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To explore depression's teratogenic effects on prenatal brain development, researchers studied 52 pregnant women and their children. Mothers' depression-screening scores were obtained during each trimester of pregnancy and at 3 months postpartum; magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure children's cortical thickness and white-matter connectivity at ages 2.6 to 5.1 years. No diagnostic interviews were conducted.
Depending on the screening-score cutoff, a diagnosis of major depression was suggested in 4% of women during the first trimester, 6% to 17% during the second trimester, 2% to 6% during the third trimester, and 2% to 8% in the postpartum period.
Depression scores during only the second trimester correlated negatively with children…