Associations between Maternal and Offspring Hair Cortisol Concentrations and Child Behavioral Symptoms in Mother-Child Pairs with Perinatal Mental Disorders.

Maternal perinatal mental disorders (PMD) are associated with developmental and behavioral problems in children, probably mediated by the programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Increased cortisol concentrations during the antenatal and perinatal periods have been related to long-term effects on children's behavior and stress response. We aimed to investigate the association of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) between mothers, with (n = 16) and without PMD (n = 30), and their children, aged between 18 and 48 months.