Changes in infant emotion regulation following maternal cognitive behavioral therapy for postpartum depression

It has been known for some time that mothers suffering post-partum depression often have children who are more likely to develop psychological problems as they mature.  These mothers, if nursing, are likely to resist taking antidepressant medication.  This study found that 9 weeks of cognitive-behavioral therapy was associated with infant emotional regulation skills to become normalized in the children whose mothers received CBT.

Article link, click here.

The web article above is not a very clear article about the implications of this research.  The Brain and Behavior Research e-news for June 10 explains the implications of this research so much better than the web article, so I’m going to quote from their newsletter directly:

“Is it possible to disrupt the process by which a mother can transmit risk for psychiatric disorders to her offspring? New research suggests one way in which this may be possible.

Risk factors encoded in the genes of both parents are part of the inheritance of every child and are established upon the union of egg and sperm at the very dawn of each life. These inherited factors aside, cross-generational transmission of risk can occur in other ways. Research over several decades indicates, for instance, that the mother’s physical and mental health during pregnancy and after childbirth can contribute to her child’s risk of developing psychiatric conditions.

There is specific evidence that within the first year after birth, children born to women who suffer from major depression during pregnancy or from postpartum major depression have a significantly greater risk of developing problems in parts of their brain that regulate the emotions. This, in turn, has been associated with their heightened risk for subsequently developing various psychiatric and other health problems.

A research team led by 2015 BBRF Young Investigator Ryan J. Van Lieshout, M.D., Ph.D., FRCPC, of McMaster University, Canada, has published results of a study that was the focus of his grant, investigating whether treatment of mothers with postpartum depression during the first postpartum year can improve emotion-regulation in their infants.

The results, appearing in the journal Depression and Anxiety, indicate that treating women diagnosed with postpartum depression with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for 9 weeks can indeed improve infant emotion-regulatory capacity. The study’s first author was John Krzeczkowski, Ph.D.

The researchers enrolled 80 mother-child pairs in their study. Half of the mothers had been diagnosed with postpartum depression. These women agreed to receive 9 weeks of CBT. The other 40 new mothers, socio-demographically matched, were not depressed; they and their infants served as controls. (The two groups of infants were also matched, in terms of sex and age).

Both groups of mothers and their children were tested at the beginning of the time at which the depressed mothers began CBT and after those treatments ended 9 weeks later. At both assessments, infants of the 80 mothers were tested for biomarkers of emotion regulation using two technology-based methods—one, a form of brain wave recording, the other measuring variability in infant heart rate. Mothers and their partners also separately filled out questionnaires asking them to assess emotion-regulation in the infant.

At the time of the first assessment, infants of women with postpartum depression exhibited poorer emotion regulation compared to the healthy control infants. The second assessment, 9 weeks later, showed that infants of the mothers who had been treated with CBT had improved results in both the brain wave and heart rate-variability tests, and scored higher in questionnaires filled out by both their mothers and their mothers’ partners. The researchers describe the emotion-regulation capacity of the infants at that point as “no longer differing from the healthy control infants,” using the measures of the study.

The study didn’t follow up the mother-infant pairs over a longer period to determine if the emotion-regulation improvements in the infants was sustained over time. This will be a subject for future studies. The researchers said the improvements seen in the infants of CBT-treated mothers in biomarkers for emotion-regulatory capacity may reflect more effective regulation by prefrontal networks in the infant brain, or reductions in amygdala hyperactivity.

How might these changes in the infant brain have been related to maternal treatment for major depression? The researchers suggested that treated mothers may have been more responsive to their infants’ needs, and hence their behavior with respect to the child was “more predictable.” The infants, they said, thus may have made beneficial “adaptive changes in physiological and behavioral systems underlying emotion regulation.”

If replicated, the team said, the results suggest the benefit of treatment of depressed mothers within the first postnatal year to lower risk of psychiatric and other negative impacts in their infants.”

Introverts vs. Extroverts: A Family Feud

Many families have one or more members who are more extroverted and one or more who are more introverted.  This article makes some helpful distinctions between various kinds of shyness and also includes some helpful tips for families to help the more introverted members become more comfortable with others. Link, click here.

Everything You Never Knew About the ADHD Brain

This article uses a metaphor about the ADHD brain that clearly describes more things about how the person with ADHD experiences life than any metaphor I’ve ever read.  If you work with any clients with ADHD I encourage you to read it and share it with them.  I think you’ll find the metaphor helps both you and them (and their parents or spouse) understand and have more patience with the person with an ADHD brain. Link, click here.

Will I Ever Be a ‘Good Enough’ Mother?

This article is written for mothers with ADHD, but I think it would be helpful to all mothers who have multiple young children.  See what you think. Link, click here.

Lobster diver says he was swallowed by humpback whale near Cape Cod

Skeptics have argued for centuries that the story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale could not possibly be true.  But here is a real story of a contemporary lobster fisherman in Cape Cod who last week was swallowed (and fortunately regurgitated) by a humpback whale. Link, click here.

Court vindicates British researcher after losing job for questioning transgender ideology

Here a British appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and said that in a democratic society, people should be free to express opinions on issues that are controversial in order to promote the free exchange of ideas.  Therefore the appeals court protected her from discrimination based on expressing her views. Link, click here.

The Health Benefits of Coffee

There are downsides to most of the things we eat or drink, but coffee (in moderation) appears to be one that is mostly positive.  It has been shown to reduce the likelihood of Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, gallstones, depression, suicide, cirrhosis, liver cancer, melanoma and prostate cancer.

The only group for which it is not recommended is pregnant or nursing mothers. Link, click here.

Girlfriend gets revenge on cheating boyfriend, takes girls’ trip with other woman

If you enjoy a story about sweet revenge, this is it.  Two women, who both thought they were in an exclusive relationship with a man, found out about each other four days before a vacation trip to Turkey.  Without telling the man, they traveled to Turkey with the man, and once there, dumped the man and had a girl’s vacation together.  I know vengeance isn’t biblical (Rom. 12:19), but I really think this guy deserved it. Link, click here.