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Updated: Jan 1, 2026

Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants
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An Analysis of Cellular Communication Network Factor Proteins as Candidate Mediators of Postpartum Psychosis Risk

William Davies1,2,3

  • 1MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics and Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.

Frontiers in Psychiatry
|December 19, 2019
PubMed

Postpartum (or puerperal) psychosis (PP) is a severe psychiatric condition associated with hallucinations, delusions, cognitive disorganization, and mood problems, which affects approximately 1-2 out of every 1,000 mothers shortly after childbirth. While the risk factors for, and co-morbidities of, PP are relatively well-defined, currently, the pathophysiology underlying the disorder is very poorly-specified. Here, I argue, on the basis of multiple lines of new evidence, that altered expression of the Cellular Communication Network (CCN) factor proteins (and of the heterodimerizing CCN2 and CCN3 proteins in particular), may be associated with, and possibly causal for, increased PP risk. Future preclinical and clinical studies should aim to test this hypothesis as empirical support for it would provide much-needed clues regarding the biological substrates of PP, and could point to predictive biomarkers for the condition.

Keywords:
brainconnective tissue growth factormood disordermyelinationnephroblastoma-overexpressed

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