A prospective study to explore the relationship between MTHFR C677T genotype, physiological folate levels, and postpartum psychopathology in at-risk women.

Background: The etiology of postpartum psychopathologies are not well understood, but folate metabolism pathways are of potential interest. Demands for folate increase dramatically during pregnancy, low folate level has been associated with psychiatric disorders, and supplementation may improve symptomatology. The MTHFR C677T variant influences folate metabolism and has been implicated in depression during pregnancy.

A Matched Cohort Study of Postpartum Placentophagy in Women With a History of Mood Disorders: No Evidence for Impact on Mood, Energy, Vitamin B Levels, or Lactation.

Objective: Although empirical studies investigating its effects are scarce, postpartum placentophagy is increasing in popularity because of purported benefits on mood, energy, lactation, and overall nutrition. Therefore, this study sought to test the hypotheses that women who consumed their placenta (placentophagy exposed [PE]) would have (1) fewer depressive symptoms, (2) more energy, (3) higher vitamin B levels, and (4) less pharmaceutical lactation support during the postpartum than women who did not consume their placenta (non-placentophagy exposed [NE]).

Methods: Using data from a large, longitudinal study of gene × environment effects involving perinatal women with a history of mood disorders, the study investigators identified a PE cohort and matched them 4:1 (by psychiatric diagnosis, psychotropic medication use, supplementation, income, and age) with an NE cohort from the same dataset.

Short interpregnancy intervals, maternal folate levels, and infants born small for gestational age: a preliminary study in a Canadian supplement-using population.

Short interpregnancy intervals (SIPI) have been associated with increased risks for adverse neonatal outcomes including preterm delivery and infants small for gestational age (SGA). It has been suggested that mechanistically, adverse neonatal outcomes after SIPI arise due to insufficient recovery of depleted maternal folate levels prior to the second pregnancy. However, empirical data are lacking regarding physiological folate levels in pregnant women with SIPI and relationships between quantified physiological folate levels and outcomes like SGA.

Women's experiences of participating in a prospective, longitudinal postpartum depression study: insights for perinatal mental health researchers.

Barriers to recruitment for research on mental illness include participant distrust of researchers and social stigma. Though these issues may be acutely important in perinatal mental health research, they remain unexplored in this context. In order to inform strategies to more fully engage women in perinatal mental health research, we explored the motivations and experiences of women with a history of major depressive disorder who participated in a prospective longitudinal research study on postpartum depression (PPD).

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: The Process of Parental Adaptation and Implications for Genetic Counseling.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has primarily pediatric onset and well-documented unique impacts on family functioning. Limited research has assessed the understanding that parents of children with OCD have of the etiology of the condition, and there are no data regarding potential applications of genetic counseling for this population. We recruited 13 parents of 13 children diagnosed with OCD from the OCD Registry at British Columbia Children's Hospital, and conducted qualitative semi-structured telephone interviews to explore participants' experiences with their child's OCD, causal attributions of OCD, and perceptions of two genetic counseling vignettes.

Perinatal psychosis in mothers with a history of major depressive disorder.

While women with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) have higher chances for postpartum depressive and manic episodes, little is known about their chance for postpartum psychosis (PPP). We prospectively assessed the frequency of perinatal psychotic symptoms among primiparous women with a history of MDD only (structured clinical interview was used to exclude women with pre-existing histories of mania or psychosis) and explored whether sex of the baby influenced these symptoms.The presence of symptoms of psychosis was defined using previously established cutoff scores on five key items from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), which was administered during pregnancy, at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months postpartum.

A synthetic human kinase can control cell cycle progression in budding yeast.

The DDK kinase complex, composed of Cdc7 and Dbf4, is required for S-phase progression. The two component proteins show different degrees of sequence conservation between human and yeast. Here, we determine that Saccharomyces cerevisiae bearing human CDC7 and DBF4 grows comparably to cells with yeast DDK under standard growth conditions.