.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.