The Associations Between Pre- and Postnatal Maternal Symptoms of Distress and Preschooler’s Symptoms of ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Anxiety

Abstract

Objective: To examine the association between perinatal maternal symptoms of anxiety or depression and preschooler's symptoms of ADHD-IA, ADHD-HI, ODD, and CD, and whether associations varied by time of exposure or gender.Method: Children, aged 3.5 years (n = 1195), recruited from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, were assessed with a semi-structured psychiatric interview.Questionnaires (SCL-5) provided information about perinatal maternal symptoms of anxiety and depression. We used mixed effect Poisson regression.Results: No significant timing effects were shown for perinatal maternal symptoms of anxiety or depression, which increased the average number of ADHD-IA symptoms by 1.4%, ADHD-HI by 1.1% and ODD by 2.1% and 2.6%. The effects on ADHD symptoms were most marked for boys, whereas girls were more susceptible for ODD symptoms. Conclusion:Perinatal maternal symptoms of anxiety and depression represented stable, but modest risk factors for developing symptoms of ADHD and ODD in preschool children.

Sex Differences in Vulnerability to Prenatal Stress: a Review of the Recent Literature

“…Using data from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort ( N  = 1214), Herbison et al found that prenatal stress was positively associated with depression/anxiety symptoms at age 20 in male but not female offspring after adjusting for postnatal childhood stress trajectories [55]. In the Preschool ADHD study, Bendiksen et al [39] found no evidence of sex dependence in the association between maternal prenatal anxiety and depression symptoms and early childhood anxiety symptoms [39]. Finally, in a case-control study ( N  = 1258), Gilman et al evaluated the association between maternal inflammatory cytokines and odds of major depressive disorder (MDD) in adult offspring (mean age 39.7).…”

“…Among female offspring, there was greater evidence for positive associations between PNMS and early childhood difficulties with cognitive [48, 67] and motor development [41•, 66], and adulthood cardiovascular disease risk [60]. In contrast, we uncovered greater evidence for PNMS sensitivity in male offspring for early childhood wheezing/asthma [58•, 59], externalizing pathology [39, 54], and schizophrenia spectrum disorders [42•]. It is noteworthy that males have a greater risk in the general population for all of the adverse health outcomes showing male-biased PNMS programming effects in this review (early childhood asthma/wheezing [58•, 59, 74], externalizing pathology [39, 54, 75], and schizophrenia spectrum disorders [42•, 76]).…”

“…In contrast, we uncovered greater evidence for PNMS sensitivity in male offspring for early childhood wheezing/asthma [58•, 59], externalizing pathology [39, 54], and schizophrenia spectrum disorders [42•]. It is noteworthy that males have a greater risk in the general population for all of the adverse health outcomes showing male-biased PNMS programming effects in this review (early childhood asthma/wheezing [58•, 59, 74], externalizing pathology [39, 54, 75], and schizophrenia spectrum disorders [42•, 76]). It may be that PNMS contributes to, or exacerbates, vulnerabilities for these sexually dimorphic health conditions [77].…”

“…To further complicate matters, a number of studies have shown that PNMS x sex interactions are dependent on other factors, creating higher-order interactions. The most well-established of these factors is timing of exposure [77, 78], which was highlighted by many studies in this review [29, 36, 39, 43, 46, 49, 54, 66, 70•]. Finally, including child sex as a moderator may be insufficient: Evaluating PNMS programming may require entirely different models with different functional forms for girls and boys.…”

A Biopsychosocial and Long Term Perspective on Child Behavioral Problems : Impact of Risk and Resilience

“…For example, the Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study (BONDS) is a Norwegian study initiated in 2006 following the development of social competence and behavioral problems in 1159 children (Naerde et al, 2014). The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study (MoBa), with a consecutive enrollment between 1999 and 2008 including 111 000 pregnant women and their children, is yet another prospective longitudinal study including aspects of child mental health (Bendiksen et al, 2015). In the Danish Copenhagen Child Cohort (DCCC) including 6090 children followed from birth to preadolescence, prevalence and risk factors for psychiatric disorders have been examined (Elberling et al, 2016).…”