OBJECTIVE: Postpartum major depression is a significant public health problem that strikes 15% of new mothers and confers adverse consequences for mothers, children, and families. The neural mechanisms involved in postpartum depression remain unknown, but brain processing of affective stimuli appears to be involved in other affective disorders. The authors examined activity in response to negative emotional faces in the dorsomedial pre-frontal cortex and amygdala, key emotion regulatory neural regions of importance to both mothering and depression. METHOD: Postpartum healthy mothers (N=16) and unmedicated depressed mothers (N=14) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging blood-oxygen-level-dependent acquisition during a block-designed face versus shape matching task. A two-way analysis of variance was performed examining main effects of condition and group and group-by-condition interaction on activity in bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortical and amygdala regions of interest. RESULTS: Depressed mothers relative to healthy mothers had significantly reduced left dorsomedial prefrontal cortical face-related activity. In depressed mothers, there was also a significant negative correlation between left amygdala activity and postpartum depression severity and a significant positive correlation between right amygdala activity and absence of infant-related hostility. There was reliable top-down connectivity from the left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex to the left amygdala in healthy, but not depressed, mothers. CONCLUSIONS: Significantly diminished dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activity and dorsomedial prefrontal cortical-amygdala effective connectivity in response to negative emotional faces may represent an important neural mechanism, or effect, of postpartum depression. Reduced amygdala activity in response to negative emotional faces is associated with greater postpartum depression severity and more impaired maternal attachment processes in postpartum depressed mothers.
OBJECTIVE: Postpartum major depression is a significant public health problem that strikes 15% of new mothers and confers adverse consequences for mothers, children, and families. The neural mechanisms involved in postpartum depression remain unknown, but brain processing of affective stimuli appears to be involved in other affective disorders. The authors examined activity in response to negative emotional faces in the dorsomedial pre-frontal cortex and amygdala, key emotion regulatory neural regions of importance to both mothering and depression. METHOD: Postpartum healthy mothers (N=16) and unmedicated depressed mothers (N=14) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging blood-oxygen-level-dependent acquisition during a block-designed face versus shape matching task. A two-way analysis of variance was performed examining main effects of condition and group and group-by-condition interaction on activity in bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortical and amygdala regions of interest. RESULTS: Depressed mothers relative to healthy mothers had significantly reduced left dorsomedial prefrontal cortical face-related activity. In depressed mothers, there was also a significant negative correlation between left amygdala activity and postpartum depression severity and a significant positive correlation between right amygdala activity and absence of infant-related hostility. There was reliable top-down connectivity from the left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex to the left amygdala in healthy, but not depressed, mothers. CONCLUSIONS: Significantly diminished dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activity and dorsomedial prefrontal cortical-amygdala effective connectivity in response to negative emotional faces may represent an important neural mechanism, or effect, of postpartum depression. Reduced amygdala activity in response to negative emotional faces is associated with greater postpartum depression severity and more impaired maternal attachment processes in postpartum depressed mothers.
Authors: Ahmad R Hariri; Alessandro Tessitore; Venkata S Mattay; Francesco Fera; Daniel R Weinberger Journal: Neuroimage Date: 2002-09 Impact factor: 6.556
Authors: Greg J Siegle; Stuart R Steinhauer; Michael E Thase; V Andrew Stenger; Cameron S Carter Journal: Biol Psychiatry Date: 2002-05-01 Impact factor: 13.382
Authors: Jeffrey P Lorberbaum; John D Newman; Amy R Horwitz; Judy R Dubno; R Bruce Lydiard; Mark B Hamner; Daryl E Bohning; Mark S George Journal: Biol Psychiatry Date: 2002-03-15 Impact factor: 13.382
Authors: Erich Seifritz; Fabrizio Esposito; John G Neuhoff; Andreas Lüthi; Henrietta Mustovic; Gerhard Dammann; Ulrich von Bardeleben; Ernst W Radue; Sossio Cirillo; Gioacchino Tedeschi; Francesco Di Salle Journal: Biol Psychiatry Date: 2003-12-15 Impact factor: 13.382
Authors: R Montirosso; F Arrigoni; E Casini; A Nordio; P De Carli; F Di Salle; S Moriconi; M Re; G Reni; R Borgatti Journal: J Perinatol Date: 2017-02-02 Impact factor: 2.521
Authors: Kristina M Deligiannidis; Elif M Sikoglu; Scott A Shaffer; Blaise Frederick; Abby E Svenson; Andre Kopoyan; Chelsea A Kosma; Anthony J Rothschild; Constance M Moore Journal: J Psychiatr Res Date: 2013-03-15 Impact factor: 4.791