ArticleArchives of women's mental health2020
Early life adversity and depressive symptoms predict cortisol in pregnancy.
Article in Archives of women's mental health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Neuropsychological Disorders and Its Intergenerational Transmission Mechanisms.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- A coparent intervention to prevent prenatal stress and depression symptoms in families with lower incomes.Family relations · 2026Article
- Maternal depression with and without a history of childhood maltreatment and newborn white matter microstructure.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Perinatal Depression: Current Knowledge.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- The role of perinatal perceived stress in the setting of adverse childhood experience and perinatal anxiety and depressive symptoms.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Effects of Sociospatial Inequality on Exposure to Stress, Symptoms of Depression, and Cortisol Rhythms in Pregnancy.Journal of obstetric, gynecologic, and neonatal nursing : JOGNN · 2025Observational
- Implications of childhood adversity for women's perinatal sleep quality and depressive symptoms over time: A serial mediation model.Journal of sleep research · 2024Article
- Cortisol Regulation among Women Who Experience Suicidal Ideation during Pregnancy.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2023Article
- Recalibration of the stress response system over adult development: Is there a perinatal recalibration period?Development and psychopathology · 2023Review
- Childhood adversity and the cortisol awakening response in depression: A meta-analysis.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2023Article
- Stress before conception and during pregnancy and maternal cortisol during pregnancy: A scoping review.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
- Article
- The role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in depression across the female reproductive lifecycle: current knowledge and future directions.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Review
- Influences of adversity across the lifespan on respiratory sinus arrhythmia during pregnancy.Developmental psychobiology · 2021Article
- Integrative Review of Early Life Adversity and Cortisol Regulation in Pregnancy.Journal of obstetric, gynecologic, and neonatal nursing : JOGNN · 2021Review
- Adverse Childhood Experiences Predict Diurnal Cortisol Throughout Gestation.Psychosomatic medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
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Abstract
Evidence suggests that exposure to early life adversity (ELA) programs the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to influence responses to later adversity and predisposes women to depression. However, few studies have examined whether ELA moderates the HPA cortisol response to adulthood adversity and depressive symptoms in pregnant women. The aims of this study were to determine (a) whether ELA, adulthood adversity, and depressive symptoms differentially predict patterns of cortisol and (b) whether ELA moderates the relationship of adulthood adversity or depressive symptoms to cortisol. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study of pregnant women (N = 58, mean = 26.5 weeks gestation). Participants completed the Stress and Adversity Inventory and Edinburgh Depression Scale and collected salivary cortisol five times per day for 3 days to assess cortisol awakening response (CAR), diurnal cortisol slope, and cortisol area under the curve (AUC). ELA predicted a larger CAR, while depressive symptoms predicted a blunted CAR and higher cortisol AUC. Adulthood adversity predicted a blunted CAR and steeper diurnal slope, but only in women with high ELA. ELA also moderated the effect of depressive symptoms on diurnal slope. Early adversity and depressive symptoms appear to have significant effects on the HPA axis during pregnancy, with early adversity also moderating effects of depressive symptoms and adulthood adversity on cortisol regulation. Early adversity may be an important factor in identifying unique HPA phenotypes and risk for HPA axis dysregulation in pregnancy.
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