Anxious Mothers and Their Offspring: An Animal Study

Evidence is increasing regarding maternal effects on psychiatric symptoms in school-age children (e.g., JW Psychiatry May 3 2006). To learn about pre- and postnatal effects of maternal factors on anxiety in their offspring, these researchers conducted experiments on mice.

In the mice, the mother, the offspring, both, or neither had the gene encoding the serotonin_1A receptor (5-HT_1A) knocked out; this knockout is associated with anxiety-like behaviors. Both wild-type and homozygous knock-out adult offspring raised by heterozygous knock-out mothers evidenced increased anxiety in a maze test, compared with wild-type offspring raised by wild-type mothers. Wild-type mice implanted as embryos in knock-out mothers but raised by wild-type mothers al…