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Treating depression during pregnancy influences infant brain development and early emotional function, according to new research published in Nature Communications.

In the first randomized controlled trial to demonstrate that a prenatal depression intervention can affect infant brain structure, researchers found that babies whose mothers received psychotherapy for depression during pregnancy showed differences in the development of a brain region involved in emotion and memory. Those brain differences were associated with lower negative emotionality in infancy.

The findings provide some of the strongest evidence to date that maternal mental health during pregnancy can have intergenerational effects on child development.

"Research has long shown that depression during pregnancy is associated with differences in children's emotional and behavioral outcomes, but most of that evidence has been correlational," said Catherine Demers, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Anschutz and lead author.

"By using a randomized clinical trial, we were able to test whether treating depression during pregnancy can actually influence early brain development in infants."

Prenatal depression is one of the most common complications of pregnancy, affecting an estimated 20% to 40% of pregnant individuals.

Previous studies have linked maternal depression during pregnancy with an increased risk of emotional, behavioral and mental health challenges in children, but researchers have lacked experimental evidence to determine whether improving maternal mental health could alter those outcomes.

To answer that question, investigators conducted the Care Project, a randomized clinical trial involving pregnant individuals experiencing elevated depressive symptoms.

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