Depression during pregnancy may put the next generation at risk of psychotic symptoms

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-04-11 01:00

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Two decades of data has found a link between the timing of parents' depression and psychiatric symptoms in their kids as adults, with pregnancy a key sensitive period linking a mother's depression to psychotic experiences in her offspring. The study found that a mother's depression at almost every time point in development, from pregnancy onward, was linked with symptoms of depression in her kids as adults. From eight months after birth onward, a mother's depression was linked with anxiety symptoms in her offspring. But it was a mother's depression in late pregnancy that was linked to symptoms of psychosis. Depression in fathers-to-be was not linked with any psychiatric outcomes, but a father's depression from when their kids were in mid-childhood onward (aged 5 years) was linked with symptoms of depression and anxiety in adulthood for their offspring.

News release

From: JAMA

Timing of Exposure to Parental Depression From Pregnancy to Young Adulthood and Mental Health in Adult Offspring
JAMA Network Open

About The Study: In this cohort study, analyses of 2 decades of data found distinct temporal associations between maternal and paternal depression and offspring psychiatric symptoms, and pregnancy was found to be a sensitive period in the association between maternal depression and offspring psychotic experiences. The findings suggest a substantial role of timing for specifying the association between parental depression and psychiatric outcomes in young adults and emphasize the need to support parental mental health from pregnancy onward.

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conference: JAMA Network Open

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Organisation/s: Yale School of Medicine

Funder: This study was supported by grants 1051932 from the BurroughsWellcome Fund (Dr O’Donnell) and R01 MH073842 and UG3/UH3 OD023349 (Dr O’Connor) and R01HD111586 (Dr O’Donnell) from the National Institutes of Health. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) is supported by grant 217065/Z/19/Z from the UK Medical Research Council and theWellcome Trust and core support from the University of Bristol. Research related to the Psychosis-Like Symptoms Interviews was specifically funded by grant MR/M006727/1 from the UK Medical Research Council. Research related to offspring depression at age 27 years or older was specifically funded by grant 61356 from the John Templeton Foundation. Research related to offspring anxiety at age 25 years or older was specifically funded by the Wellcome Trust.

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