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This figure illustrates examples of baby pictures with varying valence and intensity. Participants should evaluate how happy or sad the baby is by moving the evaluation bar up or down. The more they think that an emotion is intense, the higher the ranking bar (with the permission of Anne Bjertrup: no restrictions on the use of the press) Credit: Anne Bjertrup
A pilot study has shown that pregnant women with depression or bipolar disorder (both manic and depressive) recognize babies' faces and the way they laugh or cry, unlike healthy controls. This occurs even though they currently do not exhibit depressive or manic symptoms and may be an early risk factor for the children of these women, although the authors point out that research would be needed to confirm any long-term effects . This work is presented at the ECNP congress in Barcelona.
The figures show that nearly 8% of Europeans (EU) have suffered from depression in the past 12 months, with the rate of depression among women (9.7%) being about 50% higher than that of men. About 1% of Europeans have suffered from bipolar disorder in the last 12 months *. With more than 5.1 million births in the EU each year, a significant number of pregnant women will become depressed or have bipolar disorder.
The researchers compared 22 pregnant women currently in good health but with a history of depression, and 7 people with bipolar disorder who were also doing well, against 28 healthy pregnant women. They also tested 18 non-pregnant women as controls.
Between the 27th and 39th week of pregnancy, all women were tested to see how they reacted to a series of happy or sad faces, as well as laughing and crying babies and adults. Specifically, women were asked to rate the extent to which their babies were happy or anxious based on their facial and vocal emotions (including smiles, laughter, and crying). They were also asked to identify the facial expressions of adult emotions (including happiness, sadness, fear and disgust) at different levels of intensity.
Anne Bjertrup (Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen), Senior Researcher, "In this study, we found that pregnant women with depression or bipolar disorder treat the emotional signals of the face and voice of infants differently, even when they These differences may affect the ability of these women to recognize, interpret and respond appropriately to the emotional signals of their future baby. "
The researchers found that, compared to healthy pregnant women:
- Pregnant women with bipolar disorder had difficulty recognizing all facial expressions and showed a "positive bias in facial treatment," where they better recognized happy adult faces and more positive assessments of happy faces of infants.
- On the other hand, pregnant women who were already depressed had a negative bias in the recognition of facial expressions of adults and rated the crying of babies in a more negative way.
Anne Bjertrup continued: "This is a pilot study, so we need to replicate the results within a larger sample.We know that depression and bipolar disorder are highly heritable, with up to 60% of children of parents with these emotional disorders.Genes play a role, but it is also likely that the quality of early interaction with the mother is important. Cognitive responses to infant emotional cues in pregnant women with a history of mania and / or depression may make their relationship with their child more difficult and may therefore confer an early risk to the environment.
It should be emphasized that this work does not say that affected women are "bad mothers". It simply means that because of their medical history, they may have difficulty interpreting and responding appropriately to the emotional needs of their infants and that as clinicians we need to be more aware of these. possible difficulties. These are the first days; This is the first study demonstrating this link in depression and bipolar disorder. We therefore need additional studies to design and test early screening and intervention programs that can train mothers to better interpret their children's signals.
But above all, we need evidence of any effect on children. our group is currently conducting a study of mothers with affective disorders and their infants to determine whether what we have discovered actually influences the mother-child interaction, which impacts on the psychological development of the mother-child interaction. ;child. here does not treat ".
Professor Eduard Vieta (Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona) commented: "This study adds to the growing scientific literature that shows an emotional bias in people with mood disorders, even when They are in remission, and for the first time show the difficulties faced by mothers, but the results do not imply that women with such conditions could not raise a child properly and this is not the case. proves no risk to their children in the absence of longitudinal data, the work can help us identify targets for pharmacological and psychological treatments, which can help people with depression and bipolar disorder. "
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More information:
* Incidence statistics: For depression, see read.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-… 017-graph22-en # page1, for bipolar disorder, see www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ 15935623
Conference Summary (Poster P 569) Hormones, Emotion Therapy and Prepartum Attachment in Pregnant Women with Affective Disorders (HEAPAD)
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