Maternal attachment insecurity is a potent predictor of depressive symptoms in the early postnatal period

Robakis, Thalia; Williams, Katherine E.; Crowe, Susan; Lin, Kathleen Watson; Gannon, Jamie; Rasgon, Natalie

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2015.09.067

Cited by 32 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Failure of the new parent to identify an adequate internal blueprint for caregiving, such as might occur in individuals who did not receive appropriate caregiving in their own childhoods, could be associated with role confusion and risk for depression 13 . The findings that adult attachment style [14][15][16] and parenting style experienced in childhood 17 strongly predict perinatal depression are consistent with this second potential causal pathway.…”

Section: Allostatic Load Versus Role Transition In Risk For Perinatalsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…As we were interested in identifying mediating pathways between early life adversity and perinatal depression, we also explored DNA methylation patterns in association with insecure attachment style, a powerful risk factor for postpartum depression 14,15 that has been hypothesized to mediate the effects of childhood adversity on risk for depression in adulthood 36 and to be critical for shaping maternal behavior 12 . We reasoned that attachment insecurity could be an important precedent of perinatal depression in the role transition theory discussed above.…”

Section: Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Epigenetic signatures of attachment insecurity and childhood adversity provide evidence for role transition in the pathogenesis of perinatal depression

et al. 2020

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Early life adversity and insecure attachment style are known risk factors for perinatal depression. The biological pathways linking these experiences, however, have not yet been elucidated. We hypothesized that overlap in patterns of DNA methylation in association with each of these phenomena could identify genes and pathways of importance. Specifically, we wished to distinguish between allostatic-load and role-transition hypotheses of perinatal depression. We conducted a large-scale analysis of methylation patterns across 5 × 10 6 individual CG dinucleotides in 54 women participating in a longitudinal prospective study of perinatal depression, using clustering-based criteria for significance to control for multiple comparisons. We identified 1580 regions in which methylation density was associated with childhood adversity, 3 in which methylation density was associated with insecure attachment style, and 6 in which methylation density was associated with perinatal depression. Shorter telomeres were observed in association with childhood trauma but not with perinatal depression or attachment insecurity. A detailed analysis of methylation density in the oxytocin receptor gene revealed similar patterns of DNA methylation in association with perinatal depression and with insecure attachment style, while childhood trauma was associated with a distinct methylation pattern in this gene. Clinically, attachment style was strongly associated with depression only in pregnancy and the early postpartum, whereas the association of childhood adversity with depression was time-invariant. We concluded that the broad DNA methylation signature and reduced telomere length associated with childhood adversity could indicate increased allostatic load across multiple body systems, whereas perinatal depression and attachment insecurity may be narrower phenotypes with more limited DNA methylation signatures outside the CNS, and no apparent association with telomere length or, by extension, allostatic load. In contrast, the finding of matching DNA methylation patterns within the oxytocin receptor gene for perinatal depression and attachment insecurity is consistent with the theory that the perinatal period is a time of activation of existing attachment schemas for the purpose of structuring the mother-child relationship, and that such activation may occur in part through specific patterns of methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene.

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Section: Allostatic Load Versus Role Transition In Risk For Perinatalsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epigenetic signatures of attachment insecurity and childhood adversity provide evidence for role transition in the pathogenesis of perinatal depression

et al. 2020

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“…The finding that depression is related only to the most severe form of gestational hyperglycemia, that is, insulin‐requiring GDM, can be interpreted in several ways. One possibility is behavioral: given that women with histories of depression have generally higher levels of depressive symptomatology in pregnancy , perhaps women with higher levels of hopelessness or amotivation may be less diligent about dietary control and thus become more likely to require insulin.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depression precedes, but does not follow, gestational diabetes

Clark

Rasgon

Reed

et al. 2018

Acta Psychiatr Scand

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Objectives To determine whether past history of depression is associated with increased rates of gestational diabetes, and whether history of gestational diabetes is associated with increased rates of postpartum depression. Research design Data for this case–control study consisted of de‐identified chart records for 1439 women who received pregnancy care at a large university hospital between 1998 and 2017. Results A history of depression prior to pregnancy was associated with gestational diabetes requiring insulin, although not with subtler degrees of gestational hyperglycemia. Diabetes in pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk of postpartum depression. Trauma history was associated with both impaired glucose tolerance in pregnancy and postpartum depression. Conclusions Past episodes of depression increase risk for the most severe form of gestational diabetes; however, gestational diabetes does not contribute significantly to risk for postpartum depression. This suggests a unidirectional association, unlike the bidirectional association of diabetes with depression among the general population. History of trauma increases risk for both gestational hyperglycemia and postpartum depression, suggesting important health effects of trauma that may differ measurably from those associated with depression.

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“…This was further explored in two recent studies;, the first showing maternal depression mediated the relationship between maternal attachment style, as measured on the Attachment Style Interview, and the quality of the mother-infant bond (8). While the second study found a woman's own insecure attachment, measured using the Attachment Style Questionnaire in pregnancy, increased her risk of depression in the postpartum period (9).…”

Section: From Pregnancy To Early Childhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depression and parenting: the need for improved intervention models

Galbally

Lewis

2017

Current Opinion in Psychology

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Highlights Parental depression is associated with a variety of indicators of poorer quality parenting.  The established impact on parenting includes increased stress, negative behaviors and potentially a reduction in the quality of the parent-child relationship  Child developmental outcomes follow from both depression, parenting and their interaction.  Current treatments of depression have not yet been shown to reduce the impact of parental depression on parenting or child outcomes. Abstract:The impact of maternal depression on parenting is well established and there is a clear interaction between maternal depression and parenting that is predictive of child outcomes. The research on paternal depression is more limited but suggests the father's mental health may be an independent risk factor for both parenting and child outcomes. There is insufficient evidence that treatment of depression alone-be it through pharmacological or psychological interventions -is able to substantially reduce the impact of depression on child outcomes. The evidence of interventions aimed at parenting and/or child outcomes in the context of depression is limited and the findings that are available are mixed.

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Maternal attachment insecurity is a potent predictor of depressive symptoms in the early postnatal period

Cited by 32 publications

References 54 publications

Epigenetic signatures of attachment insecurity and childhood adversity provide evidence for role transition in the pathogenesis of perinatal depression

Epigenetic signatures of attachment insecurity and childhood adversity provide evidence for role transition in the pathogenesis of perinatal depression

Depression precedes, but does not follow, gestational diabetes

Depression and parenting: the need for improved intervention models

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