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. 2013 Sep;38(9):1630-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.01.008. Epub 2013 Feb 22.

Prenatal maternal mood is associated with altered diurnal cortisol in adolescence

Kieran J O'Donnell  1 , Vivette Glover, Jennifer Jenkins, Dillon Browne, Yoav Ben-Shlomo, Jean Golding, Thomas G O'Connor
Affiliations

Prenatal maternal mood is associated with altered diurnal cortisol in adolescence

Kieran J O'Donnell et al. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Experimental animal work shows that prenatal stress has a persisting effect on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis of offspring. The implications of these findings for human health and development are not yet clear.

Methods: The data are based on the ALSPAC cohort, a prospective longitudinal study of a community sample that has followed mothers and children from pregnancy. When the children were aged 15 years, diurnal cortisol samples were collected at wake-up, 30 min post-awakening and at afternoon and evening times on up to three consecutive days on n=889 adolescents. Diurnal cortisol was predicted from prenatal anxiety and depression, obstetric, life-style, socio-demographic, and postnatal covariates.

Results: Multilevel model analysis indicated that maternal prenatal anxiety was associated with a modest alteration of diurnal cortisol, indexed by a reduced cortisol awakening response and flatter diurnal slope. The effects were independent of psychosocial and obstetric covariates and measures of maternal postnatal anxiety; effects were similar for prenatal maternal depression. There was no association between adolescent cortisol and paternal prenatal anxiety.

Conclusions: There are small but persisting associations between maternal prenatal mood and diurnal cortisol in the child that persist into adolescence and may constitute a programming effect.

Keywords: ALSPAC; Cortisol; Developmental programming; HPA axis; Prenatal anxiety.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Consort Diagram for Cortisol Collection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Diurnal cortisol values for adolescents whose mothers were anxious (+1 SD) and not anxious (−1 SD) at 32 weeks gestation, controlling for covariates.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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