A new study offers some of the first evidence that postpartum depression is linked to changes in the brain, specifically in areas associated with processing and regulating emotions. Researchers performed MRIs on 88 first-time gestational mothers, both during late pregnancy and shortly after giving birth. The participants also filled out questionnaires evaluating prenatal and postnatal depression symptoms and childbirth experience. As in earlier research, researchers found parts of the brain shrunk during pregnancy, "possibly undergoing a fine-tuning process in preparation for parenting," per the New York Times.
When their brain scans were compared to those of 30 women who had never given birth, the pregnant women were revealed to have smaller volumes in several regions of the amygdala, which plays a role in emotional processing, and the hippocampus, which helps regulate emotions. However, pregnant women with symptoms of depression showed increased volume of their amygdala. About 11% showed moderate depression symptoms during late pregnancy, while 17% did postpartum. "The larger the increase in the right amygdala volume, the greater the increase in symptoms of perinatal depression," per the study published Wednesday in Science Advances.
Furthermore, increases in hippocampal volumes were tied to a difficult or stressful birth experience. "The worse the birth experience, the larger the bilateral volume increase in the hippocampus." As stress can alter the structure and function of the hippocampus, a negatively perceived birth experience could be "driving the observed volumetric changes," the study notes. However, predisposing factors, such as fear of childbirth or a history of mental disorders" could also play a role. As Neuroscience News reports, it could also be that "pregnant women may struggle more with consciously regulating negative emotions." (More postpartum depression stories.)
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