BACKGROUND Understanding how parental Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) may or may not affect the development and mental health in the offspring is particularly important in conflict regions, where trauma-related illness is endemic. In Rwanda, organised atrocities and the genocide against the Tutsi of 1994 have left a significant fraction of the population with chronic PTSD. The aim of the p...

Disruptions in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are thought to be key neuroendocrine mechanisms involved psychopathology and may have intergenerational impacts. Hair-derived HPA hormones offer a measure of long-term activity that useful assessing maternal infant health. Building on community-based randomized control trial perinatal depression intervention Pakistan, we examine effec...

Abstract Introduction Poor prenatal sleep health is a pervasive reproductive concern that informs the of mother and fetal development. Despite almost ubiquitous nature disturbances across pregnancy, within pregnant populations, its effects on next generation, remain poorly studied. We recently showed maternal quality predicts newborn hippocampal volume. However, relation between neonatal neural...

The development of emotional regulation capacities in children at high versus low risk for externalizing disorder was examined in a longitudinal study investigating: a) whether disturbances in emotion regulation precede and predict the emergence of externalizing symptoms; and b) whether sensitive maternal behavior is a significant influence on the development of child emotion regulation. Famili...

BACKGROUND Children with recognized, diagnosable mental and neurological disorders are in addition prone to emotional and behavioral problems which transcend their specific diagnostic labels. In accessing care, these children are almost invariably accompanied by caregivers (usually mothers) who may also have mental health problems, notably depression. The relationship between child and maternal...

BACKGROUND Research on the temporal relationship of parental risk factors with offspring's suicide attempt is scarce and a life course approach has not been applied to date. We investigated the temporal relationship of parental morbidity and mortality with offspring's suicide attempt and whether any such association was modified by offspring's age at attempt. METHODS We designed a case-contro...

BACKGROUND Maternal psychological health during pregnancy has been associated with offspring psychopathology. However, it is uncertain whether these associations are mediated by the postpartum depression and related child-rearing factors. Therefore, we examined the associations between prenatal and postnatal factors and internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems in childhood, focusing ...