Relationships Among Maternal Mental Health, Medication Use and Parental Sensitivity.

<p class="p1">Perinatal mental illness affects women from pregnancy through the postpartum period (O&rsquo;Hara et al., 2014). Psychological distress during this period has been shown to impact both birth outcomes and infant developmental outcomes (Staneva et al., 2015). The present study examined relationships among perinatal anxiety, perinatal depression, mental health medication use, and maternal sensitivity during pregnancy and at 6 months postpartum. A total of 203 healthy mother&ndash;infant dyads were recruited as part of the Brain and Early Experience study. Mothers completed the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis, 2000) at the prenatal and 6-month visits. At 6-months, mother&ndash;infant interactions were observed during structured tasks and free play to assess maternal sensitivity. Of the original sample, 170 dyads participated in the 6-month visit. <p class="p1">Correlation analyses examined associations between perinatal anxiety and depressive symptoms and maternal sensitivity. There was no significant association between perinatal anxiety symptoms and maternal sensitivity. Similarly, perinatal depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with maternal sensitivity. However, prenatal depression symptoms were significantly negatively associated with maternal sensitivity, while depression symptoms at 6 months were not. <p class="p1">An independent samples t-test examined differences in maternal sensitivity between mothers taking mental health medications and those not taking medication. There were no significant differences during either the prenatal period or at 6 months postpartum. This study is among the first to examine how mental health medication use is associated with maternal sensitivity. Future research should examine these relationships and consider how maternal sensitivity changes over time, as well as factors like socioeconomic status and maternal mental health.