EMOTIONAL MEMORY IN PREGNANT WOMEN AT RISK FOR POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION

Abstract

<p>Postpartum depression (PPD) is a serious disorder associated with debilitating effects on mothers and their infants. A previous history of depression appears to be the strongest risk factor for PPD. Previous studies showed that individuals with history of depression accurately recall more negative compared to positive content. The objective of this study was to compare emotional memory for negative and positive images between pregnant women with previous depressive episodes and pregnant women with no lifetime depression. This is the first study to investigate emotional memory in pregnant women with or without previous history of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). A total of 77<br />participants between the ages of 18 - 44 (mean age: 27.3  6.2yo) completed the study (14 pregnant women with previous depressive episodes, 30 pregnant women with no lifetime depression, 13 non-pregnant women with previous depressive episodes, and 20 non-pregnant healthy). Participants took part in an emotional encoding task consisting of positive, negative, and neutral images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) where they were asked to rate these images based on perceived emotional intensity. Participants returned a week later for a surprise incidental recognition memory task. A multivariate general linear model revealed a significant main effect of group (F(1,71)= 8.04, p=.01). Women with history of MDD demonstrated poorer memory performance than women with no history for negative images, but the two groups did not<br />differ on memory for positive images. This suggests that having a history of depression selectively impaired the memory recognition of negative images.</p>