Children of parents with panic disorder (PD) have high risk for developing anxiety disorders. However, the mechanisms involved in transmission of risk are uncertain. Cognitive models of anxiety propose that information-processing biases underlie anxiety vulnerability; in particular, attentional biases for threat. Consequently, this study examined attentional biases in mothers with lifetime PD a...

BACKGROUND Women born in the United States after measles vaccine licensure in 1963 transfer less measles antibody to their infants than do older women. This may result in increased susceptibility to measles among infants. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of maternal year of birth on the risk for measles in infants. METHODS We enrolled 128 unvaccinated infants </=15 months of age who had do...

Poverty-associated chronic stress is a serious threat not only to a mother’s mental health but also to maternal functioning. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that a mother’s brain undergoes dynamic changes to support her transition to parenthood, including better emotion regulation and heightened sensitivity to infants. However, we propose that the chronic stress experienced by low-income mo...

Low birth weight (LBW) is associated with a large number and variety of risk conditions during pregnancy. The number and types of risk conditions per pregnancy were determined in 1,864 white and 872 black mothers delivered at the University of Kansas Medical Center between 1975 and 1978. The incidence of LBW infants increased steadily among white and black mothers as the number of risk factors ...

BACKGROUND Offspring of mothers with depression are at heightened risk of psychiatric disorder. Many mothers with depression have comorbid psychopathology. How these co-occurring problems affect child outcomes has rarely been considered. AIMS To consider whether the overall burden of co-occurring psychopathology in mothers with recurrent depression predicts new-onset psychopathology in offspr...

Both maternal diabetes and obesity have been associated with an increased risk of neural tube defects (NTD), possibly due to a sustained state of hyperglycemia and/or hyperinsulinemia. Data were collected in the Boston University Slone Birth Defects Study (a case-control study) from 1988 to 1998. The authors examined whether high dietary glycemic index (DGI) and high dietary glycemic load (DGL)...

The percentage of births to unmarried women has increased substantially over the past several decades. Unmarried status continues to be a risk marker for poor birth outcomes. This study uses data from the 1994 and 1995 North Carolina resident live birth certificates to examine the association of marital status with low birthweight. After analyses, it was found that unmarried mothers are more li...