Fetal programming of neuropsychiatric disorders by maternal pregnancy depression: a systematic mini review

Maternal depression complicates a large proportion of pregnancies. Current evidence shows numerous harmful effects on the offspring. Reviews, which include depression, concluded that stress has harmful effects on the offspring's outcomes neuro-cognitive development, temperament traits, and mental disorders.

This mini review of recent studies, sought to narrow the scope of exposure and identify studies specifically assessing prenatal depression and offspring neuropsychiatric outcomes.

The review included longitudinal, cohort, cross-sectional, clinical, quasi-experimental, epidemiological, or intervention study designs published in English from 2014 to 2018.

Study populations included mother-child dyads, mother-father-child triads, mother-alternative caregiver-child triads, and family studies utilizing sibling comparisons.

We searched PubMED and Web of Science. Study inclusion and data extraction were based on standardized templates. The quality of evidence was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS).

Thirteen studies examining neuropsychiatric outcomes were included. We judged the evidence to be moderate to high quality.

Our review supports that maternal prenatal depression is associated with neuropsychiatric adversities in children.

Future investigations should unravel the biological underpinnings and target timely interventions as early in pregnancy as possible to prevent offspring neuropsychiatric harms.