ArticleBrain, behavior, and immunity2022
Exposure to childhood maltreatment and systemic inflammation across pregnancy: The moderating role of depressive symptomatology.
Article in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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15 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Examining the association between prenatal inflammation and postpartum depression in a large, prospective pregnancy cohort in New York City.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Maternal depression with and without a history of childhood maltreatment and newborn white matter microstructure.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Coordination of inflammatory and adrenocortical stress response during pregnancy and variation by mental health.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- The inflammation-depression link: How social networks buffer or exacerbate risk.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Mediational effect analysis of childhood emotional abuse on prodromal psychotic symptoms in self-taught examination students.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Estimating the associations between women's maltreatment in childhood and inflammatory biomarker levels prior to and during pregnancy.PloS one · 2025Article
- A Brief Historic Review of Research on Early Life Stress and Inflammation across the Lifespan.Neuroimmunomodulation · 2025Review
- Rapid Antidepressant-Like Potential of Chaihu Shugan San Depends on Suppressing Glutamate Neurotransmission and Activating Synaptic Proteins in Hippocampus of Female Mice.Chinese journal of integrative medicine · 2024Article
- Childhood maltreatment exposure is differentially associated with transdiagnostic perinatal depression symptoms.Journal of affective disorders · 2024Article
- Did the prevalence of depressive symptoms change during the COVID-19 pandemic? A multilevel analysis on longitudinal data from healthcare workers.The International journal of social psychiatry · 2024Article
- Current Strategies for Perinatal Mental Health Care in Japan.JMA journal · 2024Review
- Longitudinal course of endocannabinoids andPsychological medicine · 2023Article
- Maternal exposure to childhood maltreatment and adverse birth outcomes.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Is There an Inflammatory Profile of Perinatal Depression?Current psychiatry reports · 2023Review
- Subjective social status, COVID-19 health worries, and mental health symptoms in perinatal women.SSM - population health · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
backgroundChildhood maltreatment (CM) has long-term consequences for dysregulation of the immune system which is particularly pronounced when mental and physical health sequelae have manifested. Higher proinflammatory state has been shown in non-pregnant state in association with CM as well as with depression, one of the most frequent and pernicious psychiatric sequelae of CM. During pregnancy, however, this association is less clear. Given the important role of maternal inflammatory state during pregnancy for fetal, pregnancy, and birth outcomes, we sought to examine the association between CM and proinflammatory state during pregnancy considering the moderating role of maternal depressive symptoms characterized serially across pregnancy.
methodsA prospective, longitudinal study of 180 healthy pregnant women was conducted with serial assessments in early (12.98 ± 1.71 weeks gestation), mid (20.53 ± 1.38 weeks gestation) and late (30.42 ± 1.4 weeks gestation) pregnancy. Maternal history of CM was assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the total score was used as an indicator of CM experience. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed at each pregnancy visit with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Serum concentrations of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6 were obtained at each pregnancy visit and combined to a composite maternal proinflammatory score. Linear mixed effects models were employed to assess the association between CTQ score, CES-D score, and proinflammatory score during pregnancy, adjusting for potential confounders.
resultsGestational age was associated with the proinflammatory score (B = 0.02; SE = 0.00; p < .001), indicating an increase in inflammation across gestation. Neither CTQ score nor depressive symptoms were independently associated with the proinflammatory score (ps > 0.28). However, the interaction between CTQ score and depressive symptoms was associated with the proinflammatory score (B = 0.03, SE = 0.01, p < .05), indicating higher inflammation across pregnancy with increasing levels of depressive symptoms during pregnancy in women with higher CTQ scores. Exploratory analyses suggested that this interaction was mainly driven by CTQ subscale scores assessing experiences of abuse rather than neglect.
conclusionsThese findings suggest a moderating role of maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy on the association of early life stress with inflammation and thus highlight the importance of the timely assessment of both CM exposure and depressive symptoms which might allow for the development of targeted and individualized interventions to impact inflammation during pregnancy and to ameliorate the detrimental long-term effects of CM. The current findings add to a better understanding of the prenatal biological pathways that may underlie intergenerational transmission of maternal CM.
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