Depression in Pregnant Mother Lowers Babies Language Development

Maternal depression when treated with serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) increases the babies' ability to be responsive to sounds and sights of their native language. Whereas, the maternal depression untreated by SRIs need an extensive period of tuning.

"This study is among the first to show how maternal depression and its treatment can change the timing of language development in babies," says Prof. Janet Werker of UBC's Dept. of Psychology and senior author. "At this point, we do not know if accelerating or delaying these milestones in development has lasting consequences on later language acquisition, or if alternate developmental pathways exist. We aim to explore these and other important questions in future studies."

In order to carry this study the researchers  focused on three groups of mothers; one who are being treated for depression with SRIs, one with depression not taking antidepressants and one with no symptoms of depression. They measured the changes in the heart rate and eye movement to sounds and video images of native and non-native languages.

The language developments of the babies were calculated at three different intervals. It includes babies of 6 and 10 months of age. Heart rate of the unborn kids were also measured in order to study how they  responded to languages at the age of 36 weeks in the uterus.

"The findings highlight the importance of environmental factors on infant development and put us in a better position to support not only optimal language development in children but also maternal well-being," says Werker, who adds that treatment of maternal depression is crucial. "We also hope to explore more classes of antidepressants to determine if they have similar or different impacts on early childhood development."

"These findings once again remind us that poor mental health during pregnancy is a major public health issue for mothers and their infants," says co-author Dr. Tim Oberlander, a professor of developmental pediatrics at UBC and CFRI. "Non-treatment is never an option. While some infants might be at risk, others may benefit from mother's treatment with an antidepressant during their pregnancy. At this stage we are just not sure why some but not all infants are affected in the same way. It is really important that pregnant women discuss all treatment options with their physicians or midwives."

Prior to this study, Werker had found that during the first months of life, babies rapidly respond to the language sounds they hear and the sights they see.