Fetal exposure to elevated maternal psychological distress predicts earlier adrenarche and higher DHEA-S levels<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
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TUESDAY, March 5, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Fetal exposure to maternal psychological distress is associated with earlier adrenarche among girls, especially first-born girls, according to research published in the February issue of Psychoneuroendocrinology<\/em>.<\/p>\n Molly M. Fox, Ph.D., from the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues examined whether fetal exposure to maternal psychological distress is related to children’s adrenarche and gonadarche schedules in a longitudinal study involving 253 mother-child dyads followed for 15 years.<\/p>\n The researchers found that fetal exposure to elevated maternal prenatal psychological distress predicted earlier adrenarche and higher dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels in girls, especially first-born girls. After adjustment for covarying indices of postnatal adversity, the associations persisted. There were no associations seen for boys or for gonadarche in girls.<\/p>\n “Our results imply that human mothers may forecast future needs by calibrating the timing of first-born daughters’ neurobehavioral maturation (and perhaps fecundity) in a way that optimizes the mothers’ own reproductive success based on prenatal psychological distress,” the authors write. “Psychological distress may thus reflect a crucial summary signal of conditions and resources that translates into biological, ontogenic adaptations. In this way, psychological distress may be a key human signal in the intergenerational programming of life history traits.”<\/p>\n