Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Existing Landscapes and Emerging Frontiers

Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) are a spectrum of mental health conditions that are the most common pregnancy-related complications in the United States. Despite great strides in developing appropriate pharmacological and psychological treatments, there continues to be a lack of biological measures for diagnosis and prediction of PMADs. Such measures could be effectively utilized to subtype and mechanistically explore PMADs and appropriately leverage mental health care resources. While the literature evidences many potential candidates, none have been clinically implemented. To move the field forward, this narrative review curates and critically evaluates the current state of the literature on circulating factor biomarkers for PMADs. Here, we review 2 categories of PMAD biomarkers: conventional, well-studied factors published between 2000 and 2020 and recently emergent factors published since 2020. The categories of conventional factors reviewed include vitamins and minerals, inflammatory markers, and steroids/hormones. Recently emergent categories of factors include nucleic acids, extracellular vesicles, proteomics, and functional immune cell profiles. The promise of emergent technologies is highlighted. Challenges are discussed and include biological sample complexity, low biomarker abundance, variability across patient populations, and issues with reproducibility and validation in large and diverse samples. Biomarkers often lack consistency, and reliance on single markers oversimplifies complex diseases. Priorities for future work include standardizing sample protocols, selecting well-matched study groups, conducting longitudinal studies, integrating blood biomarkers with brain and other biological measures, and deep phenotyping to improve diagnostic and predictive precision and personalized care. As biomarkers are revealed and validated, advances can be made toward improving maternal health during the perinatal period and beyond.