Effects of maternal anxiety and depression during pregnancy in Chinese women on children’s heart rate and blood pressure response to stress

Abstract

Psychological disturbances, including anxiety and depression, are common during human pregnancy. Our objective was to determine whether these maternal disturbances influence cardiovascular responses of the offspring. The psychological status of 231 pregnant women was determined. Offspring (216) of these women were subsequently exposed to a video challenge stress when aged 7-9 years. Heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) of the children were determined at rest, in response to video stress and during subsequent recovery. Children's resting and stress-induced increases in HR (bpm), systolic (SBP, mm Hg) and diastolic (DBP, mm Hg) BP were all greater in children whose mothers reported anxiety during pregnancy. Values (mean±s.d.) for resting HR, SBP and DBP were 75.15±5.87, 95.37±2.72 and 66.39±4.74 for children whose mothers reported no anxiety and an average of 81.62±6.71, 97.26±2.90 and 68.86±2.82 for children whose mothers reported anxiety at any level. Respective values for stress-induced increments in HR, SBP and DBP were 14.83.±2.14, 16.41±1.97 and 12.72±2.69 for children whose mothers reported no anxiety and 17.95±3.46, 18.74±2.46 and 14.86±2.02 for children whose mothers reported any level of anxiety. Effects of maternal depression were less consistent. The effects of maternal anxiety remained in multivariate analyses, which also included children's birth weight. The results indicate a long-term influence of maternal psychological status during pregnancy on the cardiovascular responses to stress among offspring. These effects may contribute to prenatal influences on subsequent health of the offspring.

Psychobiological Markers of Allostatic Load in Depressed and Non-Depressed Mothers and Their Adolescent Offspring

“…Consistent with numerous previous findings, adolescent offspring of depressed mother showed greater levels of mental health symptoms (Betts, Williams, Najman, & Alati, 2014;Connell & Goodman, 2002;Lyons-Ruth, Easterbrooks, & Cibelli, 1997). Also, depressed mothers and their adolescents showed elevated resting heart rates, an effect that has also been previously observed (Allister, Lester, Carr, & Liu, 2001;Fan et al, 2016).…”

“…Individuals experiencing depression have been shown to have altered functioning across these physically and temporally interconnected stress response systems. Specifically, in terms of alterations to cardiac psychophysiology, those with depression have higher resting heart rates (Allister et al, 2001;Byrne et al, 2010;Fan et al, 2016), which may be due to the lower resting parasympathetic activity (i.e., heart rate variability [HRV]) observed in adolescents and adults with depression (Kemp et al, 2010;Koenig et al, 2016) and possible higher sympathetic activity (Dhar & Barton, 2016). Furthermore, those with depression tend to have higher levels of c-reactive protein, a measure of inflammation (Slavich & Irwin, 2014;Valkanova et al, 2013), although this is not found in all studies and study quality has been shown to moderate this association in a recent meta-analysis (Horn et al, 2018).…”

White coat hypertension in well‐controlled hypertensives during dental surgery‐ A case series

“…Thus, blood pressure control is important for the prevention of cardiorenal disease progression. 9 Stress and anxiety may play a crucial role in high blood pressure 10,11 ; therefore, people with white coat hypertension may be at higher risk for complications associated with high blood pressure.…”

Exploring risk factors of pregnancy anxiety: a cross-sectional study from China

“…[23] In China, Fan et al explored the effects of pregnancy anxiety on children's heart rate and blood pressure response to stress. [24] Another in China focused on risk factors for depression among Chinese doctors. [6] However, few studies have examined potential factors that contribute to anxiety during pregnancy, especially among migrants.…”