Browsing by Subject "early psychiatric problems"

Objective: Maternal prenatal distress increases the risk for offspring psychiatric problems. Genetic variation in FoxO1 was recently found to moderate the association between childhood stress and the risk for adulthood depression. This study is set to examine if FoxO1 modifies associations between maternal depression or anxiety during pregnancy and the risk for offspring psychiatric problems in early childhood. Methods: Participants were 460 mother-child pairs of the Finnish Prediction and prevention of preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction (PREDO) -cohort. To measure maternal depression and anxiety the mothers completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and Spielberger State Anxiety Scale (STAI) up to 14 times during pregnancy. DNA was extracted from cord blood samples and FoxO1 genotypes from the Illumina OmniExpress Exome array. Offspring psychiatric problems were reported by the mothers with the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) at the mean age of 3.5-years. Results: Higher CES-D and STAI scores during pregnancy predicted higher child CBCL scores, but the associations differed according to the FoxO1 rs17592371 genotypes (p-values for interaction < .05). Higher maternal STAI and CES-D scores associated with higher scores in Total problems and Externalizing problems in rs17592371 CC carriers, but not in CT/TT carriers. Conclusions: The study showed that variation in the FoxO1 SNP rs17592371 modified the association between maternal depression and anxiety during pregnancy and offspring psychiatric problems in early childhood. This result is in line with an earlier study focusing on the modifying role of FoxO1 variation in the relationship between childhood stress and depression in adulthood and may thus indicate the role of FoxO1 in sensitivity to psychosocial distress.