There is no safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy
October 24, 2017
Science Daily/Binghamton University
Any amount of alcohol exposure during pregnancy can cause extreme lasting effects on a child, according to new research.
A team of researchers led by Marvin Diaz, assistant professor of psychology at Binghamton University, determined that even a small to moderate amount of alcohol exposure produces significant amounts of anxiety in offspring, lasting through adolescence and into adulthood. This research differed in its use of only low levels of alcohol exposure, whereas prior studies used high levels of exposure to reach the same conclusion.
"There's been a lot of media coverage on whether there's a safe amount of alcohol to drink," said Diaz. "This study shows that there isn't."
Pregnant rats were exposed to ethyl alcohol vapor for a six-hour period on their twelfth day of gestation; this was the only time the rats were exposed to alcohol. The offspring were then subjected to a series of anxiety tests. The researchers found that anxiety was most apparent in male rats during their adolescence. After entering adulthood, the effects were opposite, with ethanol exposed male rats showing reduced anxiety, while the females still appear to be unaffected.
"The most important takeaway from this study is that the effects we studied on the rats only took one day of exposure to produce -- just six hours," said Diaz.
Diaz is interested in taking this research further, to determine exactly what changed in the brain to cause such increased levels of anxiety after alcohol exposure, and to see why the effects are apparent in male rats but not females.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171024130614.htm
Traumatic events take toll on the heart
New study links traumatic experiences with increased risk of heart disease, especially after the menopause transition
October 11, 2017
Science Daily/The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)
Today it seems about everything has been shown to lead to heart disease. Of course, smoking is bad for you, as is high blood pressure. There's even mounting evidence that psychosocial factors can cause heart problems. A new study demonstrates how traumatic experiences can affect vascular health and, ultimately, heart disease.
Heart disease is a leading cause of death in women. According to the American Heart Association, every minute in the US someone's mother, wife, daughter, or sister dies from a form a heart disease. To date, little research has been done to study the impact of traumatic experiences on vascular health as a precursor to heart disease. Even less work has focused on this relationship during the menopause transition when the risk of heart disease is naturally increasing, along with deteriorating endothelial function. (The endothelium is the inner lining of the heart and blood vessels.)
In this study of 272 peri- and postmenopausal nonsmoking women, researchers tested whether a greater number of lifetime traumatic experiences was related to poorer endothelial function, independent of demographic characteristics, other heart disease risk factors, estradiol, and childhood abuse history. The result was that women reporting a higher number of traumatic experiences (three or more) had poorer endothelial function which can make them more susceptible to a cardiac incident. For purposes of this study, traumatic experiences were defined as events such as sexual harassment, death of a child, being in a car accident, experiencing a natural disaster, or being beaten or mugged.
"These findings underscore the importance of psychosocial factors, such as trauma exposure, in the development of heart disease risk in midlife women," says Dr. Rebecca Thurston, lead author of the study from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine.
"Given the large percentage of postmenopausal women affected by heart disease, this is an important study that should remind healthcare providers of the need to thoroughly discuss a woman's history beyond simply asking about her physical health," says Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, NAMS executive director."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171011091739.htm
Iron supplements have long-term benefits for low birth-weight babies
Follow-up study finds early iron intervention can lower levels of aggression and rule-breaking behavior in children age 7
September 27, 2017
Science Daily/Springer
Babies classified as low birth weight (under 2,500 grams) are at risk of iron deficiency, which is linked to impaired neurological development. A long-term randomized study now shows that providing such babies with iron supplements can prevent behavioral problems at school age.
The findings are part of ongoing Swedish research involving 285 late preterm and term infants who weighed between 2000 grams and 2500 grams at birth, and were defined as being marginally low birth weight. This group represents a significant number of all births. The babies were randomly selected to receive either no iron supplements, or specific doses from the age of six weeks to six months.
Research up until now has shown that those babies given iron supplements had a lower risk of suffering from iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia by the time they were six months old. When the participants were tested again when they were 3 and a half years old, the ones in the supplement group had fewer behavioral problems than those who went without extra iron.
In this study, 207 of the participants from the initial investigation were tested at the age of seven. Berglund and his fellow researchers wanted to see if the early iron intervention influenced the children's cognitive and neurobehavioral abilities. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children was used to assess the children's cognitive abilities. Their parents completed two standardized questionnaires about their children's behavior.
No major differences were found in the intelligence scores of the children in the two separate test groups. The magnitude of the intervention group to show externalizing problems was however significantly reduced compared to that of the children in the other. They had lower levels of aggressive and rule-breaking behavior, and did not suffer as many thought problems. The thought problems in question were recently shown to be the best independent predictor of autism spectrum disorders. This suggests that the behavioural and emotional profiles of low birth weight children who did not receive iron supplements include different symptoms of subclinical neurodevelopmental problems.
"Our findings suggest that iron supplementation may have long-lasting effects on behavioural functions in children born of a low birth weight," says Berglund. "This clinically important benefit from early iron supplementation gives further support to recommend iron supplementation of all low birth weight children, including those with marginally low birth weight."
On the population level this finding is important, since marginally low birth weight infants represent a relatively large proportion of all births. Up to five percent of infants born in high income countries and fifteen percent of those in low income countries are defined as such.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170927123600.htm
Postpartum depression risk, duration and recurrence
September 26, 2017
Science Daily/PLOS
Postpartum affective disorder (AD), including postpartum depression (PPD), affects more than one in two hundred women with no history of prior psychiatric episodes, and raises the risk of later affective disorder for those women, according to a new study.
PPD is estimated to affect more than 5 percent of all women following childbirth, making it the most common postnatal complication of childbearing. In the new study, researchers analyzed data from the Danish national registries on 457,317 women who had a first child (and subsequent births) between 1996 and 2013 and had no prior psychiatric hospital contacts or use of antidepressants. Postpartum AD was defined as an antidepressant prescription fill or hospital contact for depression within six months after birth.
In the Danish cohort, 0.6% of all childbirths among women with no history of psychiatric disease led to postpartum AD. A year after their first treatment, 27.9% of these women were still in treatment; after four years, that number was 5.4%. For women with a hospital contact for depression after a first birth, the risk of postpartum AD recurrence was 21%; the recurrence was 15% for women who took antidepressants after a first birth. These rates mean that, compared to women without history of AD, postpartum AD is 46 and 27 times higher in subsequent births for women with postpartum AD after their first birth.
"These population-based figures provide valuable guidance to physicians treating women with PPD," the authors say. "It underlines the seriousness of single initial episodes and highlights the necessity of both primary and secondary preventive measures of which several exist."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170926143559.htm
Maternal diet could affect kids' brain reward circuitry
Rats that ate junk food during pregnancy had pups that preferred the taste of fat during childhood and had altered brain circuitry into adulthood
September 25, 2017
Science Daily/Frontiers
Researchers have found that rats who ate junk food during pregnancy had heavier pups that strongly preferred fat straight after weaning. However, a balanced diet in childhood seemed to reduce the pups' desire for fat. The pups also showed altered brain reward circuitry into adulthood. The findings could have implications for childhood nutrition and obesity in Western countries.
The Western diet is full of energy-rich foods -- from hamburgers to chocolates, we consume significant quantities of fat and sugar. The health costs of this are well known, and conditions such as obesity and diabetes are related to overeating.
Factors underlying obesity include how we metabolize food, and our tendency to overeat and seek out energy-rich foods. The pleasure we derive from food stems from the brain reward circuitry, and changes in these reward circuits can contribute to overeating.
Surprisingly, pregnant or breastfeeding mothers who eat significant quantities of energy-rich foods can increase their child's risk for obesity in later life. However, scientists don't yet fully understand the mechanism behind this phenomenon.
In a study recently published in Frontiers in Endocrinology, scientists used rats to investigate the relationship between a mother's diet and their offspring's weight, relationship with food, and brain circuitry. The research team fed rats a high fat/high sugar diet (which they called the 'Western Diet'), or a balanced diet, during pregnancy and suckling. They monitored the mothers' pups straight after weaning, during adolescence and into early adulthood.
The pups primarily ate a balanced diet once they were weaned, but at specific times the researchers allowed some of the pups to choose between tasting a fatty or non-fatty liquid. The liquid wasn't fatty enough to affect the pups, but allowed the team to assess their preference for fat. Using brain tissue samples, the team also investigated gene expression and brain changes associated with the pups' reward circuitry.
While the pups from Western Diet mothers were a normal weight at birth, they gained more weight during suckling and were abnormally heavy at weaning. This may have been caused by the Western Diet mothers producing richer milk or more milk.
When the team allowed the just-weaned pups to choose between a fatty and non-fatty liquid, pups from Western Diet mothers strongly preferred the fatty liquid compared with pups from the balanced diet mothers.
However, when the team repeated this fat preference test with adolescent pups, they found that both groups showed a similar high preference for fat -- and interestingly, the pups from Western Diet mothers gradually lost their interest in fat after a few days. This might have been a compensatory mechanism to protect the pups from further exposure to fat. By adulthood, both types of pups had similar strong preferences for fat.
The pups from Western Diet mothers also showed significant changes in their reward circuitry, including differences in a brain region call the hypothalamus and changes in gene expression associated with a neurotransmitter called GABA.
"Previous studies have shown that when pups from Western Diet mothers have unlimited access to junk food they maintain their preference for fatty food into adolescence," says Vincent Paillé, a researcher involved in the study. "While the pups from Western Diet mothers in our study showed extensive changes in their reward circuitry, a balanced diet in childhood seemed to protect them from an increased fat preference at adolescence."
These findings could have implications for nutrition and obesity in human children in Western countries.
The team plan to further investigate the changes in reward circuitry caused by a maternal Western diet. "How these altered reward circuits integrate information could be different, and these pups might behave differently under stress or when they have free access to fatty food," says Paillé.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170925104719.htm
Preterm children have more medical sleep problems but fall asleep more independently
Sleep problems linked to negative emotionality and lower attention
September 21, 2017
Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine
A new study suggests that while healthy preterm children have more medical sleep problems than full-term children, they are more likely to fall asleep independently.
Results show that preterm children displayed more medical sleep problems such as nocturnal movement, restlessness during the night and breathing problems, compared with those born at full term. However, a lower degree of behavioral sleep problems were present in preterm children.
"Preterm children needed less support to fall asleep and fell asleep more often alone in their own bed compared to those born at full term," said principal investigator Dr. Barbara Caravale, a researcher in the Department of Developmental and Social Psychology at Sapienza University in Rome, Italy. "However, preterm children showed more frequent sleep difficulties, such as restlessness and breathing problems during the night."
Study results are published in the September 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
The study involved 51 preterm children with normal cognitive, language, and motor development, and 57 full-term children. Their average age was 21 months. Mothers completed a series of questionnaires to assess sleep-related difficulties, sleep habits and child temperament.
The study found no differences between the two groups of children in bedtime, rise time or sleep duration. However, Caravale noted that the sleep problems reported by the parents of preterms may have resulted in sleep disruption, which could help explain significant differences in attention and emotionality.
"We observed a link between sleep pattern and temperament in preterm children," said Caravale. "Our study found that sleep problems were related to increased negative emotionality and decreased attention."
According to the authors, these results are consistent with previous studies demonstrating that children born preterm are at risk of attention and learning problems as well as emotional difficulties. For this reason, it is important that pediatricians screen for sleep problems more rigorously in preterm children, especially with respect to sleep-related breathing disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea and sleep-related movement disorders.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170921161300.htm
Midlife depression may stem from tension with mothers and siblings
September 20, 2017
Science Daily/Iowa State University
Relationships with our mothers and siblings continue to have an effect on our well-being, particularly at midlife. A new study found that tension with our mothers and siblings, similar to our spouses, is associated with symptoms of depression.
A new study led by Iowa State University researcher Megan Gilligan found that tension with our mothers and siblings, similar to our spouses, is associated with symptoms of depression. The research, published in the journal Social Sciences, found all three relationships have a similar effect and one is not stronger than another.
"Family scholars have focused a lot on the relationship we have with our spouse," said Gilligan, an assistant professor of human development and family studies. "There is this assumption that as you go through your life course, you leave these other relationships with your parents and siblings behind, but you don't. You carry those with you."
The relationship between mothers and daughters is even more significant. The research shows tension between mothers and adult children was a stronger predictor of depression for daughters than it was for sons. However, gender did not make a difference in relationships with spouses and siblings. Gilligan says this makes sense based on her previous research.
"We know that mothers and daughters in adulthood have the closest relationships and also the most conflictual. These are really intense relationships," she said. "Later in life, adult children start providing more care to their parents, and daughters in particular are often caregivers for their mothers."
Midlife is key to findings
Midlife is often characterized as stable and uneventful, but in reality, it is a time of change and transition for many people, Gilligan said. For example, adult children may be leaving the house and aging parents start requiring more care. Additionally, researchers know that midlife adults often react more strongly to family conflict than older adults do.
While there is a great deal of research on young families and family dynamics later in life, there is a gap at midlife, Gilligan said. Given the potential for greater conflict with mothers or siblings related to these midlife changes, it is important to understand the consequences of negative relationships on our psychological well-being.
"Midlife is a time when siblings are often coming back together as they prepare and navigate care for parents," she said. "For that reason, it's a pivotal time when these family relationships might be experiencing more tension, more strain, more discord."
Professionals should consider whole family
The research team used data collected through the Within-Family Differences Study. Their analysis included 495 adult children within 254 families. For a majority of families, multiple siblings participated in the study. Researchers measured depressive symptoms and tension among family members through survey questions. They controlled for race, gender and education.
In the paper, Gilligan and her colleagues explained that they expected all three relationships would predict depressive symptoms, but the effect would vary depending on the salience of the relationship. The fact that they found no significant difference between spouses, mothers and siblings is important to note, especially for practitioners. Gilligan says instead of focusing solely on a romantic partner or spouse, marriage and family therapists should ask about other sources of family stress.
"These findings show that we are navigating other family relationships at the same time and we're not experiencing them in isolation; we're experiencing them simultaneously," Gilligan said. "The stress people are experiencing may be the result of a romantic partner or spouse. However, it could also be that they're fighting with their siblings or they're experiencing a lot of tension with their mother even though they are 50 years old."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170920113555.htm
Now and Zen: Lower prenatal stress reduces risk of behavioral issues in kids
Study finds mothers who experience significant prenatal stress may be increasing their child's risk for behavioural issues
August 16, 2017
Science Daily/University of Ottawa
Expectant mothers may want to consider adopting today's trend towards stress management, in light of new research pointing to its ability to lower the risk of problematic behavior in their offspring. Researchers found that mothers who are exposed to high levels of stress during pregnancy have kids who are more than twice as likely to have chronic symptoms of hyperactivity and conduct disorder.
Parenting is a complicated journey full of questions, and when a beloved child begins to show signs of a behavioural disorder, a parent's challenges become even more difficult to navigate.
Expectant mothers may want to consider adopting today's trend towards stress management, in light of new research from the University of Ottawa pointing to its ability to lower the risk of problematic behaviour in their offspring.
Dr. Ian Colman, associate professor at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine, led a team of researchers in examining data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. The team found that mothers who experience significant prenatal stress may be increasing their child's risk for behavioural issues.
"Mothers who are exposed to high levels of stress during pregnancy have kids who are more than twice as likely to have chronic symptoms of hyperactivity and conduct disorder," Dr. Colman said of the team's recently published findings.
"Hyperactivity is a symptom of ADHD, and about 10% of school-age children are affected by ADHD or conduct disorder," he said. "These disorders can lead to poor results in school and difficulties in their relationships with family and friends."
Behavioural disorders such as those seen by the researchers are characterized by aggressive or antisocial behaviour, high activity levels, and difficulty inhibiting behaviour. They are also associated with school failure, substance use/abuse, and criminal activity, according to the paper.
A mother's stress can alter brain development in the fetus, and it is believed these changes may be long-lasting or permanent, said Dr. Colman.
The team was unique in its approach: it studied the effects of specific stressors on participants, as opposed to gauging overall stress levels. Participants reported stressful events, such as problems at work, the illness of a relative, or an argument with a partner, family or friend. "Generally speaking, we found that the higher the stress, the higher the symptoms," Dr. Colman said. "We can't avoid most stressful events in our lives and since we can't always prevent them, the focus should be on helping mothers manage stress in order to give their children the best start in life."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170816110136.htm
High-fat diet in pregnancy can cause mental health problems in offspring
Study is first to document causal relationship in study of nonhuman primates
July 21, 2017
Science Daily/Oregon Health & Science University
A high-fat diet during pregnancy alters the development of the brain and endocrine system of offspring, new research in an animal model suggests. The new study links an unhealthy diet during pregnancy to mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression in children.
"Given the high level of dietary fat consumption and maternal obesity in developed nations, these findings have important implications for the mental health of future generations," the researchers report.
The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology.
The study, led by Elinor Sullivan, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Neuroscience at Oregon National Primate Research Center at OHSU, tested the effect of a maternal high-fat diet on nonhuman primates, tightly controlling their diet in a way that would be impossible in a human population. The study revealed behavioral changes in the offspring associated with impaired development of the central serotonin system in the brain. Further, it showed that introducing a healthy diet to the offspring at an early age failed to reverse the effect.
Previous observational studies in people correlated maternal obesity with a range of mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders in children. The new research demonstrates for the first time that a high-fat diet, increasingly common in the developed world, caused long-lasting mental health ramifications for the offspring of non-human primates.
In the United States, 64 percent of women of reproductive age are overweight and 35 percent are obese. The new study suggests that the U.S. obesity epidemic may be imposing transgenerational effects.
"It's not about blaming the mother," said Sullivan, senior author on the study. "It's about educating pregnant women about the potential risks of a high-fat diet in pregnancy and empowering them and their families to make healthy choices by providing support. We also need to craft public policies that promote healthy lifestyles and diets."
Researchers grouped a total of 65 female Japanese macaques into two groups, one given a high-fat diet and one a control diet during pregnancy. They subsequently measured and compared anxiety-like behavior among 135 offspring and found that both males and females exposed to a high-fat diet during pregnancy exhibited greater incidence of anxiety compared with those in the control group. The scientists also examined physiological differences between the two groups, finding that exposure to a high-fat diet during gestation and early in development impaired the development of neurons containing serotonin, a neurotransmitter that's critical in developing brains.
The new findings suggest that diet is at least as important as genetic predisposition to neurodevelopmental disorders such as anxiety or depression, said an OHSU pediatric psychiatrist who was not involved in the research.
"I think it's quite dramatic," said Joel Nigg, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, pediatrics, and behavioral neuroscience in the OHSU School of Medicine. "A lot of people are going to be astonished to see that the maternal diet has this big of an effect on the behavior of the offspring. We've always looked at the link between obesity and physical diseases like heart disease, but this is really the clearest demonstration that it's also affecting the brain."
Sullivan and research assistant and first author Jacqueline Thompson said they believe the findings provide evidence that mobilizing public resources to provide healthy food and pre- and post-natal care to families of all socioeconomic classes could reduce mental health disorders in future generations.
"My hope is that increased public awareness about the origins of neuropsychiatric disorders can improve our identification and management of these conditions, both at an individual and societal level," Thompson said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170721164037.htm
Why some women are more likely to feel depressed
New study links duration of estrogen exposure with increased vulnerability to depression: Longer exposure to estrogen shown to provide protection
July 19, 2017
Science Daily/The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)
It's no secret that the risk of depression increases for women when their hormones are fluctuating. Especially vulnerable times include the menopause transition and onset of postmenopause. There's also postpartum depression that can erupt shortly after childbirth. But why do some women feel blue while others seem to skate through these transitions? One answer is provided through new study results.
The article "Lifelong estradiol exposure and risk of depressive symptoms during the transition to menopause and postmenopause" includes data from a study of more than 1,300 regularly menstruating premenopausal women aged 42 to 52 years at study entry. The primary goal of the study was to understand why some women are more vulnerable to depression, even though all women experience hormone fluctuations.
Previous studies have suggested a role for reproductive hormones in causing an increased susceptibility to depression. This study focused largely on the effect of estradiol, the predominant estrogen present during the reproductive years. Among other things, estradiol modulates the synthesis, availability, and metabolism of serotonin, a key neurotransmitter in depression. Whereas fluctuations of estradiol during the menopause transition are universal, the duration of exposure to estradiol throughout the adult years varies widely among women.
A key finding of this study was that longer duration of estrogen exposure from the start of menstruation until the onset of menopause was significantly associated with a reduced risk of depression during the transition to menopause and for up to 10 years postmenopause. Also noteworthy was that longer duration of birth control use was associated with a decreased risk of depression, but the number of pregnancies or incidence of breastfeeding had no association.
"Women are more vulnerable to depressive symptoms during and after the menopause transition because of fluctuating hormone changes," says Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, executive director of NAMS. "This study additionally found a higher risk for depression in those with earlier menopause, fewer menstrual cycles over lifespan, or more frequent hot flashes. Women and their providers need to recognize symptoms of depression such as mood changes, loss of pleasure, changes in weight or sleep, fatigue, feeling worthless, being unable to make decisions, or feeling persistently sad and take appropriate action."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170719084710.htm
Restless legs syndrome linked to poor sleep quality, impaired function in pregnancy
New study shows relationship between RLS and sleep-wake disturbances
July 14, 2017
Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine
A new study of pregnant women shows that restless legs syndrome (RLS) is common and is strongly associated with poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, and poor daytime function, which are frequent complaints during pregnancy.
Results show that 36 percent of women in their third trimester had RLS, and half of the women with RLS had moderate to severe symptoms. Compared with pregnant women without RLS, those with RLS were twice as likely to report poor sleep quality and poor daytime function, and they were also more likely to have excessive daytime sleepiness. Additionally, the study found a positive dose-response relationship between RLS severity and the sleep-wake disturbances.
"While we expected that RLS would be relatively common in pregnant women, we were surprised to observe just how many had a severe form," said lead author Galit Levi Dunietz, PhD, a T32 post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center in Ann Arbor. "These women experienced RLS symptoms at least four times per week."
Study results are published in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
The study involved 1,563 pregnant women with an average age of 30 years, each of whom was in her third trimester. RLS was diagnosed using the standardized criteria of self-reported symptoms and frequency. Demographic and pregnancy data were extracted from medical records, and sleep information was collected with questionnaires. The study found no evidence for any association between RLS and delivery outcomes.
According to the authors, health care providers often dismiss patient complaints of poor sleep and daytime sleepiness during pregnancy.
"These sleep-wake disturbances are considered common symptoms in pregnancy and are frequently attributed to physiological changes that occur in normal pregnancy, but our data suggest that RLS is an additional contributor to these symptoms," said Dunietz.
The authors suggest that the identification and treatment of RLS in pregnancy -- using non-pharmacological approaches -- may alleviate the burden of these symptoms for many women.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170714183056.htm
Nutrition protects against the impact of stress on the brain in early life
November 14, 2016
Science Daily/Universiteit van Amsterdam (UVA)
Young mice that grow up in stressful circumstances go on to have fewer cognitive-impairments and memory problems as adults if they are given enriched breast milk, scientists report.
In both humans and other animals, severe stress in early childhood (human examples are abuse and neglect or war trauma) results in impaired brain development and health issues later in life. For example, people exposed to early-life stress have a higher risk of developing depression, anxiety disorders and other diseases such as obesity, and on average have a lower IQ and a less effective memory.
Long-term hospital stay
Previous research conducted by neuroscientists Eva Naninck, Paul Lucassen and Aniko Korosi revealed that stress during early development also permanently changes the brain in mice. This current study conducted by the same group demonstrates that supplementing the nutrition of the mother during this early period can mitigate the harmful consequences of this early-life stress later on. Korosi: 'The fact that nutrients can influence impaired brain development deriving from stress in early childhood is hopeful. It enables us to look in a targeted way for nutritional interventions for children who are growing up in stressful circumstances, for example babies that have to undergo long-term hospital stays.'
To induce stress in young mice, the researchers gave mother mice only a limited amount of material with which to build their nests. As a result, their care for their young changed, and they left the nest more often in order to look for nesting material. Mothers in the control group who had plenty of nesting material at their disposal, on the other hand, stayed in the nest with their young for much longer periods of time.
The researchers gave half of the stressed mother mice a dietary supplement containing various nutrients which the body is unable to produce on its own, such as vitamins B6, B9 (folic acid) and B12 and the functionally related aminoacid, methionine.
The researchers found an increased hormonal stress response and reduced methionine levels in the brains of those young mice whose mothers were stressed, but were not given the nutritional supplement. In addition, these mice had an impaired memory as adults; they were less able to remember locations and objects.
The young of stressed mothers that were given supplemented nutrition were more similar to conspecifics growing up under normal circumstances. They had higher methionine levels in the brain and a lower hormonal stress response when young, and as adults they performed better on several memory tasks than the early-stress exposed mice whose mothers did not receive a nutritional supplement.
Human breast milk
The researchers emphasise that this explorative study was unable to fully explain precisely how the stress system and metabolism work together in this early period and in brain development. It is unclear whether the impaired development is due to the fact that stress-exposed mothers produce less nutritious milk, or if the problem lies with absorption in the body or brain of the young mice, who may also experience stress as result of the mother's unpredictable behaviour. However, according to Naninck the results are still valuable: 'Scientists tend to view metabolism and stress as unrelated systems, but we have demonstrated that in fact they work together in early brain programming. We hope that our insights can contribute to new nutrition strategies to mitigate the lasting effects of a seriously disturbed childhood.'
Before this kind of nutritional intervention can be used in people, it first has to be established whether human mothers and babies under serious stress, experience similar disturbances to mice. Currently, the group's first step is to investigate whether the nutritional content of human breast milk also changes under stress.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161114082239.htm
New survey finds 75 percent of Americans think discrimination still an issue for women
Only three in 10 consider Hillary Clinton's gender to be a significant obstacle for her campaign
August 31, 2016
Science Daily/NORC at the University of Chicago
In the wake of Hillary Clinton's historic nomination as the first woman presidential candidate of a major political party in the US, women continue to face obstacles in politics and the workplace, according to an American national poll. Three-quarters of Americans think there is at least some discrimination against women in this country, although just as many say it has decreased over the past generation.
"The impact of the country's first female nominee is perceived differently across the electorate including how Clinton's gender will impact her chances of being elected and what the long-term effects will be on gender discrimination," said Trevor Tompson, director of The AP-NORC Center. "For example, women and men are divided in their perception of the role gender will play in the outcome. Women are more inclined to say that Clinton's gender is a disadvantage, while men tend to say the fact that she is a woman will help her chances of being elected."
Some of the poll's key findings are:
- · Seventy-five percent say women and men are equally good at being political leaders. Yet, 53 percent think women have fewer opportunities in politics than men.
- · The public is divided on whether Clinton's gender is an advantage, a hindrance or neither for her election prospects this fall. Men are more inclined to say her gender is a benefit to her campaign, and women are more likely to say it is a barrier.
- · Seven in 10 say the historic nature of Clinton's candidacy has no bearing on their own vote choice this year. Nearly 20 percent say the opportunity to elect the first woman president makes them more inclined to vote for Clinton in November, and about 10 percent say it makes them less likely to vote for her.
- · Overall, 75 percent think discrimination against women has decreased over the past 25 years or so, but at the same time an equal number of Americans say discrimination continues to be an issue today for many women.
- · Forty-nine percent of the public think it would help the economy if the upper management of companies were made up of equal numbers of men and women. Just 2 percent say it would be bad for the economy, while 48 percent think it would make no difference.
- · However, just 4 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women and the workplace is perceived as an uneven playing field for women. More than half of Americans think women have fewer opportunities for job advancement and 6 in 10 say they are at a disadvantage when it comes to salaries.
- · In fact, just under half of the women surveyed said they had experienced at least some type of job-related discrimination -- getting a job, receiving equal pay, or being appreciated and promoted at work -- because of their gender. Three in 10 men report having been discriminated against in some way at work because of their gender.
- · Six in 10 do not expect a Clinton Administration to have any effect on the level of discrimination against women, while a quarter anticipate a reduction in the amount of discrimination women would face if Clinton is elected.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160831223832.htm
Mental stress may cause reduced blood flow in hearts of young women with heart disease
August 24, 2016
Science Daily/American Heart Association
Mental stress may cause reduced blood flow in the heart muscle of younger women with heart disease. Younger women with heart disease are more susceptible to reduced blood flow from mental stress compared to men and older patients, new research has found.
Younger women with coronary heart disease and mental stress are more susceptible to myocardial ischemia (reduced blood flow to the heart muscle, which can lead to a heart attack), compared to men and older patients, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
Coronary heart disease is a leading cause of death in American men and women, but studies show that younger women have higher rates of complications and death after a heart attack compared to their male counterparts.
"Younger women tend to have quite a lot of stress in their lives. Many of them have full-time jobs and at the same time have numerous responsibilities at home; financial hardship, as well as depression and anxiety which are common in this group," said Viola Vaccarino, M.D., Ph.D., lead study author, professor and chair of the department of epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. "Clinicians should ask about stress and emotional difficulties in these patients and recommend ways to help, such as finding time to relax and exercise."
The Mental Stress Ischemia Mechanisms Prognosis study included 686 patients (191 women) between 34 and 79 years old with coronary heart disease. Patients underwent imaging tests, meaning researchers took pictures of their hearts before and during mental stress, and then examined changes in blood flow between men and women with age as a factor.
They found stress-induced, reduced blood flow:
· happened more often in younger women compared to men and older women;
· occurred in 33 percent of women age 50 years old or younger compared to 8 percent of men of similar ages; and
· the difference between men and women decreased with age and disappeared in older patients. The frequency of reduced blood flow almost doubled in women compared to men for every 10-year decrease in age.
"Our findings suggest that women with heart disease in their 30s, 40s and early 50s are more vulnerable to the damaging effects of psychological stress on their heart," Vaccarino said.
Researchers said their study is limited by the relatively small number of younger women involved and that further studies are needed to confirm the clinical significance of mental stress-induced heart attacks in women.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160824171748.htm
Unhealthy diet during pregnancy could be linked to ADHD
August 18, 2016
Science Daily/King's College London
A high-fat, high-sugar diet during pregnancy may be linked to symptoms of ADHD in children who show conduct problems early in life, new research indicates.
Published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, this study is the first to indicate that epigenetic changes evident at birth may explain the link between unhealthy diet, conduct problems and ADHD.
Early onset conduct problems (e.g. lying, fighting) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are the leading causes of child mental health referral in the UK. These two disorders tend to occur in tandem (more than 40 per cent of children with a diagnosis of conduct disorder also have a diagnosis of ADHD) and can also be traced back to very similar prenatal experiences such as maternal distress or poor nutrition.
In this new study of participants from the Bristol-based 'Children of the 90s' cohort, 83 children with early-onset conduct problems were compared with 81 children who had low levels of conduct problems. The researchers assessed how the mothers' nutrition affected epigenetic changes (or DNA methylation) of IGF2, a gene involved in fetal development and the brain development of areas implicated in ADHD -- the cerebellum and hippocampus. Notably, DNA methylation of IGF2 had previously been found in children of mothers who were exposed to famine in the Netherlands during World War II.
The researchers from King's and Bristol found that poor prenatal nutrition, comprising high fat and sugar diets of processed food and confectionary, was associated with higher IGF2 methylation in children with early onset conduct problems and those with low conduct problems.
Higher IGF2 methylation was also associated with higher ADHD symptoms between the ages of 7 and 13, but only for children who showed an early onset of conduct problems.
Dr Edward Barker from King's College London said: 'Our finding that poor prenatal nutrition was associated with higher IGF2 methylation highlights the critical importance of a healthy diet during pregnancy.
'These results suggest that promoting a healthy prenatal diet may ultimately lower ADHD symptoms and conduct problems in children. This is encouraging given that nutritional and epigenetic risk factors can be altered.'
Dr Barker added: 'We now need to examine more specific types of nutrition. For example, the types of fats such as omega 3 fatty acids, from fish, walnuts and chicken are extremely important for neural development.
'We already know that nutritional supplements for children can lead to lower ADHD and conduct problems, so it will be important for future research to examine the role of epigenetic changes in this process.'
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160818085803.htm
Calcium supplements linked to dementia risk in women with certain health conditions
August 17, 2016
Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology
Calcium supplements may be associated with an increased risk of dementia in older women who have had a stroke or other signs of cerebrovascular disease, according to a new study.
Cerebrovascular disease is a group of disorders that affect blood flow in the brain. These diseases, including stroke, are the fifth leading cause of death in the United States and increase the risk of developing dementia.
"Osteoporosis is a common problem in the elderly. Because calcium deficiency contributes to osteoporosis, daily calcium intake of 1000 to 1200 mg is recommended. Getting this recommended amount through diet alone can be difficult, so calcium supplements are widely used," said study author Silke Kern, MD, PhD with the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. "Recently, however, the use of supplements and their effect on health has been questioned."
The study involved 700 dementia-free women between the ages of 70 and 92 who were followed for five years. Participants took a variety of tests at the beginning and end of the study, including tests of memory and thinking skills. A CT brain scan was performed in 447 participants at the start of the study.
Scientists also looked at the use of calcium supplements in the participants and whether they were diagnosed with dementia over the course of the study. A total of 98 women were taking calcium supplements at the start of the study and 54 women had already experienced a stroke. During the study, 54 more women had strokes, and 59 women developed dementia. Among the women who had CT scans, 71 percent had lesions on their brains' white matter, which is a marker for cerebrovascular disease.
The study found that the women who were treated with calcium supplements were twice as likely to develop dementia than women who did not take supplements. But when the researchers further analyzed the data, they found that the increased risk was only among women with cerebrovascular disease. Women with a history of stroke who took supplements had a nearly seven times increased risk of developing dementia than women with a history of stroke who did not take calcium supplements. Women with white matter lesions who took supplements were three times as likely to develop dementia as women who had white matter lesions and did not take supplements. Women without a history of stroke or women without white matter lesions had no increased risk when taking calcium supplements.
Overall, 14 out of 98 women who took supplements developed dementia, or 14 percent, compared to 45 out of 602 women who did not take supplements, or 8 percent. A total of six out of 15 women with a history of stroke who took supplements developed dementia, compared to 12 out of 93 women with a history of stroke who did not take supplements. Among the women with no history of stroke, 18 out of 83 who took supplements developed dementia, compared to 33 out of the 509 who did not take supplements.
"It is important to note that our study is observational, so we cannot assume that calcium supplements cause dementia," said Kern. The author also noted that the study was small and results cannot be generalized to the overall population, and additional studies are needed to confirm the findings.
Kern noted that calcium from food affects the body differently than calcium from supplements and appears to be safe or even protective against vascular problems.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160817171555.htm
One third of women with ADHD have anxiety disorders, almost half have considered suicide
July 20, 2016
Science Daily/University of Toronto
Women with ADHD are much more likely to have a wide range of mental and physical health problems in comparison to women without ADHD, according to a new study.
"The prevalence of mental illness among women with ADHD was disturbingly high with 46% having seriously considered suicide, 36% having generalized anxiety disorder, 31% having major depressive disorder and 39% having substance abuse problems at some point in their life," reported Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair at University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Director of the Institute for Life Course & Aging.
"These rates are much higher than among women without ADHD, ranging from more than four times the odds of suicidal thoughts and generalized anxiety disorders to more than twice the odds of major depressive disorder and substance abuse" said Fuller-Thomson
Investigators examined a representative sample of 3,908 Canadian women aged 20 to 39 of whom 107 reported that they had been diagnosed with ADHD. Data was drawn from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey-Mental Health.
"We were surprised at the high levels of physical health problems that the women were experiencing" said Danielle A. Lewis, co-author of the study and a recent MSW graduate of the University of Toronto.
"More than one in four (28%) of these relatively young women said that physical pain prohibited some of their activities, which was much higher than the 9% of their peers without ADHD who had disabling pain. Insomnia was also more prevalent in the women with ADHD in comparison to those without ADHD (43.9% vs 12.2%) as was smoking (41% vs 22%)" stated Lewis.
"Unfortunately, our study does not provide insight into why women with ADHD are so vulnerable. It is possible that some of the mental health problems may be caused by and/or contributing to financial stress" Fuller-Thomson suggested. The study also found, one in three of the women (37%) with ADHD reported they had difficulty meeting basic expenses such as food, shelter and clothing due to their inadequate household income. For women without ADHD, only 13% had this shortfall."
"Many people think of ADHD as primarily a boys' disorder which has little relevance for girls and women. Our findings suggest, to the contrary, that a large portion of women with ADHD are struggling with mental illness, physical health concerns and poverty," said Fuller-Thomson.
"In light of these problems, it is important that primary health care providers are particularly vigilant in monitoring and treating their female patients with ADHD," suggested co-author Senyo Agbeyaka, a graduate student at the University of Toronto.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160720122838.htm
New evidence links exclusive breastfeeding, early play/stimulation to children's later success
Enriched play/stimulation to age two creates brighter four-year-olds, say investigators
June 21, 2016
Science Daily/Grand Challenges Canada
A pair of new studies further strengthen scientific understanding of the links between what a child experiences in the first years of life and later childhood behavior and abilities. Researchers working in South Africa and Pakistan report their findings in a new paper.
Funded by the Government of Canada through Grand Challenges Canada, researchers working in South Africa and Pakistan report their findings in papers launched today.
In the first study, an international team led by Dr Ruth M. Bland of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, assessed over 1,500 children in South Africa, 900 of whom had been involved in an early infant feeding study.
They found longer durations of exclusive breastfeeding strongly associated with fewer conduct disorders at ages 7 to 11 years. Children exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months, compared with those exclusively breastfed for less than one month, were approximately half (56 percent) as likely to have conduct disorders at primary school age.
Other highlighted findings, published in PLOS Medicine, included:
- · Important determinants of a child's cognitive development: attending creche (preschool) and mother's IQ
- · Children who attended creche for at least one year were 74 percent more likely to have higher executive function (which enables us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. The brain needs this skill set to filter distractions, prioritize tasks, set and achieve goals, and control impulses. Executive function, therefore, influences educational and social success.)
- · Children stimulated at home, such as through play, were one third (36 percent) more likely to have higher executive function scores
- · There was weaker evidence that, for boys, exclusive breastfeeding for more than one month improved cognitive development.
The study also examined a number of current life factors that might influence children's development, finding that children were two-and-a-half times more likely to exhibit emotional-behavioural problems if their mothers had a current mental health problem or severe parenting stress.
"The duration of exclusive breastfeeding of an infant has greater importance than previously realized in several areas of development," said lead author Dr Tamsen J. Rochat of the Human Science Research Council, Durban, South Africa.
"For example, childhood onset conduct disorders can lead to aggressive or disruptive behaviours, which interfere with learning and peer relationships, in turn leading to low self-esteem and further behavioural problems. Conduct disorders that start in childhood and persist into the teen years are associated with an increase in antisocial (and potentially violent or criminal) behaviours, poor long-term mental health and low academic achievement in later life."
"Evidence from studies in high-income countries suggests that the economic cost of conduct disorders is enormous," added Dr Bland. For example, a publication from the United Kingdom cited in the paper estimates the annual cost of crime attributable to people who had a conduct disorder in childhood at US$117 billion.
The study was also one of the first to assess the impact of HIV exposure on the development of primary school-age children in Africa. Previous studies suggested that children, although themselves HIV-negative, were disadvantaged if they were born to HIV-positive mothers, particularly in the areas of emotional and behavioural development. This study found that HIV-negative children born to HIV-positive mothers performed as well as those born to HIV-negative mothers.
Play and communication -- "responsive stimulation" -- pays dividends for impoverished rural children in Pakistan
The second paper, published by The Lancet Global Health and led by Dr Aisha K. Yousafzai of Aga Khan University, Karachi, followed up a cohort of impoverished children in rural Pakistan whose parents had been guided on strengthening nutritional care and "responsive stimulation" used to the end of age 2.
In the responsive stimulation intervention, caregivers were coached to observe and respond to their child's cues during play and communication activities, improving the quality of interactions.
The intervention, adapted from the UNICEF and the World Health Organization's 'Care for Child Development' approach (which is readily available online), included using everyday household items or homemade toys to stimulate children's cognitive, language, motor and affective (emotional/feeling) skills.
At age 4, children who received the responsive stimulation intervention were, to varying degrees, more likely to have:
· Higher IQ
· Better pre-academic skills (in sizes and comparisons, and shapes)
· Better executive functioning
· More pro-social behaviour.
The follow-up study also found parents were better caregivers.
The research involved 1,302 four-year-olds and their mothers from the original study, which had likewise shown that responsive stimulation "significantly benefitted children's cognitive, language and motor development at two years." The investigators intend to follow this cohort throughout their schooling.
"The abilities fostered by stimulation are important for readiness and a successful transition to preschool," said Dr Yousafzai. "The competencies assessed in this study have been shown to predict school engagement and longer-term academic attainment."
"Other studies have shown that the early success of children clearly links to their productivity and income potential later in life and, at a large scale, impacts the economic well-being of societies."
The inclusion of stimulation intervention in health programs is important to support healthy development. It is hoped more research will follow that will provide insights on how to optimize integrated packages of health, growth and development.
The newly published research from South Africa and Pakistan closely follows the release of another Grand Challenges Canada study, conducted by Harvard University, showing that one-third of 3- or 4-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries don't reach expected developmental milestones.
Grand Challenges Canada funded the studies as part of its contribution to the growing international "Saving Brains" partnership, which convenes for a conference in Toronto June 21-22, focused on the results from 11 follow-up studies, including the two publications launched today.
"One in three children in 'developing' countries are in fact failing to develop to their full potential. These studies show how parents can help develop smart, social kids who make good decisions: breastfeed babies and play with children," said Dr Peter A. Singer, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160621193106.htm
Postpartum depression least severe form of depression in mothers
Time frame when pregnant woman first develops depression determines severity, treatment of it
June 15, 2016
Science Daily/Northwestern University
Postpartum depression -- a household term since actress Brooke Shields went public in 2005 about her struggle with it -- is indeed serious. But depression that begins before or during pregnancy is often more severe because it lasts longer and usually goes undetected until the doctor screens for it after the birth of the baby, according to a new study.
Deciphering the onset time can impact how the doctor treats the woman's depression, such as intervening earlier with psychiatric help, if needed, said Sheehan Fisher, the study's corresponding author and an instructor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
"There's a difference between postpartum depression and depression that started before or during the pregnancy. It's not a homogenous disorder, " Fisher said. "When clinicians see a mother during the postpartum period and diagnose her with depression, it's important for them to ask how long this depression has been an issue so they can assess the longevity and severity."
The study, recently published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, is one of the first to evaluate the rate of depression in mothers at the three onset time points: 24.9 percent of participants developed depression pre-pregnancy, 36.7 percent developed it during pregnancy (prenatal) and 38.4 percent developed depression during the postpartum period.
Mothers who develop depression during the postpartum period are more likely to be Caucasian, older, educated, married or cohabitating, and have private health insurance than mothers whose depression begins before or during pregnancy, the study found.
"Mothers who develop postpartum depression often experience protective risk factors such as better access to resources, fewer children and are more mature, which helps them adapt to the stress of pregnancy," Fisher said. "Once their babies are born, they show more obsessive-compulsive symptoms--like over-worrying about their baby's health--than mothers who developed depression before or during pregnancy."
Women who had depression before they became pregnant were more likely to experience hypersomnia or difficulty falling asleep. They also experienced more symptoms of paranoia, such as a psychotic episode, than women who developed depression during or after pregnancy. And they had a higher severity of postpartum depression than the other onset periods.
The proportion of mothers who had a bipolar disorder, which Fisher said is more severe than unipolar depression, was significantly higher among mothers whose depression onset was during the pre-pregnancy period (38.7 percent), compared with prenatal (22.6 percent) and postpartum (17.9 percent).
Agitation was the distinctive factor that differentiated mothers with unipolar and bipolar depression in the study. Mothers who had a bipolar disorder and developed depression during her pregnancy exhibited the highest amount of agitation.
The study evaluated depression symptoms during the four- to six-week postpartum period for 727 women from an urban women's hospital in Pittsburgh, Penn. This period was chosen because women typically visit their doctors for post-birth evaluations six weeks after birth, and the four- to six-week epoch is associated with the highest depression onset.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160615142624.htm
Stress exposure during pregnancy observed in mothers of children with autism
More research needed to understand gene-stress interaction
June 7, 2016
Science Daily/University of Missouri-Columbia
Stress during pregnancy has been linked to several conditions, including some instances of autism spectrum disorder. Now, researchers have observed a variant of a stress-sensitive gene and exposure to stress during pregnancy among two groups of mothers of children with autism. The finding could be a step toward helping identify women who have greater risks for having children with autism when exposed to stressors during pregnancy.
"Autism was thought to be largely a genetic disorder, but previous research has shown that environmental influences such as stress can play an important role in the development of the condition," said David Beversdorf, M.D., associate professor in the departments of radiology, neurology and psychological sciences at the University of Missouri and the MU Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and senior author of the study. "We know that some mothers who experience significant levels of stress don't have children with autism, but others do. To help understand why, we studied a gene that is known to affect stress and found a link between it and the development of autism with exposure to stress."
Led by Beversdorf's graduate student, Patrick Hecht, Ph.D., in collaboration with Xudong Liu, Ph.D., with Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, the researchers studied two separate groups of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder -- a group of families at MU and a group of families at Queen's University. The mothers were surveyed about stress during their pregnancy, such as loss of a job, moving or divorce. The mothers' blood was tested for a variation of the stress-sensitive gene known as 5-HTTLPR, which regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin in the nervous system. When a variation of the gene is present, the availability of serotonin is altered, causing an increased reaction to stress.
In both groups, mothers of children with autism who have the variation of the stress-sensitive gene reported experiencing more stress during the end of the second and the beginning of the third trimester of pregnancy, compared to mothers who did not carry the altered gene.
"Though this was an observational study and future confirmation of this finding is needed, it's possible we could, one day, identify women who may be at a greater risk of having a child with autism when exposed to stress," said Beversdorf, who also serves as the William and Nancy Thompson Endowed Chair in Radiology. "More research is needed to understand the mechanisms of how this gene-stress interaction works, but hopefully this could someday help prevent some cases of autism."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160607220116.htm