The Mood, Mother and Child Study: Protocol for a Prospective Longitudinal Study and Randomized Controlled Trial

Area of Science:

• Psychoneuroendocrinology
• Developmental Psychology
• Maternal and Child Health

Background:

• Perinatal depression affects over 400,000 US mother-child dyads annually, linked to adverse developmental outcomes.
• Dysregulation of oxytocin and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning in mothers and children is implicated in risk transmission.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine psychobiological risk and resilience factors in mother-child dyads affected by maternal depression.
• To describe the study's rationale, aims, design modifications due to COVID-19, and data analysis plan.

Main Methods:

• Prospective longitudinal study with an embedded randomized controlled trial.
• Examines correlations between postpartum depression/anxiety, maternal/child oxytocin and HPA axis functioning, and child development.
• Investigates the causal relationship between exogenous oxytocin and HPA reactivity.

Main Results:

• Recruitment and data collection are ongoing; results are expected in 2024.
• Analyses are designed to test the study's hypotheses regarding psychobiological mechanisms.

Conclusions:

• The study employs a unique design to investigate maternal depression from birth to middle childhood.
• It will be the first to simultaneously evaluate oxytocin's role via multiple methods and its causal links with HPA axis functioning.
• Findings aim to provide insights into oxytocin's psychobiological effects and inform future clinical trials for perinatal mood disorders.