Infection during pregnancy cause psychiatric disorders in a child

According to a new study, severe infections during pregnancy may affect foetal development and lead to a range of psychiatric disorders later in life.

A pregnant woman has to take care of her health at all costs. Her health is essential for the health of the foetus. Everything, from what she eats, her level of stress, the health of her immune system to her hormonal balance, has an influence on the development of the brain of the foetus. And, this is true for all humans and animals.

Now a new study at the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences says that severe infections in pregnant women are a major risk factor for developing psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders later in life for the offspring. Researchers experimented on mice to see how infections in the mother can cause the stem and precursor cells to neuronal cells in the brain to impair the brain development of a foetus. The scientific journal Molecular Psychiatry published this study.

Mother's immunity important: Researchers

According to researchers of the above-mentioned study, a 'connection has been made in animal studies and clinical observation studies earlier. But this is the first time a research is on specifically just how infections during pregnancy affect brain development and can lead to cognitive impairment. While many factors have been hypothesised or indicated, it is important that know the steps of neuronal development that are actually affected'.

For the purpose of the study, researchers studied the development of neurons in mice. Based on this, they say that the mother's immune response to infection had an effect stretching from stem cells and precursor cells to neuronal cells leading to profound disruption in their development in the brain.

They add that the development of cortical GABAergic interneurons, the key neuronal class that provides inhibition in the brain, was impaired. Moreover, they said that the effect was immediate and led to long-lasting impairments, thus resulting in multiple 'hits' during the process of neuronal development, from the time neurons are born to the time they mature.

Researchers saw that new-born mice exhibited symptoms that resembled signs of human psychiatric disorders like decreased pre-pulse inhibition, altered social interactions and cognitive decline.

Time of infection also matters: Experts

They admit that pregnant women are vulnerable. So, it is ethically not possible for them to start human experiments. But if they go by their study on mice, they say that infections do affect the brain development on a foetus. Moreover, the effects also depend on when and at what stage of pregnancy the infections occurred. Researchers are now planning to look deeper into the molecular mechanisms and signalling pathways behind the impairment of the interneuron development to understand the complexities of psychiatric disorders.

Causes and risks of infection during pregnancy

Usually a pregnant woman has a repressed immune system so that the foetus can grow and develop. But this can also lower a woman's resistance to infections. You may be prone to cold and flu, skin and respiratory infections. Uterine infections are also common during pregnancy. While these common infections may not pose a problem, the medicines you take for them may affect your baby.

Also, serious infections, like chicken pox or measles, may pose a risk to foetal development. It may cause birth defects and hamper intellectual development. You need to practice proper hygiene and take care of your nutrition during this time. This will bring down your risk of infections.

Causes of psychiatric disorder

The exact cause of psychiatric disorders is unknown, but experts and healthcare professional say that it may be a combination of biological, psychological and environmental factors.

It may be due to disorders or injuries in nerve cell circuits that connect different brain regions. If a person has a family member with any psychiatric disorder, he or she may also be at risk of this condition due to abnormalities in genes. Sometimes, it may be the result of too much stress, abuse, or any traumatic incident. Substance abuse is also another risk factor as is poor nutrition. Some infections, like the paediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder (PANDA), can lead to brain damage too.

Treatment of psychiatric disorder

If you have any psychiatric disorder, your doctor will recommend a physical examination. This is to rule out any health disorder that may be causing your symptoms. He may also ask you to undergo a few tests to screen for drugs and alcohol. If everything is on order, you will have to undergo a psychological evaluation. You will have to share certain information with the doctor. You will have to answer questions about your symptoms, thoughts and feelings. Your doctor will take your behaviour patterns into account.

There are medications that you may have to take. But most psychiatric medicines don't provide a cure. They are mainly used to treat the symptoms and increase the efficacy of associates treatment protocols like psychotherapy. Some of the common psychiatric medications are anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, mood-stabilisers and anti-psychotics. Sometimes, brain-stimulation treatments are also used for depression and other mental health disorders. This may include electroconvulsive therapy, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, deep brain stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation.

Most doctors usually rely on a combination of treatments to offer relief to a patient. This is because no single protocol may work here. Psychiatric disorders are complex. Most of the time, it is very difficult to zero in on a single possible factor that may be causing it. This makes treatment difficult but not impossible.