Study finds symptoms of depression during pregnancy linked to specific brain activity

After giving birth, around 80% of women suffer from the “baby blues.” This is usually a short period of low mood that goes away within a few days. However, around one in seven women develops postpartum depression, a more serious form of depression that affects the bond between mother and baby and can have long-term consequences. These women can’t seem to control the negative feelings that can arise after giving birth.

A group of European researchers has found that activity in specific regions deep in the brain is associated with negative emotion regulation and a tendency toward depressive symptoms in healthy pregnant women. By examining this activity and how women regulate their emotions, the researchers hope to identify women at risk of postpartum depression.

Presenting your work ECNP Conference in MilanPresenter Franziska Weinmar (University of Tübingen, Germany) said: “This is one of the first studies to compare brain activity in pregnant and non-pregnant women. The ability to regulate emotions is essential for mental health, and this interplay was our starting point.”

The survey results are Published In the journal Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology.

The researchers studied 15 healthy pregnant women with very high estrogen levels due to pregnancy. The women were in the fifth or sixth month after giving birth for the first time. They compared these women with 32 non-pregnant women whose estrogen levels naturally fluctuate during their menstrual cycle.

Each woman was placed in an MRI scanner and shown upsetting or disturbing images, after which she was asked to regulate her emotional state using cognitive reappraisal, a technique that aims to modify your emotional state by changing your thoughts and reinterpreting the situation.

Franziska Weinmar adds: “We asked all women in the study how they dealt with negative emotions and found that the pregnant women in the study, in contrast to their non-pregnant counterparts, reported very little attempt to change their emotional perspective using cognitive reappraisal. However, when asked to control their emotions while undergoing an MRI scan, they were able to control their emotional state just as well as non-pregnant women.”

“While pregnant and non-pregnant women have a similar ability to manage their emotions by deliberately reinterpreting situations, it appears that pregnant women have a harder time taking this step to consciously control these negative emotions, even if they are able to cope in other ways.

“MRI scans showed that pregnant women who had greater amygdala activity while regulating their emotions were less successful at regulating their emotions. What’s more, pregnant women with greater amygdala activity reported more symptoms of depression.”

Franziska Weinmar added: “The findings should be interpreted with caution – it is a small sample size and we are the first to tackle this. However, if larger studies confirm the higher amygdala activity in women at risk of postnatal depression, it may be possible to assess and specifically target these women during this vulnerable period – for example, by training them in emotion regulation skills. This could be one way to combat postnatal depression.”

Dr. Susana Carmona (Gregorio Marañón Hospital, Madrid) commented: “Studies like this are essential to understand pregnancy, one of the most demanding physiological processes humans experience. It’s surprising how little we still know. Recently, the FDA approved the first treatment for postpartum depression.”

“However, we still have a long way to go to understand what happens in the brain during pregnancy, to identify biomarkers that indicate risk of developing perinatal psychiatric disorders, and to design strategies to prevent suffering for mothers and infants during this delicate and crucial perinatal period,” added Dr Carmona, who was not involved in the study.