Maternal depressive symptoms during and after pregnancy are associated with offspring ADHD symptoms during early childhood

A new study by Wolford et al. (2017) found that maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy are highly stable and mothers with high depressive symptoms at the beginning of pregnancy have high depressive symptoms throughout pregnancy. Children of mothers with consistently high depressive symptoms during pregnancy had more ADHD symptoms and were almost three times more likely to have clinically significant ADHD symptoms at 3 to 6 years of age. In addition, maternal depressive symptoms after pregnancy added to the prenatal effect. Children whose mothers had high depressive symptoms both during and after pregnancy had the highest ADHD symptoms. The study was able to show that none of these associations were accounted for by a number of perinatal, maternal and neonatal characteristics, including maternal ADHD symptoms.

The study emphasizes the need to recognize the mothers at risk of depressive symptoms early in pregnancy and the need to study interventions for depression during pregnancy.

The study has been reported on in Helsingin Sanomat https://www.hs.fi/hyvinvointi/art-2000005520723.html (in Finnish) and in Medical News Today https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320538.php (in English).

/Elina Wolford