OBJECTIVE It is widely assumed that glucocorticoids represent a primary mechanism through which exposure to adversity and maternal psychological distress shape prenatal developmental trajectories of both mother and fetus. However, despite repeated investigations and the fact that prenatal cortisol has been reliably linked to developmental outcomes, the empirical evidence supporting an association between prenatal cortisol and maternal distress is scarce. In this study, a novel approach to assessing links between maternal prenatal psychological distress and gestational cortisol profiles, general growth mixture modeling (GGMM), was applied. METHOD Measures of pregnancy anxiety, perceived stress, and state anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as plasma samples (for determination of cortisol) were collected from 250 women 4 times during pregnancy. RESULTS Using GGMM, 3 cortisol trajectory groups were identified, including a typical group (n = 199) that exhibited the expected steady increase in cortisol throughout gestation, a steep group (n = 31) displaying an accelerated increase in cortisol over the course of pregnancy relative to the typical group, and a flat group (n = 20) with relatively higher cortisol levels early in pregnancy that plateaued in midgestation. Women reporting the highest distress scores exhibited trajectories expected to be associated with the least optimal developmental outcomes (flatter trajectories characterized by relatively higher levels early in gestation and lower levels late in gestation). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that psychological distress during pregnancy is associated with unique prenatal cortisol profiles and support further examination of this link, to enable continued evaluation of a plausible biological pathway by which maternal psychological distress programs fetal development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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用独特的产前皮质醇轨迹表征产前产妇窘迫。

目的普遍认为糖皮质激素是一种主要的机制，通过这种机制，逆境和母亲的心理困扰会影响母亲和胎儿的产前发展轨迹。然而，尽管进行了反复研究，并且事实证明产前皮质醇已与发育结果可靠相关，但仍缺乏支持产前皮质醇与孕产妇痛苦之间联系的经验证据。在这项研究中，采用了一种新的方法来评估产妇产前心理困扰与妊娠皮质醇状况之间的联系，即一般生长混合物模型（GGMM）。方法收集了250名孕妇在怀孕期间四次收集的妊娠焦虑，感知压力，状态焦虑和抑郁症状以及血浆样本（用于测定皮质醇）的量度。结果使用GGMM，确定了3个皮质醇轨迹组，包括典型组（n = 199），在整个妊娠过程中表现出预期的皮质醇稳定增加，陡峭组（n = 31）显示在怀孕过程中皮质醇加速增加相对于典型组和扁平组（n = 20），其妊娠早期皮质醇水平相对较高，在妊娠中期达到稳定。报告苦恼分数最高的妇女表现出的轨迹预期与最不理想的发育结果相关（较平坦的轨迹，其特征是妊娠早期水平较高，妊娠后期水平较低）。结论这些发现表明，怀孕期间的心理困扰与独特的产前皮质醇特征有关，并支持对该环节的进一步检查，从而能够继续评估可能的生物学途径，通过该途径，母体心理困扰可以促进胎儿发育。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。