What we do
About our project
Perinatal depressive symptoms
Perinatal depressive symptoms (PNDS; i.e., occurring during pregnancy or up to one year postpartum) represent a common psychological burden and are one of the major determinants of offspring mental health. We estimate that children of mothers with PNDS have 70% higher odds to develop depression, compared to children of mothers without PNDS. Our research suggests a heightened risk for other behavioral and emotional problems, as well. PNDS and links to child psychopathology are well established, but how exactly this transmission occurs is unclear.
Mechanisms of transmission
Changes in cortisol functioning, cardiovascular pathways or epigenetic modifications have been suggested as potential mechanisms how PNDS affects the child’s propensity to develop psychopathology. An alternate hypothesis is, that the association may arise due to genetic confounding: genetic variants predisposing the mother to develop depressive symptoms around pregnancy may be inherited by the child and predispose the offspring themselves to develop various psychiatric problems, as well.
How to disentangle environmental mechanisms from genetic transmission?
We aim to test which routes of transmission, environmental or genetic, are at play by combining reports of psychiatric problems in mothers and children together with their genetic information. The simultaneous measurement of psychiatric problems and genetics in both mothers and children will allow us to estimate to which degree maternal PNDS affects child psychopathology independent of inheritance of psychiatric risk variants. To model these genetic effects, we will construct the first polygenic risk score which is specific for PNDS.
Aims and impact
This project aims to better understand how PNDS affect child mental health using novel approaches incorporating genetic information. The development of a PNDS polygenic score could help identify which women are most likely to be at risk for depression during this critical period. In addition, the increased knowledge on PNDS genetics is expected to help understand the link between PNDS and child psychopathology and allow to test whether the association is independent of transmitted genetic effects. This knowledge could provide important information on the potential success of PNDS intervention strategies on offspring mental health.
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Our research focus
Creation of PNDS-specific polygenic score
To achieve our aim of disentangling environmental and genetic transmission routes, we are developing a polygenic risk score, which quantifies the genetic predisposition to develop depressive symptoms specifically in the perinatal period. We will utilize sophisticated statistical methods to combine previous genome-wide association studies on both major depressive disorder and PNDS to identify genetic variants shared across both disorders and those specific to one or the other. Based on this information we aim to construct a reliable and perinatal period-specific polygenic score.
Integration of genetic and phenotypic information
We will utilize our new genetic insights to disentangle whether PNDS affects child psychopathology via genetic or environmental routes. If PNDS exposure environmentally increases risk for psychopathology in children, PNDS should predict child psychiatric problems independent of any transmitted PNDS risk genes. We will also test the hypothesis, that the combination of measured PNDS and genetic risk for PNDS in mothers together predicts the development of psychiatric problems better than observed PNDS alone.
Funds & Grants
Sophia Fonds
Collaborations
Internal collaborations
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
- Generation R.
External collaborations
- HappyMums (www.HappyMums.eu)
- FAMILY (www.family-project.eu)
