Exposure to Unmedicated Maternal Depression and Antidepressant Use in Pregnancy: Is There an Influence on Child Cognitive Outcomes?

Abstract

The current study used data from the Growing Up in New Zealand birth cohort to investigate whether antenatal depression or antidepressant use influences children’s cognitive outcomes.
Cognitive measures included receptive language, early literacy, and executive control at 4.5- years (N = 5,626) and The Cognition Battery from the National Institutes of Health Toolbox® at 8-years of age (N = 4,775). Based on self-reported antidepressant intake and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, mothers were categorized as experiencing unmedicated depression, on antidepressants, or neither. Adjusting for later life depression in the mother and a range of birth and sociodemographic control variables, multiple regression analyses indicated that neither exposure to unmedicated depression nor antidepressants during pregnancy were associated with children’s cognitive outcomes at 4.5 or 8 years of age. Findings add to a growing literature regarding the safety of antidepressant use during pregnancy in relation to child neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Note:
Funding declaration: Growing Up in New Zealand has been funded by the New Zealand Ministries of Social Development, Health, Education, Justice and Pacific Island Affairs; the former Ministry of Science Innovation and the former Department of Labour (now both part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment); the former Ministry of Women’s Affairs (now the Ministry for Women); the Department of Corrections; the Families Commission (now known as the Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit); Te Puni Kokiri; New Zealand Police; Sport New Zealand; the Housing New Zealand Corporation; and the former Mental Health Commission, The University of Auckland and Auckland UniServices Limited. Other support for the study has been provided by the NZ Health Research Council, Statistics New Zealand, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and the Office of Ethnic Affairs. Dr. Stephanie D’Souza was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) as part of A Better Start National Science Challenge. Professor Karen Waldie was funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grant (Grant number 3718586).

Conflict of Interests: All authors have no competing interests.

Ethical Approval: Ethics approval was obtained from the Ministry of Health Northern Regional Ethics Committee (NTY/08/06/055). All participating mothers provided written and informed consent for themselves and their children.

Keywords: Pregnancy, antidepressant exposure, antenatal depression, longitudinal, cognitive development