Prenatal Effects on CMH Flashcards
When do behavioural problems commonly start?
Before age 5 and persist into adult life into the form of criminality, personality and other psychiatric disorders with increased risk of maltreatment of the next generation
What does evidence from studies of children and adolescents suggest?
That different biological and psychological mechanisms underpin subtypes of aggressive and disruptive behaviour problems. This implies the existence of distinctive pathways from infancy, which have yet to be clarified
What was the design of the Wirral child health and development study (WCHDS)?
Prospective longitudinal study - starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy with follow up to 9 year olds
What was done in the two state epidemiological sampling strategy?
Consecutive extensive whole sample of first time mothers aged 18 and above, English speaking and their partners. Smaller intensive subsample stratified by relationship functioning assessed by screening at 20 weeks gestation and provides sample with higher environmental and genetic risks for conduct disorders
What were the multiple phases of assessment between birth and 9 years?
Birth, 4, 12, 20 weeks, 6 months, 32 weeks, 14 months, 2.5 year, 3.5, 4.5-5, 7 and 9 years
What was done in the child lab assessments?
Mother-child interaction: cognitive, behavioural, social and emotional development, physiological reactivity, temperament and psychopathology, parenting quality and repeated DNA sampling
What were the parental measures of the WCHDS?
Mental health, personality, life events, relationship quality, demographics, drug/alcohol/smoking
In studies of animal models, how did an experimenter induce stress?
Restraint, electric foot shock, disruption of social relationships, predator exposure and unexpected loud noises
What was used in the biological intervention of the animal model?
Gluco-cortiod administration
In the study of human participants, what were the questionnaire measures in the self report about naturally occurring stress?
State/Trait anxiety, depression, life events, family and marital discord and pregnancy related anxiety
What were the biological measures in the human participant study?
Markers of HPA axis function - cortisol
What was the summary of effects of antenatal stress and offspring development in animal models?
Poor motor development, increased emotionally, reduced exploratory behaviour, increased stress response and shorter attention span.
What was the summary of effects of antenatal stress and offspring development in human participants?
Delayed motor development, behavioural/emotional problems, delayed language development, delayed cognitive development, poor attention regulation and psychopathology
What is the HPA axis?
A major part of the neuroendocrine system that controls reactions to stress and regulates many body processes
What does the human placenta express the gene for?
The major stress hormone (CRH) profoundly altering the fight of flight system in mother and foetus
Although endocrine changes are important for fetal maturation, what occurs if the levels are altered?
They program the fetal nervous system with long term consequences
What occurs when a fetal exposure to levels of stress hormones is elevated?
Delays fetal nervous system maturation, restricts the neuromuscular development and alters the stress response of the neonate, impairs mental development and increases fearful behaviour in the infant and may result in diminished grey matter volume
Human studies find that indices of prenatal stress such as maternal depression in pregnancy also predict what?
Altered HPA reactivity, altered cardiovascular regulate, negative emotionality and conduct disorders and emotional problems in children
What was the hypothesis in relation to whether infant stress reactivity can be modified by maternal stroking?
The effects of prenatal stress (depression) on infant
temperament and physiological response to social stress will
be modified by mothers’ reports of how often they stroked
their babies over the first 2 months of life.
What was the outcomes of maternal stroking>
Increasing maternal prenatal depression was associated with decreasing physiological adaptability under social stress only in the presence of low maternal stroking and associated with reports of increasing negative emotionality only in the presence of low maternal stroking.
What did children exposed to anxiety in utero have?
Higher levels of emotional and behavioural problems at age 2.5
What did maternal postnatal stroking significantly alter?
The associations between prenatal maternal anxiety and child internalising problems, depressed/anxious symptoms and attention hyperactivity at age 2.5
Does maternal prenatal cortisol predict infant negative temperament in a sex-dependent matter?
Disturbances in maternal mood during pregnancy result in higher levels of circulating cortisol in humans - which crosses the placental barrier and alters fetal development.
What was maternal salivary cortisol in late pregnancy associated with?
Maternal reports of more negative infant reactivity at 2 months
What was amniotic fluid cortisol not associated with?
Maternal reports of temperament at 3 months
What may prenatal cortisol may be a predictor of?
Of early infant behaviour but not childhood behaviour
Why are there sex differences in humans when it comes to prenatal risks?
Females may become more reactive to challenge and anxious and males become less reactive and more aggressive. Internalising symptoms in females and externalising behaviours in males
What are the 9 manoeuvres of irritability?
Uncover/place in supine, response decrement to tactile stimulation of the foot, undressing, passive tone in the legs/arms, pull to sit, place in prone, defensive movements, tonic neck reflex and moro reflex
What is irritability?
A count of the number of times the infant changes from a calm state to fussing or crying for three or more seconds in response to a series of 9 standardised mildly aversive manoeuvres
