TY - JOUR A1 - Wolf, Isabell Ann-Cathrin A1 - Gilles, Maria A1 - Peus, Verena A1 - Scharnholz, Barbara A1 - Seibert, Julia A1 - Jennen-Steinmetz, Christine A1 - Krumm, Bertram A1 - Rietschel, Marcella A1 - Deuschle, Michael A1 - Laucht, Manfred T1 - Impact of prenatal stress on mother-infant dyadic behavior during the still-face paradigm JF - Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation : the official journal of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEA.BPD) and Dachverband Dialektisch Behaviorale Therapie (DDBT) N2 - Background: Mother-infant interaction provides important training for the infant’s ability to cope with stress and the development of resilience. Prenatal stress (PS) and its impact on the offspring’s development have long been a focus of stress research, with studies highlighting both harmful and beneficial effects. The aim of the current study was to examine the possible influence of both psychological stress and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity during pregnancy with mother-child dyadic behavior following stress exposure. Methods: The behavior of 164 mother-infant dyads during the still-face situation was filmed at six months postpartum and coded into three dyadic patterns: 1) both positive, 2) infant protesting-mother positive, and 3) infant protesting-mother negative. PS exposure was assessed prenatally according to psychological measures (i.e., psychopathological, perceived and psychosocial PS; n = 164) and HPA axis activity measures (maternal salivary cortisol, i.e., cortisol decline and area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg); n = 134). Results: Mother-infant dyads in both the high- and low-stress groups showed decreasing positive and increasing negative dyadic behavior in the reunion episode, which is associated with the well-known “still-face” and “carry-over” effect. Furthermore, mother-infant dyads with higher psychosocial PS exhibited significantly more positive dyadic behavior than the low psychosocial PS group in the first play episode, but not in the reunion episode. Similarly, mother-infant dyads with high HPA axis activity (i.e. high AUCg) but steeper diurnal cortisol decline (i.e. cortisol decline) displayed significantly less negative behavior in the reunion episode than dyads with low HPA axis activity. No significant results were found for psychopathological stress and perceived stress. Conclusions: The results suggest a beneficial effect of higher psychosocial PS and higher prenatal maternal HPA axis activity in late gestation, which is in line with “stress inoculation” theories. KW - Prenatal stress KW - Face-to-face still-face paradigm KW - Resilience KW - Psychosocial stress KW - Cortisol Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40479-018-0078-8 SN - 2051-6673 VL - 5 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gilles, Maria A1 - Otto, Henrike A1 - Wolf, Isabell A. C. A1 - Scharnholz, Barbara A1 - Peus, Verena A1 - Schredl, Michael A1 - Suetterlin, Marc W. A1 - Witt, Stephanie H. A1 - Rietschel, Marcella A1 - Laucht, Manfred A1 - Deuschle, Michael T1 - Maternal hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system activity and stress measures at birth JF - Psychoneuroendocrinology N2 - Background: Prenatal maternal stress might be a risk for the developing fetus and may have long-lasting effects on child and adult vulnerability to somatic and psychiatric disease. Over-exposure of the unborn to excess glucocorticoids and subsequent alteration of fetal development is hypothesized to be one of the key mechanisms linking prenatal stress with negative child outcome. Methods: In this prospective longitudinal study, mothers-to-be (n = 405) in late pregnancy (36.8 +/- 1.9 weeks of gestational age) and their singleton neonates were studied. We investigated the impact of different prenatal stress indices derived from six stress variables (perceived stress, specific prenatal worries, negative life events, symptoms of depression, trait anxiety, neuroticism) and diurnal maternal saliva cortisol secretion on gestational age and anthropometric measures at birth. KW - Early life stress KW - Gestational age KW - Anthropometric measures at birth KW - Cortisol KW - Prenatal distress KW - Pregnancy Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.04.022 SN - 0306-4530 VL - 94 SP - 152 EP - 161 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Send, Tabea Sarah A1 - Bardtke, Svenja A1 - Gilles, Maria A1 - Wolf, Isabella Germaine A1 - Sütterlin, Marc W. A1 - Kirschbaum, Clemens A1 - Laucht, Manfred A1 - Witt, Stephanie H. A1 - Rietschel, Marcella A1 - Streit, Fabian A1 - Deuschle, Michael T1 - Stress reactivity in preschool-aged children BT - Evaluation of a social stress paradigm and investigation of the impact of prenatal maternal stress JF - Psychoneuroendocrinology N2 - Prenatal maternal stress is an established risk factor for somatic and psychological health of the offspring. A dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in offspring has been suggested as an important mechanism. However, the impact of prenatal stress on stress reactivity in preschool-aged children is not yet well understood. This is partly due to the fact that for this age group there is no stress test as well established as for older children and adults. In the present work a previously published stress test (Kryski et al., 2011) was evaluated in a large sample of 45-month-old children (n = 339). Furthermore, the relation between measures of prenatal maternal stress and cortisol reactivity was investigated. Prenatal stress was defined as psychopathology (self-report available for n = 339; expert-rating available for a subsample of n = 246) and perceived stress (n = 244) during pregnancy. The stress paradigm elicited significant increases in salivary cortisol 30 and 40 min after the test, and 60.8% of the children were classified as responders. Lower cortisol levels after the stress test were observed in the group of children with prenatal stress defined as maternal psychopathology (both self-reported and expert-rated). Maternal perceived stress as a continuous measure was not significantly associated with cortisol levels. However, when comparing children in the highest quartile of maternal perceived stress to all other children, significantly lower cortisol values were observed in the prenatally stressed group. The present study confirms the paradigm by Kryski et al. as an effective stress test for preschool-aged children. Moreover, it provides further evidence that prenatal stress impacts HPA axis reactivity. Future studies should target the timing, nature, and intensity of prenatal stressors and their effect on the stress response in offspring at different developmental stages. KW - Stress test KW - Children KW - Prenatal stress KW - Cortisol KW - HPA axis reactivity KW - Psychopathology Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.11.002 SN - 0306-4530 VL - 101 SP - 223 EP - 231 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER -