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February 26, 2026Psychological Medicine

Maternal depression with and without a history of childhood maltreatment and newborn white matter microstructure

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Authors

NMNora K. MoogKAKhalid W Al-AliIndiana UniversityJRJerod M. RasmussenUniversity of California, Irvine

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Implication

Investigation shows maternal depression correlates with altered brain microstructure in newborns, implying psychosocial history's importance.

Key Points

  • This research examines how maternal depression and childhood maltreatment history affect newborn brain microstructure.
  • Sample included 90 mother-infant dyads from two cohorts.
  • Maternal depressive symptoms evaluated using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.
  • Childhood maltreatment assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire or Adverse Childhood Experiences scale.
  • Infant brain structure analyzed using diffusion-weighted imaging.
  • Global white matter microstructure metrics like fractional anisotropy and radial diffusivity were computed.
  • Significant interaction effects of maternal depression and childhood maltreatment on newborn global fractional anisotropy and radial diffusivity.
  • In infants of women with childhood maltreatment history, maternal depressive symptoms negatively correlated with fractional anisotropy and positively with radial diffusivity.
  • Infants of women without childhood maltreatment history showed the opposite association between depressive symptoms and diffusion metrics.

Cite This Study

Moog et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/699f95a81bc9fecf3dab3bcehttps://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291726103468
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