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Early determinants of mental health
Katri Räikkönen1, Anu-Katriina Pesonen, Tessa J Roseboom
1Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. katri.raikkonen@helsinki.fi
Insights
Early life environmental factors, including prematurity and maternal health, can impact lifelong mental health. Understanding these early life programming effects is key for future mental well-being interventions.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Public Health
Background:
- Early life environmental exposures can lead to long-term psychological consequences.
- Prenatal and early postnatal periods are critical for development and mental health trajectories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review how early life environment influences psychological functions and mental disorders.
- To explore mechanisms of prenatal programming and later developmental plasticity.
Main Methods:
- Review of epidemiological, clinical, and natural experiment studies.
- Focus on proxies of prenatal adversity like small birth size and prematurity.
- Examination of factors affecting the fetal developmental milieu.
Main Results:
- Small birth size and prematurity are associated with later mental health issues.
- Maternal malnutrition, glycyrrhizin exposure, and pregnancy disorders impact fetal development.
- Developmental programming occurs within the first 1000 days and potentially later 'windows of plasticity'.
Conclusions:
- Early life environment significantly shapes lifelong mental health.
- Prenatal programming and later developmental plasticity are crucial mechanisms.
- Identifying modifiable environmental factors can inform prevention and intervention strategies for mental well-being.
Abstract:
Environmental adversities in pre- and early postnatal life may have life-long consequences. Based upon a series of epidemiological and clinical studies and natural experiments, this review describes how the early life environment may affect psychological functions and mental disorders later in life. We focus on studies that have examined the associations of small body size at birth and prematurity as proxies of prenatal environmental adversity. We also review literature on materno-fetal malnutrition, maternal prenatal glycyrrhizin in licorice consumption and hypertension-spectrum pregnancy disorders as factors that may compromise the fetal developmental milieu and hence provide insight into some of the mechanisms that may underlie prenatal programming. While effects of programming mostly take place during the first 1000 days after conception, we finally present evidence from prospective studies suggesting that programming can occur also during later critical periods of development or 'windows of plasticity'. The studies may bear relevance for future prevention and intervention programs targeting the potentially modifiable environmental factors that will aid at promoting mental well-being and health of an individual.
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