About 80% of women experience what is known as baby blues or postpartum blues after the birth of their child. Typically, this is a brief period of sadness that disappears within a few days. However, about one in seven women develops postpartum depression, a more serious form of depression that can influence the connection between mother and baby and have long-term consequences.
These women seem to have difficulties managing the negative emotions that can arise after childbirth and now a group of European researchers has discovered that, in healthy pregnant women, activity in a specific area of the brain is related to the regulation of negative emotions and with a greater propensity for depressive symptoms. Scientists hope that by evaluating this brain activity and how emotions are managed, it will be possible to identify women at higher risk of developing postpartum depression.
The study was presented at the ECNP Congress in Milan by researcher Franziska Weinmar from the University of Tübingen in Germany, who stated in a press release: “This is one of the first studies to compare brain activity between women. pregnant and non-pregnant. The ability to regulate emotions is essential for mental health, and this was our starting point.” The findings have been published in a preprint on MedRxiv and have not yet been peer-reviewed.
An area of the brain that influences the emotions of pregnant women
The team of researchers analyzed 15 healthy pregnant women with high levels of estrogen, typical of pregnancy, who were between five and six months into their first pregnancy. These women were compared to a group of 32 non-pregnant women, whose estrogen levels fluctuated naturally throughout their menstrual cycle.
During the study, each participant was placed in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner and shown disturbing images. They were then asked to regulate their emotional state using a technique known as cognitive reappraisal, which involves modifying thoughts to reinterpret a situation and change the emotional response.
“We asked all women about how they managed negative emotions and found that pregnant women, compared to non-pregnant women, reported that they rarely tried to change their emotional perspective using cognitive reappraisal. However, when they were asked to regulate their emotions while in the MRI scanner, they were just as effective as non-pregnant women in managing their emotional state,” Weinmar explained.
Both pregnant and non-pregnant women proved equally capable of regulating their emotions by deliberately trying to reinterpret a situation. However, it seems to be more difficult for pregnant women to take the initiative to consciously control these negative emotions, although they may use other strategies to deal with them.
“If larger studies confirm greater activity in the amygdala in women at risk of postpartum depression, we could evaluate and support these women during this vulnerable phase”
The scan results revealed that pregnant women who showed greater activity in the amygdala while regulating their emotions were less successful in controlling their emotions. Additionally, those with greater activity in the amygdala reported more depressive symptoms. The amygdala is a small, almond-shaped brain region located near the base of the brain, which is concerned with learning, memory and emotions and is also thought to be involved in maternal behavior and caregiving.
Weinmar concluded by saying: “We must be cautious when interpreting these results, since the sample is small and we are the first to conduct this type of study. However, if larger studies confirm increased activity in the amygdala in women at risk for postpartum depression, we could assess and support these women during this vulnerable phase, for example by training them in emotion regulation skills. This could be a way to address the baby blues.”
For her part, Dr. Susana Carmona, from the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, who has not participated in the study, commented: “Studies like this are essential to understand one of the most extreme physiological processes that a human being can experience: gestation. It’s surprising how little we still know. Recently, the FDA approved the first treatment for postpartum depression. However, there is still much to discover about what happens in the brain during pregnancy, identify biomarkers that indicate the risk of perinatal mental disorders and design strategies to prevent the suffering of mothers and children during the delicate peripartum period.
However, Alberto Ortiz Lobo, Doctor of Medicine and psychiatrist at the Carlos III Day Hospital – La Paz University Hospital (Madrid), has stated in statements to SMC Spain that “there is no doubt about the hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy and after giving birth, but the emotional states of women after giving birth are also conditioned by the increased demands of motherhood, expectations, the degree of support from the family and social environment and especially from the couple, economic and job security and all the elements of the context that surround this process.”
“Trying to predict the risk of postpartum depression through an imaging test that measures the activity of the cerebral amygdala is not only extraordinarily limited, but also focuses on a supposed biological defect of the mother and contributes to hiding all the factors.” environmental determinants,” adds the expert.
