Repeated periods of maternal separation in the early life of rats decreased dopamine transporter expression and significantly increased dopamine responses to stress, and behavioral responses to either stress or cocaine. As adults, maternal separation animals showed increased sensitivity to the effects of cocaine on locomotor activity and greater sensitivity to stress-induced sensitization to th...

Maternal stress during pregnancy has pervasive effects on the offspring's physiology and behavior, including the development of anxious, reactive temperament and increased stress responsivity. These outcomes can be seen as the result of adaptive developmental plasticity: maternal stress hormones carry useful information about the state of the external world, which can be used by the developing ...

Knowledge of maternal stress and its direct influence on the developing embryo and fetus (prenate) can influence psychotherapeutic treatment decisions, especially when treating patients who are severely traumatized and dissociative. Not only may maternal stress alter prenate neurobiological attachment and stress systems in the limbic-hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (LHPA) and limbic-autonom...

BACKGROUND Many studies have identified associations between qualities of maternal-child relationships and childhood asthma, but few have examined associations with childhood atopic dermatitis (AD), a common precursor to asthma. Moreover, maternal psychological distress, including prenatal and postnatal depression, anxiety and stress, may increase risk, while social support from partners may re...

OBJECTIVE This study examined whether particular maternal and infant factors can identify mothers at risk for increased stress upon admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). METHODS Eighty-five mothers of preterm infants (25-34 weeks gestation) were assessed using the Parental Stressor Scale (PSS:NICU) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) within 3.24 ± 1.58 d postpa...

Aim To analyse the concept of maternal distress. Background Although, not well developed, the concept of maternal distress has provided an important viewpoint in nursing and midwifery practice since the mid 1990s. Traditionally, understanding of maternal distress has been based on the medical model and dysfunction. The concept of maternal distress needs development so that it describes response...

This study examined the effect of an acute maternal stress response and anxiety on fetal heart rate. Seventeen healthy, 3rd-trimester pregnant women (mean age = 26 +/- 6 years) were instrumented for continuous electrocardiography, blood pressure (BP), respiration, and fetal heart rate (HR). Subjects completed the state anxiety subscale of the State Trait Personality Inventory (STPI), then reste...

Dispersal is a complex phenomenon affected by multiple factors. Among the factors that influence dispersal in the common lizard (Lacerta vivipara), poor maternal body condition and stress are known to decrease dispersal propensity of juveniles. But the effect of individual factors on dispersal could change when several of them act concurrently or at different developmental stages. Prenatal fact...

Prenatal stress influences neural and behavioral sexual differentiation in rodents. Male offspring of stressed pregnancies show reduced masculine-typical characteristics and increased feminine-typical characteristics, whereas female offspring show the opposite pattern, reduced feminine-typical and increased masculine-typical characteristics. These outcomes resemble those seen following manipula...

The present study examined the effects of maternal social status, with subordinate status being a chronic stressor, on development and activity of the stress axis in zebrafish embryos and larvae. Female zebrafish were confined in pairs for 48 h to establish dominant/subordinate hierarchies; their offspring were reared to 144 h post-fertilization (hpf) and sampled at five time points over develo...