Weekly Roundup for October 13, 2023: Recent Publications in Women’s Mental Health

INFERTILITY AND MENTAL HEALTH

PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS DURING PREGNANCY

Mefrouche ML, Siegmann EM, Böhme S, Berking M, Kornhuber J. Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ. 2023 Sep 1;13(9):1694-1706.

This systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized-controlled trials investigates the effect of digital-based mindfulness interventions on depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms during pregnancy. Digital mindfulness intervention methods were significantly able to reduce depression and anxiety symptoms, but not stress symptoms.

MEDICATIONS AND PREGNANCY

Holmes LB, Quinn M, Conant S, Lyons A, Hauser WA, Yerby M, Hernandez-Diaz S. Birth Defects Res. 2023 Aug 15;115(14):1274-1283.

Werler MM, Kerr SM, Ailes EC, Reefhuis J, Gilboa SM, Browne ML, Kelley KE, Hernandez-Diaz S, Smith-Webb RS, Garcia MH, Mitchell AA; National Birth Defects Prevention Study and Birth Defects Study To Evaluate Pregnancy exposures.Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2023 Oct;114(4):836-844.

The researchers analyzed data from 9,755 women whose infants served as controls in two large United States case-control studies from 1997-2011 and 2014-2018. After excluding vitamin, herbal, mineral, vaccine, i.v. fluid, and topical products and over-the-counter medications, the proportion of women that reported taking at least one prescription medication in the first trimester increased over the study years, from 37% to 50% of women. The corresponding proportions increased with increasing maternal age and years of education, were highest for non-Hispanic White women (47%) and lowest for Hispanic women (24%). The most common indication for first trimester use of a medication was infection (12-15%). Increases were observed across the years for medications used for indications related to nausea/vomiting, depression/anxiety, infertility, thyroid disease, diabetes, and epilepsy.

POSTPARTUM PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS

Alcantarilla L, López-Castro M, Betriu M, Torres A, Garcia C, Solé E, Gelabert E, Roca-Lecumberri A. Arch Womens Ment Health. 2023 Sep 18.

Recurrences of BD and rMDD are more frequent in the postpartum period than in pregnancy, with the first 4-6 weeks postpartum being especially complicated. In addition, women with BD type I are at higher risk than those with BD type II and rMDD, and the most frequent presentation of perinatal episodes of both disorders is a major depressive episode. Other risk factors consistently repeated were early age of onset of illnesses, severity criteria, primiparity, abrupt discontinuation of treatment, and personal or family history of perinatal affective episodes.

Obichili MI, Ogwo CA, Udeh K, Obiechina CK, Kakwagh VV, Eze CC, Gever VC. Health Care Women Int. 2023 Aug 10:1-18. The study demonstrated a significant main effect of social media-based psychodrama therapy in reducing symptoms of postpartum depression in women. The study also found that this relationship is moderated by spousal support like physical, emotional and social support.

Janssen LE, Laarman ARC, van Dijk-Lokkart EM, Bröring-Starre T, Oudijk MA, de Groot C, Boer M. Am J Perinatol. 2023 Sep 27.

After a median of 13 years after delivery, no significant differences were found in prevalence or severity of anxiety or depressive symptoms. However, significantly more women with a history of spontaneous preterm birth reported that the birth still had an impact on daily life; aOR 2.46, (95% CI: 1.35-4.48). A total of 57 (16.3%) women after SPTB reported to have needed professional psychosocial support after delivery but did not receive it.

Zhang S, Lu B, Wang G. Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2023 Sep 27;22(1):36.

Compared with women without lactational mastitis, the proportion of women with depression symptoms was significantly higher (38.1% vs. 27.4%, p = 0.008), and the risk of postpartum depression increased by 68% (RR = 1.68, 95% CI, 1.18, 2.40) in women who had experienced lactational mastitis. In addition, the risk of self-harm or suicidal ideation increased by 89% (RR = 1.89, 95% CI, 1.08, 3.29) in women who experienced lactational mastitis.

MEDICATIONS AND BREASTFEEDING

PERINATAL SUBSTANCE USE

MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH AND CHILD OUTCOMES

Biaggi A, Hazelgrove K, Waites F, Bind RH, Lawrence AJ, Fuste M, Conroy S, Howard LM, Mehta MA, Miele M, Seneviratne G, Pawlby S, Pariante CM, Dazzan P. Psychol Med. 2023 Sep 14:1-12.

Women at risk of postpartum psychosis (PP) as a group, regardless of whether they developed a psychiatric relapse within 4 weeks after delivery, had less synchronous mother-infant interactions and had infants with less optimal cognitive, language, motor and socio-emotional development than healthy controls. In particular, boys of at-risk women had the lowest scores in cognitive, language and motor development and in mother-infant interaction, while girls of the at-risk women had the lowest scores in socio-emotional development. The synchrony in the dyad predicted infant cognitive and language development. There was no evidence for a difference in mother-infant interaction nor in infant development between the at-risk-unwell and at-risk-well groups.

Findings suggest that FHR variability may be an early precursor of infant self-regulation that underlies the association between mother’s prenatal depressive symptoms and infant self-regulation. Infants of mothers with higher levels of prenatal depressive symptoms could be at risk of self-regulation problems, partially due to their lower FHR variability.

This study suggests that increasing maternal depressive symptoms over the perinatal period is associated with poorer executive function (EF) outcomes in children at age 4 – independent of prenatal smoking, drinking, or antidepressant use. Depressive chronicity, severity, and postpartum influences may play crucial roles in determining childhood outcomes of EF.

Dias CC, Pinto TM, Figueiredo B. Behav Sleep Med. 2023 Nov 2;21(6):695-711.

While controlling for maternal postnatal depressive symptoms, our results revealed that (1) infant negative affectivity at two weeks partially mediated the impact of maternal prenatal depressive symptoms on sleep anxiety at six months, and (2) this mediation is independent of the infant’s sex.

Phua DY, Chew CSM, Tan YL, Ng BJK, Lee FKL, Tham MMY. Front Pediatr. 2023 Sep 14;11:1221232.

This meta-analysis, comprising 74 studies with 321,966 mother-child dyads across 21 countries, revealed significant associations of prenatal psychological distress with both adverse and positive child socioemotional outcomes. Notably, the effect sizes for the association of psychological distress with positive child outcomes were smaller compared to adverse outcomes. Positive prenatal mental health, on the other hand, was significantly associated with positive socioemotional outcomes but not adverse outcomes.

MENOPAUSE AND MENTAL HEALTH

OTHER TOPICS IN WOMEN’S MENTAL HEALTH

Thompson SM. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2023 Sep 14.