The perinatal development of the nervous system is influenced by different external and internal stimuli. Previous data show that maternal care and perinatal inflammation can induce long-term changes in anxiety- and depression-related behavior. Our hypothesis is that both maternal care and perinatal inflammation act through interacting biological pathways to program adult behavior. To evaluate ...

INTRODUCTION Assessing childhood anxiety is complicated by differences between informants, particularly parents and children. We examined factors associated with mother- and child-report, to understand how children identified by each might differ. METHOD Eighty-five children with anxiety disorders diagnosed by semi-structured interview, and 45 children without such disorders and their mothers...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to determine whether parental auricular acupuncture reduces parental preoperative anxiety and thus allows children to benefit from parental presence during induction of anesthesia. METHODS Mothers of children who were scheduled to undergo surgery were randomly assigned to an acupuncture intervention group (auricular press needles at relaxation, tranqui...

The oxytocinergic system is critically involved in the regulation of maternal behavior, which includes maternal aggression. Because aggression has been linked to anxiety, we investigated the maternal aggression and the role of brain oxytocin in lactating Wistar rats selectively bred for high anxiety-related behavior (HAB) or low anxiety-related behavior (LAB) during the 10 min maternal defense ...

This study examined the developmental trajectory of anxiety symptoms among 290 boys and evaluated the association of trajectory groups with child and family risk factors and children’s internalizing disorders. Anxiety symptoms were measured using maternal reports from the CBCL between the ages of 2 and 10. A group-based trajectory analysis revealed four distinct trajectories in the development ...

This study examined the developmental trajectory of anxiety symptoms among 290 boys and evaluated the association of trajectory groups with child and family risk factors and children's internalizing disorders. Anxiety symptoms were measured using maternal reports from the Child Behavior Checklist (T. M. Achenbach, 1991, 1992) for boys between the ages of 2 and 10. A group-based trajectory analy...

BACKGROUND The regulation of infants' sleep is determined not only by biological factors but by relational aspects too. This study focused on maternal separation anxiety and examined its association with sleep-wake regulation at 10 months of age. METHOD In a community sample comprising 52 infants and their mothers, sleep was measured objectively with an activity monitor, as well as through qu...