NCT05951738

Exposures to Perinatal Adverse Experiences: Multimodal Omics Signature of Stress Vulnerability and Resilience and Preventive Strategies

Exposures to PRenatal and Postnatal Adverse Stressful Experiences: Multimodal Omics Signatures Underlying Stress Vulnerability and Resilience and as Novel Targets for Preventive Strategies.

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 240 (estimated)
• Sponsor: IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The study aims at identifying: 1. specific biological and molecular alterations associated with development of depression in pregnancy or risk of it. 2. specific biological and molecular alterations due to exposure to maternal depression in utero that are still present in the offspring, that could possibly mediate the development of negative outcomes, and which are the possible clinical moderators of the associated risk; 3. whether antidepressant therapies prescribed by personal physician and the use of digital tools can have a preventive effect in the transmission of the risk from mothers to babies and in the development of depressive symptoms in high-risk pregnant women; In order to achieve these, 80 pregnant women with depression, 80 at high-risk and 80 controls will be recruited and clinically monitored over pregnancy and postpartum along with their babies, specifically at these timepoints: 25th and 32nd weeks of gestation, 1 week postpartum, 4 weeks postpartum, 8 weeks postpartum, 12 months postpartum. Women, based on their clinician choice, will receive antidepressants and will be provided with a smartphone app to monitor them, using a combination of personalised, daily self-reported assessments and sensors for passive data collection to cover mental and physical health. Blood and saliva samples from pregnant women will be collected at the 25th and 32nd week of gestation to perform biological analyses. Saliva samples from babies will be collected at 8 weeks and 12 months postpartum to perform biological analyses. Clinical and psychological data will be collected from women at all timepoints.

Conditions

• Perinatal Depression

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
PROCEDURE	Blood and saliva collection	Blood and saliva samples from pregnant women; saliva samples from babies.
BEHAVIORAL	Psychometric scales	A battery of psychometric scales and questionnaires.
OTHER	Smartphone app	A smartphone application has been developed in the context of the study as a potential preventive and screening strategy.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-02-11
• Primary completion: 2025-07-01
• Completion: 2025-07-01
• First posted: 2023-07-19
• Last updated: 2023-07-19

Locations

4 sites across 1 country: Italy