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Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants

Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants

Published on: June 13, 2021

Maternal mental health and child problem behaviours: disentangling the role of depression and borderline personality

Fay Huntley¹, Nicola Wright², Andrew Pickles³

¹, ClinPsyD, PhD, Department of Psychological Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, , University of Liverpool, UK.

|December 14, 2017

Background:

It is not known whether associations between child problem behaviours and maternal depression can be accounted for by comorbid borderline personality disorder (BPD) dysfunction.

Aim:

To examine the contributions of maternal depression and BPD symptoms to child problem behaviours.

Method:

Depression trajectories over the first-year postpartum were generated using repeated measurement from a general population sample of 997 mothers recruited in pregnancy. In a stratified subsample of 251, maternal depression and BPD symptoms were examined as predictors of child problem behaviours at 2.5 years.

Results:

Child problem behaviours were predicted by a high maternal depression trajectory prior to the inclusion of BPD symptoms. This association was no longer significant after the introduction of BPD symptoms.

Conclusions:

Risks for child problem behaviours currently attributed to maternal depression may arise from more persistent and pervasive difficulties found in borderline personality dysfunction.

Declaration Of Interest:

None.

Copyright And Usage:

© The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2017, this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.

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