Maternal psychopathology and infant development at 18 months: the impact of maternal personality disorder and depression.

Objective: No previous longitudinal study has examined the impact of comorbid maternal personality disorder (PD) and depression on child development. We set out to examine whether maternal PD and depression assessed at 2 months post partum would be independently associated with adverse developmental outcomes at 18 months of age.

Method: Women were recruited into the study shortly after delivery and screened for depression and PD.

Maternal personality disorder and babies' exposure to tobacco smoke.

This study examined the association between smoking practices and maternal personality disorder in a sample of 200 mothers of 2-month-old babies. Maternal personality disorder was robustly associated with allowing smoking in the home and also exposing the baby to tobacco smoke. The findings suggest that mothers with personality disorders might particularly benefit from targeting with education and advice about reducing their baby's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in the postpartum period.

The impact of maternal depression and personality disorder on early infant care.

Aim: Previous studies have reported detrimental effects of maternal depression on infant care but have not taken into account the potential confounding effects of co-morbid personality disorder. We aimed to examine the independent effects of maternal depression and personality disorder on infant care.

Method: Assessments with 200 mothers who had a diagnosis of depression, personality disorder, both conditions, or neither condition, when their infants were aged 2 months, included structured clinical interviews, an interview about infant care practices, and standardised measures of quality of the home environment, maternal involvement with the baby, maternal sensitivity and infant irritability.

Symptoms associated with the DSM IV diagnosis of depression in pregnancy and post partum.

Pregnancy and the postpartum may affect symptoms of depression. However it has not yet been tested how the symptoms used for the DSM IV diagnosis of depression discriminate depressed from non depressed women perinatally. A modified version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV (SCID interview) was used that allowed assessment of all associated DSM IV symptoms of depression with depressed and non depressed women in pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Foetal brain development in offspring of women with psychosis.

Cerebral ventricular enlargement and reduced cortical volume are correlates of chronic schizophrenia. We investigated whether genetic risk for psychosis related to differences in foetal brain development as measured by prenatal ultrasonography. Routine foetal cerebral measures at 19-23 weeks of gestation were compared between the offspring of 35 women with a history of psychosis and 105 control women matched for gestational age.

Prenatal depression, prenatal anxiety, and spontaneous preterm birth: a prospective cohort study among women with early and regular care.

Objective: This article investigates the effects of antenatal depression and anxiety on spontaneous preterm birth resulting either from preterm labor or preterm premature rupture of membranes.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 681 women with singleton pregnancies consecutively recruited between 20 and 28 weeks of gestation in the Obstetrics Department of the French University Hospital of Caen. Most were of European ethnic origin and received early and regular antenatal care.

Assessing psychosocial risk in pregnant/postpartum women using the Contextual Assessment of Maternity Experience (CAME)--recent life adversity, social support and maternal feelings.

Background: The Contextual Assessment of Maternity Experience (CAME) interview was developed to characterise the psychosocial context relevant to the maternity experience by providing a detailed picture of women's lives during the transition to motherhood. More specifically, it was designed to enable the assessment of major risk factors for emotional disturbances in pregnant and postpartum women, especially depression, within the same instrument and using a coherent methodological framework.

Method: The CAME assesses three domains relevant to motherhood: 1) recent life adversity or stressors; 2) the quality of social support and key relationships including partner relationship; and 3) maternal feelings towards pregnancy, motherhood and the baby.

Estrogen administration does not reduce the rate of recurrence of affective psychosis after childbirth.

Background: High rates of postpartum relapse occur in women with histories of bipolar or schizoaffective disorder. These relapses may be triggered by the postdelivery fall in circulating estrogen through alteration of central neurotransmitter (especially dopaminergic) systems. This study tested the hypothesis that estrogen administration after childbirth would prevent postpartum relapse and would alter dopamine receptor sensitivity.