United States: Brain area changes demonstrated their role in postpartum depression development through their control of emotional processing and regulation functions according to research outcomes.
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Newser.com reported results from brain scans that researchers performed on 88 first-time maternal subjects between late pregnancy and after childbirth.
The participants conducted questionnaires to assess their depression symptoms across pregnancy along with their childbirth experiences after birth.
Furthermore, as per the earlier research, the experts found that parts of the brain shrink in case of pregnancy, “possibly undergoing a fine-tuning process in preparation for parenting,” the New York Times reported.
What more has the study shown?
The brain imaging results showed that pregnant women had diminutions in the volumes of the amygdala and hippocampus when compared to women who had never had children.
The amygdala controls emotional responses, and the hippocampus regulates emotional states.
The amygdala of pregnant women with depression symptoms measured larger than those without depression symptoms.
Depression symptoms persisted moderately at 11% during late pregnancy, as well as affecting 17% of new mothers postpartum.
Furthermore, “The larger the increase in the right amygdala volume, the greater the increase in symptoms of perinatal depression,” stated the study published in Science Advances on Wednesday.
Research indicated that higher hippocampal volumes emerge when birth experiences become difficult or stressful for the woman.
“The worse the birth experience, the larger the bilateral volume increase in the hippocampus.” As stress can alter the structure and function of the hippocampus, a negatively perceived birth experience could be “driving the observed volumetric changes,” the study mentioned.