Abstract
Prenatal stress exposure increases vulnerability to virtually all forms of psychopathology. Based on this robust evidence base, we propose a “Mental Health, Earlier” paradigm shift for prenatal stress research, which moves from the documentation of stress-related outcomes to their prevention, with a focus on infant neurodevelopmental indicators of vulnerability to subsequent mental health problems. Achieving this requires an expansive team science approach. As an exemplar, we introduce the Promoting Healthy Brain Project (PHBP), a randomized trial testing the impact of the Wellness-4-2 personalized prenatal stress-reduction intervention on stress-related alterations in infant neurodevelopmental trajectories in the first year of life. Wellness-4-2 utilizes bio-integrated stress monitoring for just-in-time adaptive intervention. We highlight unique challenges and opportunities this novel team science approach presents in synergizing expertise across predictive analytics, bioengineering, health information technology, prevention science, maternal–fetal medicine, neonatology, pediatrics, and neurodevelopmental science. We discuss how innovations across many areas of study facilitate this personalized preventive approach, using developmentally sensitive brain and behavioral methods to investigate whether altering children's adverse gestational exposures, i.e., maternal stress in the womb, can improve their mental health outlooks. In so doing, we seek to propel developmental SEED research towards preventive applications with the potential to reduce the pernicious effect of prenatal stress on neurodevelopment, mental health, and wellbeing.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 622-640 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Developmental Psychobiology |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 2021 |
Funding
The Promoting Healthy Brain Project was supported via generous funding to the Perinatal Origins of Disease (POD): Research at the Maternal-Fetal Interface Strategic Research Initiative by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children Hospital of Chicago and its Stanley Manne Research Institute. We gratefully acknowledge this strategic investment and the leadership of Aaron Hamvas, MD., Matthew Davis, MD, MAPP and Thomas Shanley, MD and the members of the POD for enabling and enriching this project. Outcomes assess meet was also supported via a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to Lauren Wakschlag (ROIMH121877) We also gratefully acknowledge the contributions of many students, staff and colleagues including Hugh Adam, Amy Biel, Michael Brooks, Begum Birsen Egilmez, Veronika Grote, Jaime Hamil, Renee Kakareka, Zachary King, Molly McGown, Kristen Rosen, Hannah Stroup, Samanvitha Kamakshi Sundar and Drs. Nia Heard Garris and Emily Stinnett Miller. We thank Elizabeth Sweet for her contribution to the focus groups on the use of infant imaging in diverse populations. We thank the MC10 team for providing Biostamp devices and technical support over the course of the PHBP pilot study and randomized trial. The Promoting Healthy Brain Project was supported via generous funding to the Perinatal Origins of Disease (POD): Research at the Maternal‐Fetal Interface Strategic Research Initiative by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children Hospital of Chicago and its Stanley Manne Research Institute. We gratefully acknowledge this strategic investment and the leadership of Aaron Hamvas, MD., Matthew Davis, MD, MAPP and Thomas Shanley, MD and the members of the POD for enabling and enriching this project. Outcomes assess meet was also supported via a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to Lauren Wakschlag (ROIMH121877) We also gratefully acknowledge the contributions of many students, staff and colleagues including Hugh Adam, Amy Biel, Michael Brooks, Begum Birsen Egilmez, Veronika Grote, Jaime Hamil, Renee Kakareka, Zachary King, Molly McGown, Kristen Rosen, Hannah Stroup, Samanvitha Kamakshi Sundar and Drs. Nia Heard Garris and Emily Stinnett Miller. We thank Elizabeth Sweet for her contribution to the focus groups on the use of infant imaging in diverse populations. We thank the MC10 team for providing Biostamp devices and technical support over the course of the PHBP pilot study and randomized trial.
Keywords
- developmental origins of health and disease
- maternal stress
- neurodevelopmental risk
- prenatal prevention
- wearable devices
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Behavioral Neuroscience
