title: Prenatal maternal stress predicts stress reactivity at 2½ years of age: the Iowa Flood Study.
abstract: Prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) predicts psychosocial development in offspring. It has been hypothesized that during PNMS, glucocorticoids pass the placenta, reaching the foetus, leading to a long-term reprogramming and dysregulation of the foetal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. However, results are inconsistent across PNMS studies. One problem may be the confounding of objective degrees of hardship due to the stressor and subjective degrees of distress in the mother. The present study investigated the association between objective and subjective PNMS due to a natural disaster, the June 2008 Iowa floods, and stress reactivity in the offspring at 2½ years of age. Women who were pregnant during the floods were recruited, on average, within three months of the floods and their stress levels assessed. Mothers and their toddlers (n = 94 dyads) participated in a brief mother-toddler separation to induce physiological stress responses in the offspring. Salivary cortisol samples were collected four times during the procedure. We computed absolute change in cortisol (baseline to 20-minute post-stressor; baseline to 45-minute post-stressor) and Area Under the Curve with respect to increase and ground (AUCi; AUCg). Objective and subjective PNMS were positively correlated with AUCi, as was timing in gestation: the later in pregnancy the exposure occurred, the greater the cortisol increase. Controlling for objective hardship and other covariates, sex-by-subjective PNMS interactions showed a significant and positive association between subjective PNMS and Absolute Increase (45 min) and AUCi in females only, with little effect in males. These results suggest that PNMS leads to long-term alterations in the functioning of the HPA axis, evident as early as 30-months of age.
authors: Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC, Canada.
authors: Erin
authors: E
authors: Yong Ping
authors: Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC, Canada.
authors: David P
authors: DP
authors: Laplante
authors: Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC, Canada.
authors: Guillaume
authors: G
authors: Elgbeili
authors: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Salzburger Landeskrankenhaus (SALK), Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.
authors: Katharina M
authors: KM
authors: Hillerer
authors: Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors: Alain
authors: A
authors: Brunet
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, United States.
authors: Michael W
authors: MW
authors: O'Hara
authors: Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada. Electronic address: suzanne.king@mcgill.ca.
authors: Suzanne
authors: S
authors: King
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D055868:Floods; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D007484:Iowa; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000523:psychology*; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Child development; Cortisol reactivity; Cortisol stress response; HPA axis; Prenatal stress