Addictive due to stress during pregnancy

Pregnancy stress makes children addicted to addiction

02/11/2011

Stress during pregnancy has a significant impact not only on the mother's body but also on the children's organism. Portuguese researchers have now shown in animal experiments that prenatal stress can cause brain abnormalities in unborn children similar to those of drug addicts.

To what extent in the trade magazine „Molecular Psychiatry“ Published results of scientists from the University of Minho in Braga are also transferable to humans, remains unclear. But in Quebec, there is an opportunity to study the long-term effects of pregnancy stress on unborn children. For here was in January 1998 during an ice storm for weeks the power failed and since then researchers observe in the „Project Ice Storm“ the development of children who were born during the blackout.

The Portuguese scientists Ana João Rodrigues and Nuno Sousa of the University of Minho have found in their recent research that the offspring of rats had significant abnormalities in the brain when the mothers were subjected to an elevated level of stress hormones during pregnancy. The altered patterns in the brain are similar to those of drug addicts and suggest that even in humans children whose mothers are exposed to increased stress during pregnancy have an increased addictiveness, the scientists report in the journal „Molecular Psychiatry“. However, the effects of stress hormones in animal experiments could also be reversed, emphasized Rodrigues and Sousa. With the so-called happiness hormone dopamine, the patterns in the brain of the rats could be normalized again.

Stress hormones cause brain abnormalities
The researchers injected pregnant female rats with special stress hormones, known as glucocorticoids, before the baby was born, and then observed the effects on the brain structure of the kittens. Rodrigues and Sousa found that the offspring of rat females, which had elevated levels of stress hormones, increasingly suffered from brain abnormalities as adult animals. These anomalies were strikingly similar to those of drug addicts and the animals were also more addicted to opiates and alcohol, the Portuguese researchers write. However, the effect of stress hormones on the brain could be revised later in life, with injections of the neurotransmitter dopamine, according to Rodrigues and Sousa. The brain anomalies were therefore as reversible as the addiction.

Restoration of dopamine level for addiction treatment
This is „an amazing result, because it suggests that, with a relatively simple pharmacological approach, the restoration of dopamine levels“ Drugs may possibly be treated, said Ana João Rodrigues. „More importantly“, According to the expert, that may also be based on current findings „the potential drug addiction in susceptible people“ can be prevented. However, at the same time, the Portuguese researchers emphasized that there is still a long way to go before the method of restoring dopamine levels can be used as a regular therapeutic treatment. Although the trial has been used as a trial in the treatment of cocaine addiction, the results have remained very unclear and further research is urgently needed, Rodrigues and Sousa said. The scientists suspect that the hitherto unsuccessful use of dopamine restoration may be due to the duration of treatment or the dosage of happiness hormones. Animal experiments also showed that a three-day treatment in animals whose mothers were exposed to increased stress during pregnancy showed only a short-term effect and that the rats had brain anomalies and increased addiction after only three weeks. However, with a restoration of dopamine levels over a three-week period, the animals did not revert to their original addictive behavior, explained Rodrigues and Sousa.

Long-term study on the effects of prenatal stress
In order to better understand the effect of stress in pregnancy on the organism of unborn children and also to capture long-term effects, researchers worldwide hope for the data of the so-called „Project Ice Storm“. In this project, Canadian researchers have been collecting data from the children born at Quebec since the blackout in 1998, as mothers were exposed to significantly increased levels of stress during the weeks without electricity, according to the scientists. The researchers observe the development of children and try to find out how prenatal stress has a long-term effect on their organism. The Canadian scientists have already identified significant brain anomalies among today's 13-year-old children and in the coming years, the connection with the addictive nature will be reviewed, explained Ana João Rodrigues and Nuno Sousa. At the same time, however, new approaches to the treatment of drug addicts based on the restoration of dopamine levels should be developed and tested today, according to the Portuguese scientists. (Fp)

Picture: JMG