SARS-CoV-2 infection, inflammation and birth outcomes in a prospective NYC pregnancy cohort.

Associations between antenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection and pregnancy outcomes have been conflicting and the role of the immune system is currently unclear. This prospective cohort study investigated the interaction of antenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection, changes in cytokine and HS-CRP levels, birthweight and gestational age at birth. 2352 pregnant participants from New York City (2020-2022) were included. Plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-6, IL-17A and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HS-CRP) were quantified in blood specimens obtained across pregnancy. Quantile and linear regression models were conducted to 1) assess the impact of antenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection, overall and by timing of detection of SARS-CoV-2 positivity (< 20 weeks versus ≥ 20 weeks), on birthweight and gestational age at delivery; 2) examine the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and maternal immune changes during pregnancy. All models were adjusted for maternal demographic and obstetric factors and pandemic timing. Birthweight models were additionally adjusted for gestational age at delivery and fetal sex. Immune marker models were also adjusted for gestational age at specimen collection and multiplex assay batch. 371 (15.8%) participants were infected with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy, of which 98 (26.4%) were infected at < 20 weeks gestation. Neither SARS-CoV-2 infection in general nor in early or late pregnancy was associated with lower birthweight nor earlier gestational age at delivery. Further, we did not observe cytokine or HS-CRP changes in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and thus found no evidence to support a potential association between immune dysregulation and the diversity in pregnancy outcomes following infection.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Medication Use Trajectories Among Women in the Perinatal Period.

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of women of reproductive age are treated with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication; however, patterns of ADHD medication use for women in the perinatal period have not been well described. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe ADHD medication use patterns from 1 year before pregnancy to 1 year after delivery, and to describe sociodemographic characteristics and clinical features by medication trajectories. METHODS: The population-based cohort study included pregnancies in Denmark between 1997 and 2020, from the Medical Birth Register, by women who filled at least one prescription for ADHD medication from 12 months before pregnancy until 12 months after delivery. We applied group-based trajectory modeling to classify women into subgroups based on the identification of heterogeneous ADHD medication treatment patterns, and described the characteristics associated with these groups. RESULTS: Overall, we included 4717 pregnancies leading to liveborn singletons by 4052 mothers with a mean (standard deviation) age of 27.5 (5.6) years. We identified four treatment trajectories across pregnancy and the postpartum period: continuers (23.3%), discontinuers (41.8%), interrupters who ceased filling prescriptions during pregnancy but resumed postpartum (17.2%), and postpartum initiators (17.7%). Continuers were older at the time of conception, gave birth in more recent years, were more likely to smoke during pregnancy, and used other psychotropic medications during pregnancy. A large proportion of continuers used methylphenidate (89.1%) compared with the other groups (75.9-84.1%) and had switched ADHD medication type during the whole period (16.4% vs. 7.4-14.8%). CONCLUSION: We found that approximately 60% of women discontinued or interrupted their ADHD medication around pregnancy, and those who continued differed in sociodemographic and clinical factors that may reflect more severe ADHD.

The effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination on Th17 and regulatory T cells in a pregnancy cohort in NYC.

Disturbances in T-cells, specifically the Th17/Treg balance, have been implicated in adverse pregnancy outcomes. We investigated these two T-cell populations following pre-pregnancy and pregnancy SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination in 351 participants from a pregnancy cohort in New York City (Generation C; 2020-2022). SARS-CoV-2 infection status was determined via laboratory or medical diagnosis and COVID-19 vaccination status via survey and electronic medical records data. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were collected at routine prenatal visits throughout gestation (median 108 days; IQR 67-191 days) with repeated measures for 104 participants (29.6%). T-cell populations CD4+/CD3+, Th17/CD4+, Treg/CD4+ and the Th17/Treg ratio were quantified using flow cytometry. Results showed that inter-individual differences are a main influencing factor in Th17 and Treg variance, however total variance explained remained small (R2 = 15-39%). Overall, Th17 and Treg populations were not significantly affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy in adjusted linear mixed models (p>0.05), however comparison of repeated measures among SARS-CoV-2 infected participants and non-infected controls suggests a relative increase of the Th17/Treg ratio following infection. In addition, the Th17/Treg ratio was significantly higher after SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to pregnancy (10-138 weeks) compared to controls (ß=0.48, p=0.003). COVID-19 vaccination was not associated with Th17 and Treg cells. Our findings suggest an impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the Th17/Treg ratio, likely depending on severity of infection, yet the observed trends and their potential consequences for pregnancy outcomes require further investigation. Our study contributes to growing evidence that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy does not lead to an exacerbated immune response.

The Mood and Resilience in Offspring (MARIO) project: a longitudinal cohort study among offspring of parents with and without a mood disorder.

BACKGROUND: One of the most robust risk factors for developing a mood disorder is having a parent with a mood disorder. Unfortunately, mechanisms explaining the transmission of mood disorders from one generation to the next remain largely elusive. Since timely intervention is associated with a better outcome and prognosis, early detection of intergenerational transmission of mood disorders is of paramount importance. Here, we describe the design of the Mood and Resilience in Offspring (MARIO) cohort study in which we investigate: 1. differences in clinical, biological and environmental (e.g., psychosocial factors, substance use or stressful life events) risk and resilience factors in children of parents with and without mood disorders, and 2. mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of mood disorders via clinical, biological and environmental risk and resilience factors. METHODS: MARIO is an observational, longitudinal cohort study that aims to include 450 offspring of parents with a mood disorder (uni- or bipolar mood disorders) and 100-150 offspring of parents without a mood disorder aged 10-25 years. Power analyses indicate that this sample size is sufficient to detect small to medium sized effects. Offspring are recruited via existing Dutch studies involving patients with a mood disorder and healthy controls, for which detailed clinical, environmental and biological data of the index-parent (i.e., the initially identified parent with or without a mood disorder) is available. Over a period of three years, four assessments will take place, in which extensive clinical, biological and environmental data and data on risk and resilience are collected through e.g., blood sampling, face-to-face interviews, online questionnaires, actigraphy and Experience Sampling Method assessment. For co-parents, information on demographics, mental disorder status and a DNA-sample are collected. DISCUSSION: The MARIO cohort study is a large longitudinal cohort study among offspring of parents with and without mood disorders. A unique aspect is the collection of granular data on clinical, biological and environmental risk and resilience factors in offspring, in addition to available parental data on many similar factors. We aim to investigate the mechanisms underlying intergenerational transmission of mood disorders, which will ultimately lead to better outcomes for offspring at high familial risk.

Impact of genetic, sociodemographic, and clinical features on antidepressant treatment trajectories in the perinatal period.

Pregnant women on antidepressants must balance potential fetal harm with the relapse risk. While various clinical and sociodemographic factors are known to influence treatment decisions, the impact of genetic factors remains unexplored. We conducted a cohort study among 2,316 women with diagnosed affective disorders who had redeemed antidepressant prescriptions six months before pregnancy, identified from the Danish Integrated Psychiatric Research study. We calculated polygenic risk scores (PGSs) for major depression (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia (SCZ) using individual-level genetic data and summary statistics from genome-wide association studies. We retrieved data on sociodemographic and clinical features from national registers. Applying group-based trajectory modeling, we identified four treatment trajectories across pregnancy and postpartum: Continuers (38.2 %), early discontinuers (22.7 %), late discontinuers (23.8 %), and interrupters (15.3 %). All three PGSs were not associated with treatment trajectories; for instance, the relative risk ratio for continuers versus early discontinuers was 0.93 (95 % CI: 0.81-1.06), 0.98 (0.84-1.13), 1.09 (0.95-1.27) for per 1-SD increase in PGS for MDD, BD, and SCZ, respectively. Sociodemographic factors were generally not associated with treatment trajectories, except for the association between primiparity and continuing antidepressant use. Women who received ≥2 classes or a higher dose of antidepressants had a higher probability of being late discontinuers, interrupters, and continuers. The likelihood of continuing antidepressants or restarting antidepressants postpartum increased with the previous antidepressant treatment duration. Our findings indicate that continued antidepressant use during pregnancy is influenced by the severity of the disease rather than genetic predisposition as measured by PGSs.

Dose response relationship between lithium serum levels during pregnancy and birth outcomes.

INTRODUCTION: Lithium use during pregnancy reduces the risk of mood episodes in the perinatal period for women with bipolar disorder. Some previous studies found deleterious effects of intrauterine lithium exposure on birth outcomes, yet little is known about a dose response relationship. The current study investigated the influence of maternal lithium serum levels on birth outcomes. METHODS: This retrospective observational cohort study included women with a bipolar spectrum disorder who were referred to a specialized psychiatric and obstetric outpatient clinic from 2003 to 2019 and used lithium during the entire pregnancy. For 101 pregnancies at least one lithium level during pregnancy was available. A weighted average lithium level was calculated for the entire pregnancy, as well as for each trimester. Detailed information on maternal, obstetric and neonatal outcomes were retrieved from the medical records. Linear and logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between weighted average lithium level and pregnancy duration, birth weight percentiles, preterm birth and large for gestational age births (LGA). In subsequent exploratory analyses, we studied the role of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroxine (T4) as a mediator in the found associations. RESULTS: The weighted average lithium serum level during pregnancy was negatively associated with pregnancy duration and positively with preterm birth, but not with birth weight percentile or LGA. In exploratory analyses, TSH and T4 did not mediate the association between average lithium serum level and pregnancy duration. CONCLUSION: The results of this cohort study during pregnancy indicate a dose response relationship between maternal lithium serum levels and pregnancy duration.

Association between doxycycline use and long-term functioning in patients with schizophrenia.

IMPORTANCE AND OBJECTIVE: The brain-penetrant tetracycline antibiotics, minocycline and doxycycline, have been proposed as potential candidate drugs for treatment of schizophrenia, based on preclinical studies and clinical trials. A potential long-term beneficial effect of these antibiotics for schizophrenia patients has not been investigated. This study was designed to determine if redemption of doxycycline prescription in schizophrenia is associated with decreased incidence of disability pension, a proxy for long-term functioning. DESIGN: We performed a population-based cohort study with data from schizophrenia patients available through the Danish registers. Survival analysis models with time-varying covariates were constructed to assess incidence rate ratios (IRR) of disability pension after exposure to doxycycline or a non-brain penetrant tetracycline, defined as at least one filled prescription. The analysis was adjusted for age, sex, calendar year, parental psychiatric status and educational level. RESULTS: We used data from 11,157 individuals with schizophrenia (4,945 female and 6,212 male; average age 22.4 years old, standard deviation (std) 4.50). 718 of these were exposed to brain-penetrant doxycycline, and 1,498 individuals redeemed a prescription of one or more of the non-brain-penetrant tetracyclines. The average years at risk per person in this cohort was 4.9, and 2,901 individuals received disability pension in the follow-up period. There was a significantly lower incidence rate of disability pension in schizophrenia patients who had redeemed doxycycline compared to patients who did not redeem a prescription of any tetracycline antibiotics (Incidence rate ratio (IRR) 0.68; 95 % CI 0.56, 0.83). There was also a significant lower rate of disability pension in schizophrenia patients who redeemed doxycycline compared to individuals who redeemed a prescription of one of the non-brain penetrant tetracycline antibiotics (IRR 0.69 95 % CI 0.55, 0.87). CONCLUSIONS: In this observational study, doxycycline exposure is associated with a reduced incidence of disability pension. These data support further studies on the potential long term neuroprotective effects of doxycycline and level of functioning in schizophrenia patients.

Increased postpartum anxiety symptoms after perinatal SARS-CoV-2 infection in a large, prospective pregnancy cohort in New York City.

Numerous studies reported an increase of postpartum mood symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, the link between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and perinatal mental health is less well understood. We investigated the associations between prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection and postpartum depressive and anxiety symptoms, including examinations of infection timing and pandemic timeline. We included 595 participants from Generation C, a prospective pregnancy cohort in New York City (2020-2022). Prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection was determined via laboratory or medical diagnosis. Depression and anxiety symptoms were measured 4-12 weeks postpartum using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder questionnaire (GAD), respectively. Quantile regressions were conducted with prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection as exposure and continuously measured EPDS and GAD scores as outcomes. We reran the analyses in those with COVID-19-like symptoms in the trimester during which infection occurred. 120 (20.1%) participants had prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection. After adjusting for socio-demographic, obstetric and other maternal health factors, prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with higher median postpartum anxiety scores (b = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.15; 0.96). Late gestation infection (b = 1.15, 95% CI = 0.22; 2.09) and symptomatic infection (b = 1.15, 95% CI = 0.12; 2.18) were also associated with higher median postpartum anxiety scores. No associations were found with depressive symptoms. The associations were not moderated by time since the start of the pandemic. This study suggests that prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection increases the risk of postpartum anxiety symptoms among participants reporting median anxiety symptoms. Given that this association was not affected by pandemic timing and that SARS-CoV-2 transmission continues, individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy should be monitored for postpartum anxiety symptoms.

Exposure to prenatal infection and the development of internalizing and externalizing problems in children: a longitudinal population-based study.

BACKGROUND: A large body of work has reported a link between prenatal exposure to infection and increased psychiatric risk in offspring. However, studies to date have focused primarily on exposure to severe prenatal infections and/or individual psychiatric diagnoses in clinical samples, typically measured at single time points, and without accounting for important genetic and environmental confounders. In this study, we investigated whether exposure to common infections during pregnancy is prospectively associated with repeatedly assessed child psychiatric symptoms in a large population-based study. METHODS: Our study was embedded in a prospective pregnancy cohort (Generation R; n = 3,598 mother-child dyads). We constructed a comprehensive prenatal infection score comprising common infections for each trimester of pregnancy. Child total, internalizing, and externalizing problems were assessed repeatedly using the parent-rated Child Behavioral Checklist (average age: 1.5, 3, 6, 10, and 14 years). Linear mixed-effects models were run adjusting for a range of confounders, including child polygenic scores for psychopathology, maternal chronic illness, birth complications, and infections during childhood. We also investigated trimester-specific effects and child sex as a potential moderator. RESULTS: Prenatal exposure to infections was associated with higher child total, internalizing, and externalizing problems, showing temporally persistent effects, even after adjusting for important genetic and environmental confounders. We found no evidence that prenatal infections were associated with changes in child psychiatric symptoms over time. Moreover, in our trimester-specific analysis, we did not find evidence of significant timing effects of prenatal infection on child psychiatric symptoms. No interactions with child sex were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Our research adds to evidence that common prenatal infections may be a risk factor for psychiatric symptoms in children. We also extend previous findings by showing that these associations are present early on, and that rather than changing over time, they persist into adolescence. However, unmeasured confounding may still explain in part these associations. In the future, employing more advanced causal inference designs will be crucial to establishing the degree to which these effects are causal.

Postpartum and non-postpartum depression: a population-based matched case-control study comparing polygenic risk scores for severe mental disorders.

It remains inconclusive whether postpartum depression (PPD) and depression with onset outside the postpartum period (MDD) are genetically distinct disorders. We aimed to investigate whether polygenic risk scores (PGSs) for major mental disorders differ between PPD cases and MDD cases in a nested case-control study of 50,057 women born from 1981 to 1997 in the iPSYCH2015 sample in Demark. We identified 333 women with first-onset postpartum depression (PPD group), who were matched with 993 women with first-onset depression diagnosed outside of postpartum (MDD group), and 999 female population controls. Data on genetics and depressive disorders were retrieved from neonatal biobanks and the Psychiatric Central Research Register. PGSs were calculated from both individual-level genetic data and meta-analysis summary statistics from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR), accounting for the selection-related reproductive behavior. After adjustment for covariates, higher PGSs for severe mental disorders were associated with increased ORs of both PPD and MDD. Compared with MDD cases, MDD PGS and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder PGS were marginally but not statistically higher for PPD cases, with the OR of PPD versus MDD being 1.12 (95% CI: 0 .97-1.29) and 1.11 (0.97-1.27) per-standard deviation increase, respectively. The ORs of PPD versus MDD did not statistically differ by PGSs of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or autism spectrum disorder. Our findings suggest that relying on PGS data, there was no clear evidence of distinct genetic make-up of women with depression occurring during or outside postpartum, after taking the selection-related reproductive behavior into account.

Prenatal antidepressant exposure and the risk of decreased gestational age and lower birthweight: A polygenic score approach to investigate confounding by indication.

INTRODUCTION: Prenatal antidepressant exposure has been associated with lower gestational age and birthweight. Yet, unmeasured residual confounding may inflate this association. We explored if maternal genetic liability for major depression explains part of the association of antidepressant use in pregnancy with lower gestational age and birthweight. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We employed the maternal polygenic score (PGS) for major depression as a measure of genetic liability. We used generalised linear models to estimate the differences in gestational age and birthweight at each PGS quintile between children whose mothers continued antidepressant use during pregnancy (continuation group), children whose mothers discontinued antidepressant use during pregnancy (discontinuation group) and unexposed children. RESULTS: After adjusting for confounders, we found significant differences in birthweight between PGS quintiles in the continuation and unexposed group. Yet, this relationship was not linear. Furthermore, at the lowest and highest PGS quintiles, the continuation group had significantly reduced mean gestational ages (adjusted ß ranges: 1.7-4.5 days, p < 0.001-0.008) and lower mean birthweights (adjusted ß ranges: 58.6-165.4 g, p = 0.001-0.008) than the discontinuation and unexposed groups. CONCLUSION: We confirmed that antidepressant use in pregnancy was associated with small reductions in gestational age and birthweight but found that genetic liability for depression was not linearly associated with this risk. The causality of the observed associations could not be established due to the observational nature of the study. Residual confounding linked to the underlying disease was likely still present.

Identification of women at high risk of postpartum psychiatric episodes: A population-based study quantifying relative and absolute risks following exposure to selected risk factors and genetic liability.

BACKGROUND: We quantified relative and absolute risks of postpartum psychiatric episodes (PPE) following risk factors: Young age, past personal or family history of psychiatric disorders, and genetic liability. METHODS: We conducted a register-based study using the iPSYCH2012 case-cohort sample. Exposures were personal history of psychiatric episodes prior to childbirth, being a young mother (giving birth before the age of 21.5 years), having a family history of psychiatric disorders, and a high (highest quartile) polygenic score (PGS) for major depression. PPE was defined within 12 months postpartum by prescription of psychotropic medication or in- and outpatient contact to a psychiatric facility. We included primiparous women born 1981-1999, giving birth before January 1st, 2016. We conducted Cox regression to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) of PPE, absolute risks were calculated using cumulative incidence functions. RESULTS: We included 8174 primiparous women, and the estimated baseline PPE risk was 6.9% (95% CI 6.0%-7.8%, number of PPE cases: 2169). For young mothers with a personal and family history of psychiatric disorders, the absolute risk of PPE was 21.6% (95% CI 15.9%-27.8%). Adding information on high genetic liability to depression, the risk increased to 29.2% (95% CI 21.3%-38.4%) for PPE. CONCLUSIONS: Information on prior personal and family psychiatric episodes as well as age may assist in estimating a personalized risk of PPE. Furthermore, additional information on genetic liability could add even further to this risk assessment.

Long-term effects of prenatal infection on the human brain: a prospective multimodal neuroimaging study.

There is convincing evidence from rodent studies suggesting that prenatal infections affect the offspring's brain, but evidence in humans is limited. Here, we assessed the occurrence of common infections during each trimester of pregnancy and examined associations with brain outcomes in adolescent offspring. Our study was embedded in the Generation R Study, a large-scale sociodemographically diverse prospective birth cohort. We included 1094 mother-child dyads and investigated brain morphology (structural MRI), white matter microstructure (DTI), and functional connectivity (functional MRI), as outcomes at the age of 14. We focused on both global and focal regions. To define prenatal infections, we composed a score based on the number and type of infections during each trimester of pregnancy. Models were adjusted for several confounders. We found that prenatal infection was negatively associated with cerebral white matter volume (B = -0.069, 95% CI -0.123 to -0.015, p = 0.011), and we found an association between higher prenatal infection scores and smaller volumes of several frontotemporal regions of the brain. After multiple testing correction, we only observed an association between prenatal infections and the caudal anterior cingulate volume (B = -0.104, 95% CI -0.164 to -0.045, p < 0.001). We did not observe effects of prenatal infection on other measures of adolescent brain morphology, white matter microstructure, or functional connectivity, which is reassuring. Our results show potential regions of interest in the brain for future studies; data on the effect of severe prenatal infections on the offspring's brain in humans are needed.

Familial risk of postpartum psychosis.

Background: Postpartum psychosis, a mood disorder triggered by childbirth, is one of the most severe psychiatric conditions, with high risks of suicide and infanticide if untreated. While it is evident that genetic factors play a crucial role in disorder risk, the exact extent of their importance is yet to be determined. Methods: This cohort study consisted of 1,633,535 birthing parents from the Swedish nationwide registers, of whom 2,489 (0·15%) experienced postpartum psychosis within three months of their first ever childbirth. We estimated the relative recurrence risk of postpartum psychosis for full siblings and cousins as a measure of familial, genetic, and environmental risk. Findings: Relative recurrence risk of postpartum psychosis in full siblings was 13·77 (95% CI 8·52-20·91) when adjusted for age at birth. Although cousins showed an elevated relative recurrence risk, these results did not reach statistical significance (1·88 [95% CI 0·74-3·82]). In full siblings, the relative recurrence risk for severe postpartum psychosis requiring inpatient diagnosis was even higher than the risk for inpatient and outpatient diagnoses (18·13 [95% CI 11·12-27·57]). Interpretation: Increased risk of postpartum psychosis in full siblings is likely due to a combination of genetic factors and shared environment. The elevated risk in cousin pairs, lower than in full siblings, highlights genetic impact because shared environmental effects are assumed to be minimal among cousins. However, caution is needed in interpreting the risk among cousins due to wide confidence intervals. Overall, our study supports the role of genetics and shared environment in the risk of postpartum psychosis.

The Association Between Prenatal Infection and Adolescent Behavior: Investigating Multiple Prenatal, Perinatal, and Childhood Second Hits.

OBJECTIVE: Exposure to infections during pregnancy may be a potential risk factor for later psychopathology, but large-scale epidemiological studies investigating associations between prenatal infection and long-term offspring behavioral problems in the general population are scarce. In our study, we aimed to investigate the following: (1) the association between prenatal infection and adolescent behavior, (2) putative underlying pathways (mediation), and (3) "second hits" interacting with prenatal infection to increase the risk of adolescent behavior problems (moderation). METHOD: Our study was embedded in a prospective Dutch pregnancy cohort (Generation R; n = 2,213 mother-child dyads). We constructed a comprehensive prenatal infection score comprising common infections for each trimester of pregnancy. At age 13 to 16 years, we assessed total, internalizing, and externalizing problems, and autistic traits using the Child Behavioral Checklist and the Social Responsiveness Scale, respectively. We investigated maternal lifestyle and nutrition, perinatal factors (placental health and delivery outcomes), and child health (lifestyle, traumatic events, infections) as mediators and moderators. RESULTS: We observed associations of prenatal infection with adolescent total behavioral, internalizing, and externalizing problems. The association between prenatal infection and internalizing problems was moderated by higher levels of maternal psychopathology, alcohol and tobacco use, and a higher number of traumatic childhood events. We found no association between prenatal infection and autistic traits. Yet, children exposed to prenatal infections and maternal substance use, and/or traumatic childhood events, had a higher risk of autistic traits in adolescence. CONCLUSION: Prenatal infection may be a risk factor for later psychiatric problems as well as a disease primer making individuals susceptible to other hits later in life. STUDY PREREGISTRATION INFORMATION: Prenatal maternal infection and adverse neurodevelopment: a structural equation modelling approach to downstream environmental hits; https://osf.io/cp85a; cp85a. DIVERSITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT: We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure that the study questionnaires were prepared in an inclusive way. We worked to ensure sex and gender balance in the recruitment of human participants.

Postpartum psychosis: A proposed treatment algorithm.

BACKGROUND: Postpartum psychosis (PPP) is a psychiatric emergency that generally warrants acute inpatient care. PPP is marked by the sudden onset of affective and psychotic symptoms with a rapid deterioration in mental state. Evidence suggests that PPP is a discrete disorder on the bipolar disorder spectrum with a distinct treatment profile and prognosis. METHODS: We conducted a PubMed database search for various terms involving PPP and its treatment and included peer-reviewed articles published in English. OBJECTIVE: To provide a treatment algorithm for the management of PPP based on available evidence. RESULTS: Pharmacological therapy is the mainstay of PPP management in the acute phase. Evidence points to a combination of antipsychotics and lithium in the acute treatment of PPP. Electroconvulsive therapy can offer a rapid treatment response where required. Lithium appears to have the best evidence for relapse prevention and prophylaxis in PPP. Psychoeducation is essential and psychosocial interventions used in bipolar disorder may be effective in PPP. CONCLUSION: Early detection and prompt treatment with antipsychotics and lithium, followed by maintenance treatment with lithium, is associated with a favourable prognosis in PPP.

Risks and benefits of pre-delivery taper in pregnant women taking antidepressants.

BACKGROUND: Serotonin reuptake inhibitors are commonly used for treatment of mental health problems in pregnancy but may cause neonatal adaptation syndrome. It is unknown whether reduction or discontinuation of medication prior to delivery may mitigate this effect. METHODS: We present a case series of 38 women who either tapered their medication prior to delivery or maintained or increased their dose. RESULTS: Greater reductions in maternal antidepressant dose just prior to delivery were associated with fewer admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for infants. There was a slightly greater increase in depressive symptoms across delivery for women who tapered, which was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: NICU admissions may be less frequent among neonates whose mothers tapered their medication prior to delivery. Large prospective randomized trials are needed to further study this practice.