PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Mothers' depression impacts mother-infant relationships

women with depression during pregnancy, or with a history of depression, had a reduced quality of mother-infant interaction

2021-05-25
(Press-News.org) In a study funded by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) researchers examined whether depression, either before or during pregnancy, affects the mother-infant relationship. The research was published today (Tuesday 25 May) in BJPsych Open.

Researchers looked at the quality of mother-infant interactions eight weeks and 12 months after birth in three groups of women; healthy women, women with clinically-significant depression in pregnancy, and women with a lifetime history of depression but healthy pregnancies.

The study used a sample of 131 women: 51 healthy mothers with no current or past depression, 52 mothers with depression referred to the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Perinatal Psychiatry Services, and 28 'history-only' mothers with a history of depression but no current diagnosis.

Quality of interaction At both eight weeks and 12 months, mothers and babies in the depression and history-only groups displayed a reduced quality of interaction. Specifically, at eight weeks, 62% in the group of mothers with depression during pregnancy and 56% in the group of mothers with a history-only of depression scored in the lowest category of relationship quality, where therapeutic interventions are recommended, compared with 37% in the healthy group. All mother and baby groups improved in their quality of interaction between 8 weeks and 12 months which researchers say indicates that with time all mothers and their babies can become more attuned to each other.

At six days, new-born babies of mothers in the depression and history-only groups had decreased social-interactive behaviour, which, together with maternal socio-economic difficulties, was also predictive of a reduced quality of interaction, while postnatal depression was not.

Dr Rebecca Bind, lead author and Research Associate at Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, says: "Our findings suggest that perinatal mental health professionals should offer support not only to women with depression during pregnancy, but also to pregnant women with a history of depression, as they may also be at risk of interaction difficulties. Future research should try to understand why a history of depression, despite a healthy perinatal period, may impact the developing relationship."

Senior author Carmine Pariante, Professor of Biological Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London and Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We recommend that healthcare professionals provide pregnant women at risk of interaction difficulties with examples of positive caregiving behaviours, and with ways to engage their babies and understand their needs, all of which could be incorporated into parenting and birth classes and health visits. We also suggest that interventions that can help the mother-infant interaction should be made more widely available, such as video feedback, where a clinician and mother discuss what behaviours work best to engage and comfort the baby, and structured mother-baby activities, such as art and singing groups. This is especially important because we know that the early years are vital for future mental health and wellbeing."

The relationship between mothers and infants was assessed using the Crittenden Child-Adult Relationship Experimental-Index which assesses 'dyadic synchrony', a term that describes the quality of the relationship as a whole. Researchers analysed films of three-minute interactions filmed at eight weeks and 12 months postnatal. Mothers played with their babies while researchers scored the relationship based on seven aspects of behaviour: facial expression, vocal expression, position and body contact, affection and arousal, turn-taking contingencies, control, and choice of activity. The researchers are grateful to the women and their infants who participated in the PRAM-D study and to everyone on the study team who recruited, collected, and analysed data.

INFORMATION:

Notes to editors Contact To receive a copy of the embargoed paper or to arrange interviews please contact the Communications team at NIHR Maudsley BRC: * Franca Davenport, Communications and Engagement Manager, NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, franca.davenport@kcl.ac.uk * Serena Rianjongdee, Communications and Engagement Officer, NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, serena.rianjongdee@kcl.ac.uk

About King's College London and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London is one of the top 10 UK universities in the world (QS World University Rankings, 2020) and among the oldest in England. King's has more than 31,000 students (including more than 12,800 postgraduates) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 8,500 staff. The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London is the premier centre for mental health and related neurosciences research in Europe. It produces more highly cited outputs (top 1% citations) on mental health than any other centre (SciVal 2019) and on this metric we have risen from 16th (2014) to 4th (2019) in the world for highly cited neuroscience outputs. World-leading research from the IoPPN has made, and continues to make, an impact on how we understand, prevent and treat mental illness and other conditions that affect the brain. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn @KingsIoPPN The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) NIHR is the nation's largest funder of health and care research. The NIHR: Funds, supports and delivers high quality research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care Engages and involves patients, carers and the public in order to improve the reach, quality and impact of research Attracts, trains and supports the best researchers to tackle the complex health and care challenges of the future Invests in world-class infrastructure and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services Partners with other public funders, charities and industry to maximise the value of research to patients and the economy The NIHR was established in 2006 to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. In addition to its national role, the NIHR supports applied health research for the direct and primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, using UK aid from the UK government.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

UBCO researchers examine how pandemics impact the homeless

2021-05-25
A team of UBC Okanagan researchers is looking at strategies that could help the homeless during a pandemic. John Graham, director of UBC Okanagan's School of Social Work, says while many populations have been targeted with guidelines to keep them safe, homeless people have been mostly overlooked. While this research project began a few years ago, Graham says his team quickly turned their attention to the impact of COVID-19. His team looked at peer-reviewed publications, dating back to 1984, that examined how homeless populations were impacted by other highly contagious or communicable illnesses such as tuberculous, H1NI and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ...

Delivering "serendipity": Seemingly random product discovery, aided by technology

2021-05-25
Researchers from University of Sydney, University of Florida, and Rutgers University published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the role of serendipity in customer satisfaction and how marketers can provide it. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Serendipity: Chance Encounters in the Marketplace Enhance Consumer Satisfaction" and is authored by Aekyoung Kim, Felipe Affonso, Juliano Laran, and Kristina Durante. Netflix knows you are tired of choice. The streaming service recently introduced what might be the perfect hack: a shuffle button that eliminates choice and plays a randomly selected program for the consumer. Under COVID-19 restrictions, the newly homebound were happy to have so many programming ...

"Scuba-diving" lizards use bubble attached to snout to breathe underwater

2021-05-25
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - A team of evolutionary biologists including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York have shown that some Anolis lizards, or anoles, have adapted to rebreathe exhaled air underwater using a bubble clinging to their snouts. Semi-aquatic anoles live along neotropical streams and frequently dive for refuge, remaining underwater for up to 16 minutes. Lindsey Swierk, assistant research professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University, documented this behavior in a Costa Rican anole species in 2019. She had been shocked to see an anole submerge itself for such long periods and used a GoPro underwater to document the behavior. "It's easy to imagine the advantage that these small, slow anoles gain by hiding from their predators ...

Intermittent fasting in mice effective at promoting long term memory retention

2021-05-25
A new study from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London has established that Intermittent Fasting (IF) is an effective means of improving long term memory retention and generating new adult hippocampal neurons in mice, in what the researchers hope has the potential to slow the advance of cognitive decline in older people. The study, published today in Molecular Biology, found that a calorie restricted diet via every other day fasting was an effective means of promoting Klotho gene expression in mice. Klotho, which is often referred to as the "longevity gene" has now been shown in this study to play ...

COVID-19 infections were high among hospital staff but re-infection rates are very low

2021-05-25
A study of healthcare workers shows they were three times more likely to become infected during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the general population. Around one in five of workers who were infected were asymptomatic and unaware they had COVID-19. The study published in ERJ Open Research [1] also shows that it was not only frontline staff who faced the higher risk, suggesting that there was transmission between staff and within the wider community. However, health care workers who had been infected were very unlikely to contract COVID-19 a second time in the following six months. The research was led by Professor James Chalmers, a consultant respiratory physician from the University of Dundee, UK. He said: "We have always believed that front line health workers face a high risk ...

Rubisco proton production can enhance CO2 acquisition

Rubisco proton production can enhance CO2 acquisition
2021-05-24
Rubisco is arguably the most abundant--and most important--protein on Earth. This enzyme drives photosynthesis, the process that plants use to convert sunlight into energy to fuel crop growth and yield. Rubisco's role is to capture and fix carbon dioxide (CO2) into sugar that fuels the plant's activities. However, as much as Rubisco benefits plant growth, it also can operate at a notoriously slow pace that creates a hindrance to photosynthetic efficiency.  About 20 percent of the time Rubisco fixes oxygen (O2) molecules instead of CO2, costing the plant energy that could have been utilized ...

Can antibiotics treat human diseases in addition to bacterial infections?

Can antibiotics treat human diseases in addition to bacterial infections?
2021-05-24
According to researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago, the antibiotics used to treat common bacterial infections, like pneumonia and sinusitis, may also be used to treat human diseases, like cancer. Theoretically, at least. As outlined in a new Nature Communications study, the UIC College of Pharmacy team has shown in laboratory experiments that eukaryotic ribosomes can be modified to respond to antibiotics in the same way that prokaryotic ribosomes do. Fungi, plants, and animals -- like humans -- are eukaryotes; they are made up of cells that have a clearly defined nucleus. Bacteria, on the other hand, are prokaryotes. They are made up of cells, which do not have a nucleus and have a different structure, size and properties. The ribosomes of eukaryotic and procaryotic cells, ...

Columbia Engineering team builds first hacker-resistant cloud software system

Columbia Engineering team builds first hacker-resistant cloud software system
2021-05-24
New York, NY--May 24, 2021--Whenever you buy something on Amazon, your customer data is automatically updated and stored on thousands of virtual machines in the cloud. For businesses like Amazon, ensuring the safety and security of the data of its millions of customers is essential. This is true for large and small organizations alike. But up to now, there has been no way to guarantee that a software system is secure from bugs, hackers, and vulnerabilities. Columbia Engineering researchers may have solved this security issue. They have developed SeKVM, the ...

RMRS scientists recommend approach to adapt to uncertainty in wildland management

2021-05-24
MISSOULA, Mont., May 24, 2021 -- Scientists from the Rocky Mountain Research Station collaborated to explore how research and management can confront increasing uncertainty due to climate change, invasive species, and land use conversion. Wildland management and policy have long depended on the idea that ecosystems are fundamentally static, and periodic events like droughts are just temporary detours from a larger, stable equilibrium. However, ecosystems are currently changing at unprecedented rates. For example, bark beetle infestations, droughts, and severe wildfires have killed large numbers of trees across the western ...

Storytelling reduces pain and stress, and increases oxytocin in hospitalized children

2021-05-24
A new research, carried out by the D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR) and the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), has shown for the first time that storytelling is capable of providing physiological and emotional benefits to children in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the official scientific journal of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. The study was led by Guilherme Brockington, PhD, from UFABC, and Jorge Moll, MD, PhD, from IDOR. "During storytelling, something happens that we call 'narrative ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Cryptographic protocol enables secure data sharing in the floating wind energy sector

Can drinking coffee or tea help prevent head and neck cancer?

Development of a global innovative drug in eye drop form for treating dry age-related macular degeneration

Scientists unlock secrets behind flowering of the king of fruits

Texas A&M researchers illuminate the mysteries of icy ocean worlds

Prosthetic material could help reduce infections from intravenous catheters

Can the heart heal itself? New study says it can

Microscopic discovery in cancer cells could have a big impact

Rice researchers take ‘significant leap forward’ with quantum simulation of molecular electron transfer

Breakthrough new material brings affordable, sustainable future within grasp

How everyday activities inside your home can generate energy

Inequality weakens local governance and public satisfaction, study finds

Uncovering key molecular factors behind malaria’s deadliest strain

UC Davis researchers help decode the cause of aggressive breast cancer in women of color

Researchers discovered replication hubs for human norovirus

SNU researchers develop the world’s most sensitive flexible strain sensor

Tiny, wireless antennas use light to monitor cellular communication

Neutrality has played a pivotal, but under-examined, role in international relations, new research shows

Study reveals right whales live 130 years — or more

Researchers reveal how human eyelashes promote water drainage

Pollinators most vulnerable to rising global temperatures are flies, study shows

DFG to fund eight new research units

Modern AI systems have achieved Turing's vision, but not exactly how he hoped

Quantum walk computing unlocks new potential in quantum science and technology

Construction materials and household items are a part of a long-term carbon sink called the “technosphere”

First demonstration of quantum teleportation over busy Internet cables

Disparities and gaps in breast cancer screening for women ages 40 to 49

US tobacco 21 policies and potential mortality reductions by state

AI-driven approach reveals hidden hazards of chemical mixtures in rivers

Older age linked to increased complications after breast reconstruction

[Press-News.org] Mothers' depression impacts mother-infant relationships
women with depression during pregnancy, or with a history of depression, had a reduced quality of mother-infant interaction