Cited by 331Birth, Development, and HealthMaternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumStress Responses and Cortisol

Prenatal stress, development, health and disease risk: A psychobiological perspective—2015 Curt Richter Award Paper

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Entringer, Sonja, Buss, Claudia, Wadhwa, Pathik D.·2015·Psychoneuroendocrinology

Abstract

The long-term consequences of exposure to excess stress, particularly during sensitive developmental windows, on the initiation and progression of many complex, common physical and mental disorders that confer a major global burden of disease are well established. The period of intrauterine life represents among the most sensitive of these windows, at which time the effects of stress may be transmitted inter-generationally from a mother to her as-yet-unborn child. As explicated by the concept of fetal or developmental programming of health and disease susceptibility, a growing body of evidence supports the notion that health and disease susceptibility is determined by the dynamic interplay between genetic makeup and environment, particularly during intrauterine and early postnatal life. Except in extreme cases, an adverse intrauterine exposure may not, per se, 'cause' disease, but, instead, may determine propensity for disease(s) in later life (by shaping phenotypic responsivity to endogenous and exogenous disease-related risk conditions). Accumulating evidence suggests that maternal psychological and social stress during pregnancy represents one such condition that may adversely affect the developing child, with important implications for a diverse range of physical and mental health outcomes. In this paper we review primarily our own contributions to the field of maternal stress during pregnancy and child mental and physical health-related outcomes. We present findings on stress-related maternal-placental-fetal endocrine and immune/inflammatory processes that may mediate the effects of various adverse conditions during pregnancy on the developing human embryo and fetus. We enunciate conceptual and methodological issues related to the assessment of stress during pregnancy and discuss potential mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of the effects of stress. Lastly, we describe on-going research and some future directions of our program.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.08.019

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  • Risk of MDD is highly polygenic and involves many genes with small effects.

    “Risk of MDD is highly polygenic and involves many genes with small effects 51”

    From Major depressive disorder (2016) · cites this paper as [51]

    Section 2 discusses prenatal stress, maternal depressive symptoms, and child brain development, but not the genetic architecture of major depressive disorder. Searches for MDD, polygenic risk, and small genetic effects found no passage addressing the claim. (LLM, conf=0.76)

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Buss C Entringer S Wadhwa PD 2012d Fetal Programming of Brain Development: Role of Intrauterine Stress in Susceptibility to Psychopathology Science Signaling 5 pt7 23047922 PMC3837231
  2. Entringer S Buss C Wadhwa PD 2011b Prenatal stress and developmental programming of human health and disease risk: concepts and integration of empirical findings Curr Opin Endocrinol Diabetes Obes 17 507 516 20962631 PMC3124255

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Authors
Entringer, S., Buss, C., & Wadhwa, P. D.
Affiliations
University of California, Irvine (US)
Corresponding author
  • Entringer, Sonja
  • Buss, Claudia
Venue
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-12
Volume
62
Pages
366-375
ISSN
0306-4530 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2156890246
Cited by
324
References
107
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1
FWCI
3.74
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychoneuroendocrinology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
US PHS (NIH) (RO1HD-065825, RO1HD-06028, R01 MH-091351, R21 RDK-098765)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
Keywords
prenatal stress, fetal programming, developmental programming, intergenerational transmission, placenta, child mental health outcomes, gene-environment interaction
MeSH terms
Awards and Prizes, Child, Child Development, Disease Susceptibility, Female, Humans, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System, Pituitary-Adrenal System, Pregnancy, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects, Stress, Psychological, Fetal Development

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