Infant hippocampal and amygdala volume in an observational follow-up from a randomized clinical trial for maternal prenatal depression

Prenatal maternal depression may have intergenerational effects on offspring brain development, with potential socioemotional consequences. This observational follow-up study examines brain development and subsequent negative emotionality among 109 infants born to mothers participating in a randomized clinical trial (NCT03011801). In the prior trial, brief interpersonal psychotherapy significantly reduced prenatal depression symptoms and disorder as the published primary and secondary endpoints. Exploratory infant outcomes include hippocampal and amygdala volumes at 6 weeks and negative emotionality at 6 months. Here we show that infants of mothers randomized to interpersonal psychotherapy during pregnancy have lower right hippocampal volume than infants of mothers in the enhanced usual care group (p = .002, d = 0.62). No statistically significant group differences are observed in left hippocampal or amygdala volume. Smaller hippocampal volume predicts subsequent lower negative emotionality (r = 0.19, p = 0.045). In this study, a maternal prenatal depression intervention is associated with differences in infant brain development with implications for their subsequent emotional health.