Adverse childhood experiences combined with emotional and physical abuse by the partner predict antenatal depression

Antenatal depressive symptoms are strongly predicted by the severity of pre-menstrual syndrome: results of partial least squares analysis

“…“Yes” item to any question implies abuse. Previously, we detected that AAS item 1 is most important item to predict AD (Abe et al, 2021).…”

“…It comprises 28 questions organized into 10 items, namely psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, mental neglect, physical neglect, domestic violence, substance misuse in the family, family psychiatric disease, separation or divorce in the family, and family members with criminal behaviors. Using all ACE items, we conducted factor analysis and identified two factors, namely a) mental and physical neglect (dubbed ACEneglect) and b) psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, domestic violence, a family history of substance misuse, and a family history of psychiatric disease (dubbed ACE Family-Dysfunction & Abuse or ACE-FDA) (Abe et al, 2022). Therefore, we used the ACEneglect and ACE-FDA factor scores in the present study.…”

“…A recent systematic review of large population-based studies found that depression was more common during pregnancy than after delivery (17% and 13%, respectively), and an average of 39% among those who experienced AD went on to have postpartum depression (PPD), which makes AD as one of the major risk factors of PPD (Underwood et al, 2016). Furthermore, PPD is associated with maternal and familiar distress, suicidal risk, and adverse childhood experiences including child abuse (Abe et al, 2022; Ayers et al, 2019; Duan et al, 2019). AD severity is strongly predicted by psychological stressors such as relation dissatisfaction, unintended pregnancy, abuse by the partner and early lifetime trauma (Abe et al, 2022).…”

“…Furthermore, PPD is associated with maternal and familiar distress, suicidal risk, and adverse childhood experiences including child abuse (Abe et al, 2022; Ayers et al, 2019; Duan et al, 2019). AD severity is strongly predicted by psychological stressors such as relation dissatisfaction, unintended pregnancy, abuse by the partner and early lifetime trauma (Abe et al, 2022).…”

“…There is also evidence that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are strongly associated with the onset of AD (Abe et al, 2021), major depressive disorder (Maes et al, 2019; Maes et al, 2022), and possibly premenstrual syndrome (PMS) (Jacobs et al, 2015; Yang et al, 2022). Such findings suggest that ACEs may underlie the association between PMS and AD.…”