ArticleJournal of affective disorders2020
Association of maternal depression and home adversities with infant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis biomarkers in rural Pakistan.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning in offspring of parents with a major affective disorder: a meta-analytic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Maternal mental health and its influence on children's early development: Evidence from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.Infant mental health journal · 2026Article
- [Effects of Physical Exercise Intervention on Mild-to-Moderate Depression in College Students].Sichuan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Sichuan University. Medical science edition · 2025Article
- Longitudinal pathways between maternal depression, parenting behaviors, and early childhood development: a mediation analysis.International journal of behavioral development · 2025Article
- Transcriptomic Alteration in the Brain and Gut of Offspring Following Prenatal Exposure to Corticosterone.Experimental neurobiology · 2025Article
- Effects of a maternal psychosocial intervention on hair derived biomarkers of HPA axis function in mothers and children in rural Pakistan.SSM. Mental health · 2022Article
- Article
- The effect of cumulative early life adversities, and their differential mediation through hair cortisol levels, on childhood growth and cognition: Three-year follow-up of a birth cohort in rural India.Wellcome open research · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEach year, almost 35% of children are exposed to maternal depression and more grow up in persistent poverty, increasing the risk for stress-related disease and other socio-developmental deficits later in life. These impacts are likely related to chronic stress via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. However, there is little evidence relating early windows of child HPA axis activity to multiple exposures.
methodsWe investigated chronic measures of hair-derived HPA axis hormones (cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)) in 104 one-year old infants from rural Pakistan and longitudinal measures of maternal depression, intimate partner violence (IPV), socio-economic status (SES), and the home environment.
resultsEstimates from adjusted linear mixed effects models did not reveal consistent significant associations between infant cortisol and maternal depression or home adversities. By contrast, infants exposed to maternal depression during pregnancy had lower DHEA levels (ß= -0.18 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.34, -0.02) as did those whose mothers experienced multiple types of IPV (ß=-4.14 95% CI: -7.42, -0.79) within one year postpartum. Higher SES had a significant positive association with infant DHEA levels (ß= 0.77 95% CI: 0.08, 1.47). Depression severity and chronicity at one year postpartum had near significant associations with infant DHEA. Measures of home environment had no observable impacts on infant HPA axis activity. LIMITATIONS: Limitations include the modest sample size and aggregation of hair samples for analysis.
conclusionResults point to possible early HPA axis dysregulation driven by changes in DHEA activity, but not cortisol at one year of age. Findings contribute to growing research examining intergenerational transmissions of maternal depression, IPV, and household environment on infant stress-response systems.
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