title: The course of anxiety and depression through pregnancy and the postpartum in a community sample. Revision of the Infant Temperament Questionnaire. Maternal antenatal anxiety and behavioural/emotional problems in children: a test of a programming hypothesis. Early parental and child predictors of recurrent abdominal pain at school age: results of a large population-based study. Maternal anxiety: a 5-year review of an intervention study. Mothers’ postpartum psychological adjustment and infantile colic Diagnosing postpartum depression in mothers and fathers: whatever happened to anxiety?
abstract: BACKGROUND Postnatal and antenatal depression are a focus of considerable clinical and research attention , but little is known about the patterns of anxiety across this period . METHODS  Self-reported anxiety and depression were assessed at 18 and 32 weeks gestation and 8 weeks and 8 months postnatally in a prospect i ve longitudinal study of a community sample of women in Engl and ( n=8323 ) . RESULTS The majority of cases of postnatal depression were preceded by antenatal depression ; similarly , postnatal anxiety was preceded by antenatal anxiety . Despite the stability of anxiety and depression across this period , there was a mean decrease in both anxiety and depression . Finally , antenatal anxiety predicted postnatal depression at 8 weeks and 8 months , even after controlling for antenatal depression ( OR=3.22 , p<0.001 ) . LIMITATIONS Data were based on self-report only and there was evidence of selective attrition . CONCLUSION The findings confirm that antenatal anxiety occurs frequently , overlaps with depression and increases the likelihood of postnatal depression The Infant Temperament Question naire , originally published in 1970 , has been revised to improve its psychometric characteristics . The number of items was increased from 70 to 95 , rating options were increased from three to six , more items have high-low reversals , and they are r and omized as to content area . The new form was st and ardized on 203 4- to 8-month-old infants . Good test-retest reliability was maintained and internal consistency of the nine categories was raised to a higher level , thereby assuring a greater reliability of the instrument . These improvements should enhance the question naire 's use in clinical and research applications BACKGROUND Previous animal investigations link antenatal stress with a range of persistent behavioural abnormalities in the offspring . The current study examined if the effect was also found in humans through middle childhood . METHODS The current study is based on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children ( ALSPAC ) , a prospect i ve , community-based study that has followed a cohort of women from pregnancy .  Self-report measures of maternal anxiety and depression were assessed at repeated intervals in pregnancy and the postnatal period . Children 's behavioural/emotional problems  were assessed by parent report at age 47 and 81 months . Information on obstetric and psychosocial factors was obtained at several points in pregnancy and the postnatal period . RESULTS Children whose mothers experienced high levels of anxiety in late pregnancy exhibited higher rates of behavioural/emotional problems at 81 months of age after controlling for obstetric risks , psychosocial disadvantage , and postnatal anxiety and depression ( for girls , OR = 1.91 , 95%CI = 1.26 - 2.89 ; for boys , OR = 2.16 , 95%CI = 1.41 - 3.30 ) . Furthermore , the effect at 81 months was comparable to what was previously obtained at 47 months , suggesting the kind of persistent effect proposed in the animal literature . CONCLUSIONS There is evidence that  antenatal stress/anxiety  has a programming effect on the fetus which lasts at least until middle childhood OBJECTIVE To assess whether parental psychological and physical factors and child factors measured in the first year of life were associated with  recurrent abdominal pain ( RAP ) in children at age 6(3/4 ) years . METHOD A longitudinal cohort study ( the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children ) , followed 8,272 children from pregnancy to age 6(3/4 ) years . Parental reports of child and parent functioning were gathered . Associations between parental and child functioning assessed at 6 to 8 months postpartum , and RAP measured at age 6(3/4 ) years were investigated . RESULTS The prevalence of RAP in this sample was 11.8 % . Both maternal anxiety ( adjusted odds ratio = 1.53 ; 95 % confidence interval 1.24 - 1.89 ) and paternal anxiety ( adjusted odds ratio = 1.38 ; 95 % confidence interval 1.12 - 1.71 ) in the first year of a child 's life were associated with later childhood RAP . Parent reports of child temperament features such as irregular feeding and sleeping were also associated with later RAP . CONCLUSIONS This is the first evidence from a prospect i ve study that anxiety in both mothers and fathers and child temperament features pre date the occurrence of RAP in children . These findings highlight the potential importance of addressing parental anxiety in families in which children present with RAP , although some caution should be exercised in their interpretation because of possible reporting bias Primiparous women were divided into groups according to their post-partum trait anxiety scores .  Professional or non-professional support for the first 12 months was offered to two subgroups of high trait anxiety subjects . At the 5-year follow-up the high-anxiety mothers ( n = 57 ) manifested more psychological and social pathology than moderate- and low-anxiety mothers ( n = 43 ) , and their children also showed signs of poorer adaptation . There was evidence of improved outcome for mothers in the professional intervention group , but not for their children . Child psychopathology was predicted best by maternal psychosocial variables , and to a lesser extent by child temperament variables . The relation of infant attachment and temperament measures to subsequent psychopathology is discussed Background : Infantile colic is a common problem of early infancy . There is limited data on the relation between postpartum maternal psychological problems and colic . Aim : : To investigate whether infantile colic is associated with postpartum mood disorders or insecure adult attachment style of the mother . Methods : Seventy eight mothers and newborns were enrolled in this prospect i ve , longitudinal study . Maternal depressive symptoms were screened with Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Score ( EPDS ) and maternal anxiety was assessed with State-Trait Anxiety Inventory ( STAI ) . The  Adult Attachment Scale  was used to determine the attachment style of the mother . Infantile colic was defined according to Wessel criteria . Results : Infantile colic was present in 17 infants ( 21.7 % ) ; 12.9 % of the mothers had an EPDS ⩾13 . The mean EPDS of the mothers whose infants had infantile colic ( 10.2±6.0 ) was significantly higher than that of the mothers of infants without colic ( 6.3±4.0 ) . Among infants with infantile colic , 62.5 % had mothers who had insecure attachment style , whereas only 31.1 % of mothers had insecure attachment when the infant did not have infantile colic . Conclusion : Postpartum maternal depressive symptoms and insecure attachment style are associated with infantile colic . Screening and early intervention of postpartum depression might promote the health of both the mother and infant BACKGROUND Although anxiety disorders are documented in the literature for new mothers ( but less so for fathers ) , rates of postpartum caseness tend to include only those with depression when diagnostic interviews or self-report measures vali date d on such interviews are used . This methodology therefore underestimates the true percentage of women and men who experience significant psychological difficulties postpartum . This has implication s for assessment , treatment and screening for postnatal mood disorders . METHOD Two studies were conducted on a total of 408 women and 356 men expecting their first child . They were recruited antenatally , and interviewed at 6 weeks postpartum using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule . DSM-IV criteria were applied to determine the presence since birth of depression ( major or minor ) , panic disorder , acute adjustment disorder with anxiety ( meeting the criteria for generalised anxiety disorder except for the duration criterion ) , and phobia . RESULTS The inclusion of diagnostic assessment for panic disorder and acute adjustment disorder with anxiety increased the rates of caseness by between 57 and 100 % for mothers , and 31 - 130 % for fathers , over the rates for major or minor depression . Inclusion of assessment for phobia further increased the rates of disorder in both sample s. Couple concordance rates were between 6.6 and 11.1 % , with no significant difference between rates for depressive or depressive and anxious caseness . For women , a previous history of an anxiety disorder appears to be a greater risk factor for a postnatal mood disorder ( i.e. depression or anxiety ) than a history of a depressive disorder . CONCLUSIONS These results clearly show the need to assess for both depression and anxiety  in new and expectant parents , and we believe the term ' postnatal mood disorder ' ( PMD ) , rather than postnatal depression , more accurately reflects significant adjustment difficulties in new parents
target: The strongest evidence for an adverse effect of PMA exposure is in somatic and psychological outcomes ; the evidence for an effect of PMA on child development is inconclusive .
background: Several decades of research have focused on the impact of exposure to postnatal depression on children , while anxiety has been largely overlooked .
  Estimates of the prevalence of postnatal maternal anxiety ( PMA ) range from 3 % to 43 % , suggesting PMA may be an important risk factor for adverse outcomes in children .
  This review summarizes what is known about the effects of  PMA exposure on children and makes recommendations for future research .