Easing labor pain may help reduce postpartum depression in some women
October 26, 2016
Science Daily/American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA)
Epidural anesthesia may do more than relieve pain during labor; in some women it may decrease the likelihood of postpartum depression, suggests a preliminary study.
"Labor pain matters more than just for the birth experience. It may be psychologically harmful for some women and play a significant role in the development of postpartum depression," said Grace Lim, M.D., director of obstetric anesthesiology at Magee Women's Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and lead investigator on the study. "We found that certain women who experience good pain relief from epidural analgesia are less likely to exhibit depressive symptoms in the postpartum period."
The researchers controlled for factors already known to increase the risk for postpartum depression, including pre-existing depression and anxiety, as well as post-delivery pain caused by tissue trauma during childbirth. After accounting for these factors, the study found that in some women, labor pain was still a significant risk factor for postpartum depression symptoms. And therefore, alleviating this pain might help reduce the risk for postpartum depression.
In the study, researchers reviewed the medical records of 201 women who used epidural analgesia and had their pain assessed using a 0-10 scale during labor. They calculated the percent improvement in pain (PIP) throughout labor after the implementation of epidural analgesia. Depression risk was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) six weeks after childbirth. Researchers found the higher the PIP scores, the lower the EPDS scores.
"Although we found an association between women who experience less pain during labor and lower risk for postpartum depression, we do not know if effective pain control with epidural analgesia will assure avoidance of the condition," said Dr. Lim. "Postpartum depression can develop from a number of things including hormonal changes, psychological adjustment to motherhood, social support, and a history of psychiatric disorders."
Labor pain may be more problematic for some women than others, the authors note. Additional research is needed to identify which women are more likely to experience severe labor pain and who would benefit the most from effective labor pain-control strategies to help reduce the risk and impact of pain on postpartum recovery.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161026113938.htm
Depression during pregnancy is associated with abnormal brain structure in children
November 15, 2016
Science Daily/Elsevier
Depressive symptoms in women during and after pregnancy are associated with reduced thickness of the cortex -- the outer layer of the brain responsible for complex thought and behavior -- in preschool-age kids, according to a new study. The findings suggest that a mother's mood may affect her child's brain development at critical stages in life.
"Mothers generally want to do everything they can to give their offspring the best possible chance of success in life. They often make sure to eat well and to take special vitamins," said John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. "This new study now suggests that another thing they may be able to do is to make sure that they are treated for their depression."
Eighteen percent of women experience depression some time during pregnancy, and both perinatal and postpartum depression have been associated with negative outcomes in children. The new study, led by Catherine Lebel of the University of Calgary in Alberta, is the first to report associations between maternal depression and abnormal brain structure in kids at this age.
The researchers screened 52 women for depressive symptoms during each trimester of pregnancy and a few months after the child was born. The women ranged in the presence of symptoms, some with no or few symptoms, and some meeting the screening criteria for depression. When the children reached about 2.5 to 5 years old, the researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to measure their brain structure.
Women with higher depressive symptoms tended to have children with thinner frontal and temporal areas, cortical regions implicated in tasks involving inhibition and attention control. The researchers also found an association between depressive symptoms and abnormal white matter in the frontal area, the fiber tracts connecting the region to other areas in the brain.
These associations were only found when symptoms occurred during the second trimester and postpartum, suggesting these periods are particularly critical times for child brain development.
Cortical thinning is a normal aspect of brain development during early childhood, so Lebel says the findings suggest that the brain may be developing prematurely in children whose mothers experience more depressive symptoms.
Abnormalities in brain structure during critical periods in development have often been associated with negative outcomes, such as learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. Additionally, the brain structure abnormalities identified in this study reflect those found in children with depression or at high risk for developing the disorder, suggesting that these alterations may be why children of mothers with perinatal depression are more vulnerable to depression later in life.
Although the mechanism behind the association remains a mystery, the findings may have implications for minimizing risks of atypical brain development in children.
"Our findings underscore the importance of monitoring and supporting mental health in mothers not just in the postpartum period, but also during pregnancy," said Lebel.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161115123323.htm
Depression rates growing among adolescents, particularly girls
November 15, 2016
Science Daily/Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
The rate of adolescents reporting a recent bout of clinical depression grew by 37 percent over the decade ending in 2014, with one in six girls reporting an episode in the past year, new research suggests.
The findings, published online Nov. 14 in the journal Pediatrics, highlight a need to focus on the mental well-being of young people and match those in peril with mental health professionals.
"This shows us there are a growing number of untreated adolescents with depression and that we are making few inroads in getting mental health care to this population," says study leader Ramin Mojtabai, MD, PhD, MPH, a professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Bloomberg School. "It is imperative that we find ways to reach these teenagers and help them manage their depression."
Suicide rates have been increasing in recent years, particularly among adolescent girls and young women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month reported that suicide rates among American middle school students -- those aged 10 to 14 -- were higher than rates of death from motor vehicle crashes in that age group.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from the 2005 to 2014 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health on adolescents and young adults to examine trends in "major depressive episodes" over the previous year. Major depressive episodes, also known as clinical depression, occur when someone develops a depressed mood or a loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities along with other depressive symptoms consistently for at least two weeks.
Overall, 176,245 adolescents aged 12 to 17 and 180,459 adults aged 18 to 25 were involved in the annual study between 2005 and 2014. Participants were told about symptoms of depression and were asked whether they had experienced them in the prior year. In 2005, 8.7 percent of adolescents reported major depressive episodes in the past year; the figure was 11.3 percent in 2014. The percentage had remained relatively steady from 2005 to 2011, but grew from 2012 through 2014.
Among girls, the prevalence of major depressive episodes increased from 13.1 percent in 2005 to 17.3 percent in 2014. White adolescents and young adults were also more likely than non-whites to experience these episodes. Among young adults, the prevalence of these episodes grew from 8.8 percent in 2005 to 9.6 percent in 2014, though the increase was only found in those ages 18 to 20.
The findings were based only on self-reporting, not on clinical diagnoses. The researchers controlled for substance abuse and socioeconomic factors.
There were few significant changes in the use of mental health treatment among those adolescents and young adults with depression. In adolescents, after 2011, there were small increases in visits to specialty mental health providers, the use of inpatient and day treatment centers and medication. These increases, however, were not enough to keep up with the increases in those with clinical depression.
The increase in some treatment could be related to the expansion of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and mental health parity legislation, though the future of health insurance expansion is in jeopardy following the recent election of a new U.S. President.
The researchers say it is unclear what is driving the rise in major depressive episodes, particularly among girls. They say adolescent girls may have been exposed to a greater degree of depression risk factors in recent years. Cyberbullying, for example, may have increased more in girls, as studies have shown that they use mobile phones more frequently and intensively than boys and problematic mobile phone use among young people has been linked to depressed mood.
The results coincided with a major economic downturn, however, there has not been an increase in the prevalence of clinical depression among adults over the period and this study found no increase among those age 21 to 25.
"The growing number of depressed adolescents and young adults who do not receive any mental health treatment calls for renewed outreach efforts, especially in school and college health centers, counseling services and pediatric practices, where many of the untreated adolescents and adults with depression may be detected and managed," Mojtabai says.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161115094549.htm
Women do get better with age
November 17, 2016
Science Daily/Florida State University
Researchers have found that younger women’s concerns about wrinkles and deteriorating health cause them to have lower emotional well-being than those women who’ve passed the so called ‘midlife crisis’ phase.
Anne Barrett, sociology professor and director of FSU's Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, found that young women's greater anxieties about declines in health and attractiveness degrade their emotional well-being, while older women's maintenance of increasingly youthful identities as they age enhances their well-being.
The study, "Explaining age differences in women's emotional well-being: The role of subjective experiences of aging," will be published in the Journal of Women and Aging in December.
"Our society's marginalization of older women can have consequences for women across adulthood," Barrett said. "It can erode their emotional well-being long before they reach old age."
Barrett and research partner Erica Toothman, an instructor in the sociology department at the University of South Florida, examined the role of five components of the subjective experience of aging in accounting for age differences in women's emotional well-being -- age identity, conceptions of the timing of middle age, aging attitudes, aging anxieties and self-assessed physiological changes.
Of those five, the study found age identity and aging anxieties played the largest role in accounting for younger women's lower emotional well-being than that of older women's. The younger women had greater anxiety about aging, particularly as it related to declines in health and attractiveness.
"It points to the relevance of ageism to all of us -- across our lives," Barrett said. "It also highlights the need for visibility and positive representations of older women across all domains of life -- in the media, in politics and other arenas."
Researchers also found that middle-age and older women engaged in a strategy that enhanced their own emotional well-being: They maintain youthful perceptions of themselves. In fact, these views become more age discrepant as they grow older. For instance, if you ask a 45-year-old women how old she feels, she might say 40 and if you ask a 75-year-old the same question she might say 65.
Researchers used the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States to conduct their research. More than 3,000 people nationwide between the ages of 25 and 74 were given an extensive questionnaire, covering the areas of social responsibility, psychological well-being and physical health. The group was surveyed twice, first in 1995-1996 and then again 10 years later between 2004-2006.
"We focus on women because their decline in status as they age is steeper than men's," Barrett said. "For example, they face more age discrimination in the workplace and feel more pressure to mask signs of aging. This double standard of aging pointed us to a novel explanation for older women's better emotional well-being, compared with younger women."
Barrett said extensions of the study could examine how women in other systems of inequality, like race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and sexual minority status might experience aging and what implications that might have for their emotional well-being.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161117204916.htm
Taking time-off work to raise children is damaging to the careers of highly skilled, high earning women
December 1, 2016
Science Daily/American Sociological Association (ASA)
Mothers who leave work to raise children often sacrifice more than the pay for their time off; when they come back their wages reflect lost raises.
The study, "Do Highly Paid, Highly Skilled Women Experience the Largest Motherhood Penalty?," published in the December issue of the American Sociological Review, examines women's employment and family data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Tracking 4,658 women who participated in the survey, the data spanned from 1976, when the women first completed the survey as 14- to 21-year-olds, to their 2010 interviews, when they were largely past their childrearing years at ages 45 to 52.
"In the case of highly skilled white women with high wages, what is striking is that they have the highest penalties despite the fact that they have the most continuous work experience of any group of women, which, other things being equal, would reduce their penalties," wrote England. "Their high returns to experience and tenure mean that loss of every year of work caused by motherhood is much more costly for their future wages, even in proportionate terms, than it is for other groups of women."
England investigated how motherhood penalized white and black women, and how this varied by the skill and wage level of the women. She found that:
• Highly skilled, highly paid white women lose an average of 10 percent in their wage per child.
• White women with lower skills and/or lower wages lose significantly less, between 4 and 7 percent of their wage per child.
• The penalties were lower for black women than for white women; however, unlike the white women, the penalties for black women did not differ significantly by skill or wage.
England continued, "Women with the highest total motherhood penalties are in an advantaged group with high skills and high wages; even after they become mothers and suffer the steepest penalty, they are typically affluent because their own earnings are still relatively high, and many of them are married to high-earning men. Given their relative privilege, we might still want to give priority to policies, such as child care subsidies, that help low-income women. But, in an era when there are still few women CEOs and we have yet to elect a woman president, it is important to understand how much motherhood affects the careers of women at the top and to consider how this can be changed."
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161201093910.htm
Biomarker in pregnant women linked to depression, low fetal birth weight
January 12, 2017
Science Daily/Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Depression is very common during pregnancy, with as many as one in seven women suffering from the illness and more than a half million women impacted by postpartum depression in the U.S. alone. The disorder not only affects the mother’s mood, but has also been linked to influencing the newborn’s development, according to recent research. In a study, researchers found that BDNF levels change during pregnancy, and can cause depression in the mother and low birth weight in the baby.
Lower blood levels of a biomarker called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) have been associated with depression in multiple studies, mainly in non-pregnant adults.
Now, in a study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, research from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found that BDNF levels change during pregnancy, and can cause depression in the mother and low birth weight in the baby.
"Our research shows BDNF levels change considerably across pregnancy and provide predictive value for depressive symptoms in women, as well as poor fetal growth. It's notable that we observed a significant difference in BDNF in women of different races," said Lisa M. Christian, an associate professor of psychiatry in the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center and principal investigator of the study.
Researchers took blood serum samples during and after pregnancy from 139 women and observed that BDNF levels dropped considerably from the first through the third trimesters, and subsequently increased at postpartum. Overall, black women exhibited significantly higher BDNF than white women during the perinatal period.
Controlling for race, lower BDNF levels at both the second and third trimesters predicted greater depressive symptoms in the third trimester. In addition, women delivering low versus healthy weight infants showed significantly lower BDNF in the third trimester, but didn't differ in depressive symptoms at any point during pregnancy, which suggests separate effects.
"The good news is there are some good ways to address the issue," Christian said. "Antidepressant medications have been shown to increase BDNF levels. This may be appropriate for some pregnant women, but is not without potential risks and side effects."
"Luckily, another very effective way to increase BDNF levels is through exercise," she said." With approval from your physician, staying physically active during pregnancy can help maintain BDNF levels, which has benefits for a woman's mood, as well as for her baby's development."
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170112113843.htm
Yoga, exercise fail to improve sleep in midlife women
Objective sleep outcomes were unchanged in women experiencing hot flashes during the menopausal transition or after menopause
January 23, 2017
Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Yoga and aerobic exercise interventions did not significantly reduce objectively measured sleep disturbances among midlife women who were experiencing hot flashes, suggests new research.
Secondary analyses of a randomized controlled trial show that neither 12 weeks of yoga nor 12 weeks of aerobic exercise had a statistically significant effect on objective measures of sleep duration or sleep quality recorded by actigraphy. Although the women had no difficulty falling asleep, disturbed sleep was common at baseline and remained after each intervention, with women in all groups waking during the night for an average of more than 50 minutes.
According to the authors, previously published analyses of the same trial had found that the yoga and aerobic exercise interventions were associated with small but statistically significant improvements in subjective, self-reported sleep quality and insomnia severity.
"Our primary findings were that the two study interventions had no significant effects on objective sleep outcomes in midlife women with hot flashes. The main implication of this finding is that other behavior treatments with the potential for effectively improving sleep in this population should be examined," said lead author Diana Taibi Buchanan, associate professor of Bio-Behavioral Nursing and Health Informatics at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Study results are published in the Jan. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
The authors analyzed data from the Menopause Strategies: Finding Lasting Answers for Symptoms and Health (MsFLASH) network. The study involved 186 late transition and postmenopausal women with hot flashes who were between 40 and 62 years of age. Study subjects had an average of 7.3 to 8 hot flashes per day. Participants were randomized to 12 weeks of yoga, supervised aerobic exercise, or usual activity.
Sleep measures were evaluated using wrist actigraphy, and bedtimes and rise times were determined primarily from the participants' sleep diaries. Mean sleep duration at baseline and after each intervention was less than the 7 or more hours of nightly sleep that is recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine for optimal health in adults.
According to the authors, future research should explore other approaches for improving sleep quality in midlife women, such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170123162409.htm
Want to help your mate beat the blues? Show them the love
Easing your partner's stress as they deal with depression can boost their mental health later
February 8, 2017
Science Daily/University of Alberta
The more depressed your romantic partner may be, the more love you should give them, according to new research.
It can be tempting to pull back, but tough as it may be, helping your loved one stick it out through a bout of depression can help their future mental health, said relationships researcher Matthew Johnson.
"Efforts from a partner to help alleviate stress may prevent the development or worsening of mental health problems and, in fact, could help keep the relationship healthy."
Stress takes a toll on physical and mental health, as well as close relationships, so that support can help a person better cope with it.
"When we experience stress, especially high levels of stress, we are particularly vulnerable and perhaps that's why partner support in those times is so impactful and long-lasting," said Johnson, a professor in the U of A's Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences.
The study, published in Developmental Psychology, surveyed couples on their levels of depression, self-esteem and mutual support. Researchers found that the support given when a mate was feeling stressed was linked to future feelings of self-worth and depression.
For example, men's feelings of self-esteem got a boost from supporting a depressed partner.
"Giving to their partner made them feel better about themselves," Johnson said.
For women, receiving support from their partner led to increased self-esteem and reduced depression in the future.
The study also showed that women with higher-self-esteem and men with fewer symptoms of depression received more support from their partners in times of stress.
"Those who have better mental health to start with may have the capacity to reach out for support when needed and are better able to manage stress on their own, but they are likely not the people who would benefit most from a partner's help," Johnson noted.
But giving support to a partner who needs it most can be difficult, he added.
"When someone is depressed or has low-self-worth, they may lash out. A partner offering support reaffirms feelings of depression and helplessness, of the feeling that they have to pick up the slack," Johnson said.
Lend an invisible helping hand
In the face of negative reaction, Johnson suggested offering "invisible support."
"Studies suggest offering support your partner may not even be aware of, but would still be a helpful gesture, like taking care of a sink full of dirty dishes they haven't seen yet. You can offer support, just don't draw attention to it."
Other ways to help a partner struggling with feelings of sadness or self-doubt include lending an empathetic ear if they want to express themselves and on a more practical level, "handling the logistics of daily life by offering to take on tasks that aren't normally yours," such as planning meals or driving children to school, Johnson added.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170208150143.htm
Low levels of 'anti-anxiety' hormone linked to postpartum depression
Effect measured in women already diagnosed with mood disorders
March 14, 2017
Science Daily/Johns Hopkins Medicine
In a small-scale study of women with previously diagnosed mood disorders, researchers report that lower levels of the hormone allopregnanolone in the second trimester of pregnancy were associated with an increased chance of developing postpartum depression in women already known to be at risk for the disorder.
In a report on the study, published online on March 7 in Psychoneuroendocrinology, the researchers say the findings could lead to diagnostic markers and preventive strategies for the condition, which strikes an estimated 15 to 20 percent of American women who give birth.
The researchers caution that theirs was an observational study in women already diagnosed with a mood disorder and/or taking antidepressants or mood stabilizers, and does not establish cause and effect between the progesterone metabolite and postpartum depression. But it does, they say, add to evidence that hormonal disruptions during pregnancy point to opportunities for intervention.
Postpartum depression affects early bonding between the mother and child. Untreated, it has potentially devastating and even lethal consequences for both. Infants of women with the disorder may be neglected and have trouble eating, sleeping and developing normally, and an estimated 20 percent of postpartum maternal deaths are thought to be due to suicide, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
"Many earlier studies haven't shown postpartum depression to be tied to actual levels of pregnancy hormones, but rather to an individual's vulnerability to fluctuations in these hormones, and they didn't identify any concrete way to tell whether a woman would develop postpartum depression," says Lauren M. Osborne, M.D., assistant director of the Johns Hopkins Women's Mood Disorders Center and assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "For our study, we looked at a high-risk population of women already diagnosed with mood disorders and asked what might be making them more susceptible."
For the study, 60 pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 45 were recruited by investigators at study sites at The Johns Hopkins University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. About 70 percent were white and 21.5 percent were African-American. All women had been previously diagnosed with a mood disorder, such as major depression or bipolar disorder. Almost a third had been previously hospitalized due to complications from their mood disorder, and 73 percent had more than one mental illness.
During the study, 76 percent of the participants used psychiatric medications, including antidepressants or mood stabilizers, and about 75 percent of the participants were depressed at some point during the investigation, either during the pregnancy or shortly thereafter.
During the second trimester (about 20 weeks pregnant) and the third trimester (about 34 weeks pregnant), each participant took a mood test and gave 40 milliliters of blood. Forty participants participated in the second-trimester data collection, and 19 of these women, or 47.5 percent, developed postpartum depression at one or three months postpartum. The participants were assessed and diagnosed by a clinician using criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, version IV for a major depressive episode.
Of the 58 women who participated in the third-trimester data collection, 25 of those women, or 43.1 percent, developed postpartum depression. Thirty-eight women participated in both trimester data collections.
Using the blood samples, the researchers measured the blood levels of progesterone and allopregnanolone, a byproduct made from the breakdown of progesterone and known for its calming, anti-anxiety effects.
The researchers found no relationship between progesterone levels in the second or third trimesters and the likelihood of developing postpartum depression. They also found no link between the third-trimester levels of allopregnanolone and postpartum depression. However, they did notice a link between postpartum depression and diminished levels of allopregnanolone levels in the second trimester.
For example, according to the study data, a woman with an allopregnanolone level of 7.5 nanograms per milliliter had a 1.5 percent chance of developing postpartum depression. At half that level of hormone (about 3.75 nanograms per milliliter), a mother had a 33 percent likelihood of developing the disorder. For every additional nanogram per milliliter increase in allopregnanolone, the risk of developing postpartum depression dropped by 63 percent.
"Every woman has high levels of certain hormones, including allopregnanolone, at the end of pregnancy, so we decided to look earlier in the pregnancy to see if we could tease apart small differences in hormone levels that might more accurately predict postpartum depression later," says Osborne. She says that many earlier studies on postpartum depression focused on a less ill population, often excluding women whose symptoms were serious enough to warrant psychiatric medication -- making it difficult to detect trends in those women most at risk.
Because the study data suggest that higher levels of allopregnanolone in the second trimester seem to protect against postpartum depression, Osborne says in the future, her group hopes to study whether allopregnanolone can be used in women at risk to prevent postpartum depression. She says Johns Hopkins is one of several institutions currently participating in a clinical trial led by Sage Therapeutics that is looking at allopregnanolone as a treatment for postpartum depression.
She also cautions that additional and larger studies are needed to determine whether women without mood disorders show the same patterns of allopregnanolone levels linked to postpartum depression risk.
If those future studies confirm a similar impact, Osborne says, then tests for low levels of allopregnanolone in the second trimester could be used as a biomarker to predict those mothers who are at risk of developing postpartum depression.
Osborne and her colleagues previously showed and replicated in Neuropsychopharmacology in 2016 that epigenetic modifications to two genes could be used as biomarkers to predict postpartum depression; these modifications target genes that work with estrogen receptors and are sensitive to hormones. These biomarkers were already about 80 percent effective at predicting postpartum depression, and Osborne hopes to examine whether combining allopregnanolone levels with the epigenetic biomarkers may improve the effectiveness of the tests to predict postpartum depression.
Of note and seemingly contradictory, she says, many of the participants in the study developed postpartum depression while on antidepressants or mood stabilizers. The researchers say that the medication dosages weren't prescribed by the study group and were monitored by the participant's primary care physician, psychiatrist or obstetrician instead. "We believe that many, if not most, women who become pregnant are undertreated for their depression because many physicians believe that smaller doses of antidepressants are safer for the baby, but we don't have any evidence that this is true," says Osborne. "If the medication dose is too low and the mother relapses into depression during pregnancy or the postpartum period, then the baby will be exposed to both the drugs and the mother's illness."
Osborne and her team are currently analyzing the medication doses used by women in this study to determine whether those given adequate doses of antidepressants were less likely to develop symptoms in pregnancy or in postpartum.
Only 15 percent of women with postpartum depression are estimated to ever receive professional treatment, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many physicians don't screen for it, and there is a stigma for mothers. A mother who asks for help may be seen as incapable of handling her situation as a mother, or may be criticized by friends or family for taking a medication during or shortly after pregnancy.
Some veggies each day keeps the stress blues away Women who eat their veggies at lower risk of psychological stress
March 15, 2017
Science Daily/University of Sydney
Eating three to four servings of vegetables daily is associated with a lower incidence of psychological stress, new research reveals.
Published in the British Medical Journal Open, the longitudinal study of more than 60,000 Australians aged 45 years and above measured participants fruit and vegetable consumption, lifestyle factors and psychological distress at two time points, 2006-08 and 2010.
Psychological distress was measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, a 10-item questionnaire measuring general anxiety and depression. Usual fruit and vegetable consumption was assessed using short validated questions.
Key findings
People who ate 3-4 daily serves of vegetables had a 12 per cent lower risk of stress than those who ate 0-1 serves daily.
People who ate 5-7 daily serves of fruit and vegetables had a 14 per cent lower risk of stress than those who ate 0-4 serves daily.
Women who ate 3-4 daily serves of vegetables had an 18 per cent lower risk of stress than women who ate 0-1 serves daily.
Women who ate 2 daily serves of fruit had a 16 per cent lower risk of stress than women who ate 0-1 serves daily.
Women who ate 5-7 daily serves of fruit and vegetables had a 23 per cent lower risk of stress than women who ate 0-1 serves daily.
At the start of the study, characteristics associated with higher stress included: being female, younger, having lower education and income, being overweight/obese, a current smoker and being physically inactive.
Fruit consumption alone had no significant association with a lower incidence of stress.
There was no significant association between higher levels of fruit and vegetable intake (greater than 7 daily serves) and a lower incidence of stress.
"This study shows that moderate daily fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with lower rates of psychological stress," said Dr Melody Ding of the University of Sydney's School of Public Health.
"It also reveals that moderate daily vegetable intake alone is linked to a lower incidence of psychological stress. Moderate fruit intake alone appears to confer no significant benefit on people's psychological stress."
These new findings are consistent with numerous cross sectional and longitudinal studies showing that fruit and vegetables, together and separately, are linked with a lower risk of depression and higher levels of well-being assessed by several measures of mental health.
"We found that fruit and vegetables were more protective for women than men, suggesting that women may benefit more from fruit and vegetables," said first author and University of Sydney PhD student, Binh Nguyen.
The investigators say further studies should investigate the possibility of a 'threshold' between medium and higher levels of fruit and vegetable intake and psychological stress.
This research was based on data from the Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170315094543.htm