ReviewBiological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging2022
Effects of Maternal Psychological Stress During Pregnancy on Offspring Brain Development: Considering the Role of Inflammation and Potential for Preventive Intervention.
Review in Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 42 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
- The Impact of Mindfulness Treatment on Maternal Inflammation and Fetal Neurodevelopment Among Participants with Histories of Hypertensive Disorders.Journal of integrative and complementary medicine · 2024Trial
- Awareness, Preferences, and Willingness to Download Pregnancy Health Management Apps Among Women in Louisiana: Cross-Sectional Survey.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Prenatal Origins of Stress Regulation: Maternal Psychological Distress and Inflammation During Pregnancy Prospectively Predict Infant Behavioral Reactivity and Regulation.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- The Earliest Impressions: A Systematic Review of Early-Life Exposures on Brain Structure and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Acute maternal stress in pregnancy and cardiovascular risk factors in adolescent offspring: a birth-cohort study.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Glucocorticoid Receptor Signaling: Multilevel Organization, Roles in Fetal Development, and Postnatal Outcomes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Health-Related Quality of Life in Pregnancy Associated with Psychological Distress.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- Evaluati̇on of psychosoci̇al health and anxi̇ety levels of hi̇gh-ri̇sk and healthy pregnant women: a observational case-control study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Observational
- Exendin-4 as a multi-target therapy for Fetal Inflammatory Response Syndrome-induced brain injury.Frontiers in neurology · 2026Review
- Decreased hippocampal neurite density in late-middle-aged adults following prenatal exposure to higher levels of maternal inflammation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Maternal prenatal stress induces sex-dependent changes in tRNA fragment families and cholinergic pathways in newborns.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Decreased hippocampal neurite density in late middle-aged adults following prenatal exposure to higher levels of maternal inflammation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The association between prenatal maternal anxiety, infant brain volumes, and temperament during the COVID-19 pandemic.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Emotional Brain Development: Neurobiological Indicators from Fetus Through Toddlerhood.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Maternal Prenatal Psychological Stress and Iron Levels in the Fetal Brain.Developmental psychobiology · 2025Article
- Sensitive periods for exposure to indoor air pollutants and psychosocial factors in association with symptoms of psychopathology at school-age in a South African birth cohort.Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · 2025Article
- Quality of Life in Women With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Treatment Satisfaction Upon Intermittently Scanned Continuous Glucose Monitoring.Journal of Korean medical science · 2025Observational
- Exploring Self-Perceived Stress and Anxiety Throughout Pregnancy: A Longitudinal Study.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Social isolation during pregnancy disrupts maternal behavior and hippocampal neurochemistry in rats: A role for BDNF, corticosterone, and GABAARα1.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Heightened psychological stress during pregnancy has repeatedly been associated with increased risk for development of behavior problems and psychiatric disorders in offspring. This review covers a rapidly growing body of research with the potential to advance a mechanistic understanding of these associations grounded in knowledge about maternal-placental-fetal stress biology and fetal brain development. Specifically, we highlight research employing magnetic resonance imaging to examine the infant brain soon after birth in relation to maternal psychological stress during pregnancy. This approach increases capacity to identify specific alterations in brain structure and function and to differentiate between effects of pre- versus postnatal exposures. We then focus on the extensive preclinical literature and emerging research in humans that have found that heightened maternal inflammation during pregnancy as a mechanism through which maternal stress influences the developing fetal brain. We place these findings in the context of recent work identifying psychotherapeutic interventions that have been found to be effective for reducing psychological stress among pregnant individuals and that also show promise for reducing inflammation. We argue that a focus on inflammation, among other mechanistic pathways, may lead to a productive and necessary integration of research focused on the effects of maternal psychological stress on offspring brain development and on prevention and intervention studies aimed at reducing maternal psychological stress during pregnancy. In addition to increasing capacity for common measurements and understanding potential mechanisms of action relevant to maternal mental health and fetal neurodevelopment, this focus may inform and broaden thinking about prevention and intervention strategies.
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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.