Depression Can Lead to Premature Births

(October 24, 2008) - Depression (Read about "Depressive Illnesses") can cause a lot of problems and a new study says one of them is premature births. Depressed pregnant women have twice the risk of preterm delivery than pregnant women with no symptoms of depression, according to the study. (Read about "Healthy Pregnancy") The study is published online in the journal Human Reproduction.

The study found that pregnant women with symptoms of depression have an increased risk of preterm delivery, and that the risk grows with the severity of the depressive symptoms. These findings also provide preliminary evidence that social and reproductive risk factors, obesity, and stressful events may exacerbate the depression-preterm delivery link, according to the researchers. (Read about "Obesity" "Stress")

Because the majority of the women in the study did not use anti-depressants, the study provides a clear look at the link between depression and preterm delivery.

The study - which is among the first to examine depression and pre-term delivery in a representative and diverse population in the United States - looked at 791 pregnant women over 2 years.

Researchers interviewed the women around their 10th week of pregnancy and found that 41 percent of the women reported significant or severe depressive symptoms. The women with less severe depressive symptoms had a 60 percent higher risk of preterm delivery - defined as delivery at less than 37 completed weeks of gestation - compared with women without significant depressive symptoms, and the women with severe depressive symptoms had more than twice the risk.

"Preterm delivery is the leading cause of infant mortality, and yet we don't know what causes it. What we do know is that a healthy pregnancy requires a healthy placenta, and that placental function is influenced by hormones, which are in turn influenced by the brain," said lead author Dr. De-Kun Li.