Depression in children during pregnancy

Predisposition to depression in children already during pregnancy?

03/02/2015

The influence that women undergo during pregnancy can have an effect on the development of their child has already been proven in various studies. Researchers now want to find out whether depression can be caused by immune reactions of pregnant women in the offspring later in life.

Impact on the child's development
Influences that women are exposed to during pregnancy can have an impact on their child's development: this has already been proven in numerous studies. Like the Austrian „courier“ online writes, it is considered certain that schizophrenia and autism in children can be caused by infectious diseases of pregnant mothers. According to the newspaper, Prof. Daniela Pollak-Monje Quiroga at the Department of Neuropharmiology and Neuropharmacology of the Medical University of Vienna is now investigating whether this also applies to depression in a three-year project of the Austrian Science Fund FWF.

Immune reactions during pregnancy
Thus, cellular and molecular processes that can lead to such a predisposition are to be analyzed by animal models. The first aim of the work is to determine in mice whether depression-like behavior in the later life of the children can actually be caused by immune reactions during pregnancy. „We are also interested in whether such an immune response is related to altered brain development and whether this is due to the lack of effect of a particular growth factor. In addition, we analyze structural, anatomical, molecular and functional changes in the brain“, The newspaper writes about the researchers' further goals.

Depression is one of the most common mental health problems
Again „courier“ writes that mental illnesses such as depression are among the most common and severe mental health problems. But you still know very little about the responsible processes. For Prof. Pollak-Monje Quiroga, this is one of the reasons why there are only limited possibilities for the diagnosis and treatment of such diseases: „There is no clinically objective diagnostic tool for depression. We rely on the common occurrence of various symptoms as a criterion. The same applies to treatment - substances are still used that act on so-called monoamines, ie special neurotransmitters. Their effect was discovered by chance over 50 years ago, is therapeutically slow and is accompanied by severe side effects or is completely ineffective in a large proportion of patients.“

Three-year investigation
The expert will spend the next three years studying the cellular and molecular processes that can lead to depression to help improve this situation. However, she wants to go one step further: „We will also look at genetic aspects. It may be that certain genetic conditions contribute to maternal immune responses in pregnancy leading to a later higher predisposition to depression. We will clarify that.“

Stress as a risk factor
In the previous year, a German study had pointed out that when pregnant women are exposed to a lot of stress and overly tense, this can become a risk factor for depression in children. At that time, an investigation by Prof. dr. Mathias Schwab, Head of the Fetal Brain Development and Disease Programming at the University Hospital Jena. According to the neurologist, the premature development of the dream sleep of unborn children plays an important role. The expert had also won his findings from animal models. (Ad)