Cited by 82Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumNeuroendocrine regulation and behaviorStress Responses and Cortisol

From stress to postpartum mood and anxiety disorders: How chronic peripartum stress can impair maternal adaptations

Open access
Hillerer, Katharina M., Neumann, Inga D., Slattery, David A.·2012·Neuroendocrinology

Abstract

The peripartum period, in all mammalian species, is characterised by numerous adaptations at neuroendocrine, molecular and behavioural levels that prepare the female for the challenges of motherhood. These changes have been well characterised and, while they are necessary to ensure the survival and nurturance of the offspring, there is growing belief that they are also required for maternal mental health. Thus, while increased calmness and attenuated stress responsivity are common characteristics of the peripartum period, it also represents a time of increased susceptibility to mood disorders. While a number of risk factors for these disorders are known, their underlying aetiology remains poorly understood, due at least in part to a lack of appropriate animal models. One translatable risk factor is stress exposure during the peripartum period. In the following review we first describe common peripartum adaptations and the impact postpartum mood disorders have on these. We then discuss the known consequences of peripartum stress exposure on such maternal adaptations that have been described in basic research.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1159/000330445

Cites

223 of 223 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Mood changes could reflect potential dysfunctions of adaptation to the environment and might contribute to symptoms of mood disorders.

    “it is postulated that mood changes could reflect the potential dysfunctions of the adaption to our environment and that it might contribute to the symptoms of mood disorders [12,20,21].”

    From Acceptance Mindfulness-Trait as a Protective Factor for Post-Natal Depression: A Preliminary Research (2022) · cites this paper as [21]

    The Conclusions (page unavailable) say that maternal adaptations help mothers respond to their changing situation and that chronic pregnancy stress can impair these adaptations alongside increased anxiety- and depression-related behaviour. The paper concerns pregnancy and postpartum, however; it does not make the broader claim about mood changes reflecting dysfunctions in adaptation to the environment generally or contributing to mood-disorder symptoms. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 16

  1. Lightman SL, Windle RJ, Wood SA, Kershaw YM, Shanks N, Ingram CD: Peripartum plas- ticity within the hypothalamo-pituitary-ad- renal axis. Prog Brain Res 2001; 133: 111-129.
  2. Carter CS, Altemus M, Chrousos GP: Neu- roendocrine and emotional changes in the post-partum period. Prog Brain Res 2001; 133: 241-249.
  3. Friedman SH, Resnick PJ: Postpartum de- pression: an update. Womens Health (Lond Engl) 2009; 5: 287-295.
  4. Walker CD, Toufexis DJ, Burlet A: Hypotha- lamic and limbic expression of CRF and va- sopressin during lactation: implications for the control of ACTH secretion and stress hy- poresponsiveness. Prog Brain Res 2001; 133: 99-110.
  5. Maestripieri D, Hoffman CL, Anderson GM, Carter CS, Higley JD: Mother-infant interac- tions in free-ranging rhesus macaques: rela- tionships between physiological and behav- ioral variables. Physiol Behav 2009; 96: 613- 619.
  6. Bosch OJ, Meddle SL, Beiderbeck DI, Doug- las AJ, Neumann ID: Brain oxytocin corre- lates with maternal aggression: link to anxi- ety. J Neurosci 2005; 25: 6807-6815.
  7. Kemp B, Bongartz K, Rath W: Psychic dis- turbances in the postpartum period: an in- creasing problem (in German). Z Geburts- hilfe Neonatol 2003; 207: 159-165.
  8. Stein G, Marsh A, Morton J: Mental symp- toms, weight changes, and electrolyte ex- cretion in the first postpartum week. J Psy- chosom Res 1981; 25: 395-408.
  9. Pitt B: Maternity blues. Br J Psychiatry 1973; 122: 431-433.
  10. Heron J, Craddock N, Jones I: Postnatal eu- phoria: are 'the highs' an indicator of bipo- larity? Bipolar Disord 2005; 7: 103-110. 111
  11. Wisner KL, Peindl K, Hanusa BH: Symp- tomatology of affective and psychotic ill- nesses related to childbearing. J Affect Dis- ord 1994; 30: 77-87. 113
  12. Field T, Diego M, Hernandez-Reif M: Pre- natal Depression Effects on Fetus and Neo- nate. New York, Elsevier, 2006. 143
  13. Santarelli L, Saxe M, Gross C, Surget A, Battaglia F, Dulawa S, Weisstaub N, Lee J, Duman R, Arancio O, Belzung C, Hen R: Requirement of hippocampal neurogene- sis for the behavioral effects of antidepres- sants. Science 2003; 301: 805-809. 190
  14. Larsen CM, Grattan DR: Prolactin-in- duced mitogenesis in the subventricular zone of the maternal brain during early pregnancy is essential for normal postpar- tum behavioral responses in the mother. Endocrinology 2010; 151: 3805-3814. 194
  15. Galea LA, Wide JK, Barr AM: Estradiol al- leviates depressive-like symptoms in a nov- el animal model of post-partum depres- sion. Behav Brain Res 2001; 122: 1-9. 206
  16. Bahr NI, Pryce CR, Dobeli M, Martin RD: Evidence from urinary cortisol that mater- nal behavior is related to stress in gorillas. Physiol Behav 1998; 64: 429-437. 208

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Hillerer, K. M., Neumann, I. D., & Slattery, D. A.
Affiliations
University of Regensburg (DE)
Venue
Neuroendocrinology
Publisher
S. Karger AG
Published
2011-10-26
Volume
95
Issue
1
Pages
22-38
ISSN
  • 0028-3835 (ISSN-L)
  • 1423-0194
OpenAlex
W1990450569
Cited by
82
References
223
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 1
FWCI
0.74
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuroendocrinology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Regensburg Publication Server (University of Regensburg) (acceptedVersion)
  • University of Regensburg Publication Server (University of Regensburg)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
Keywords
postpartum mood disorders, postpartum anxiety, maternal mental health, maternal adaptation, stress responsivity, neuroendocrine adaptation, maternal behavior
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Psychological, Animals, Anxiety Disorders, Female, Humans, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System, Male, Maternal Welfare, Pituitary-Adrenal System, Pregnancy, Risk Factors, Stress, Psychological, Depression, Postpartum, Models, Animal, Rats, Peripartum Period

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review