研究发现孕期没有治疗抑郁症和使用抗抑郁药物对一个孩子的语言发展都有着非预期效应
是的,这是关于孕期服用抗抑郁药物的效果的另一项研究。但是这项研究,对生来就有抑郁症妈妈和妈妈服用过抗抑郁药物的婴儿的语言发展分析有一个转折。没有治 疗抑郁症的妈妈,正如所料,生出的小孩有语言发育迟缓的高风险。但是服用过抗抑郁药物的准妈妈呢?他们的小孩可能天生具有加速的语言技能。
有些人说这可能不是件好事。
这项研究跟踪了3组准妈妈:没有抑郁症的妈妈们,有抑郁症没有服药的妈妈们,有抑郁症并服用了抗抑郁药物(常见的一种抑郁药包含郁乐复,百忧解和百可舒)的妈妈们。
在孕36周的时候,研究者们在准妈妈肚皮上播放不同辅音和元音,测试胎儿们如何反应。基于之前的研究,人们认为当胎儿可以辨别出声音的时候,心跳速度会暂时降下来,沃克尔(哲学博士,这项研究的作者之一,英属哥伦比亚大学的一名心理学家)解释道。非常神奇,对不对?
后来,这个研究小组测试了6到10个月的婴儿当看到小王子音乐剧里有人分别用法语和英语阅读段落的视频时,心跳速度和眼球运动如何改变。婴儿通常在4到6个月的时候显示出能够在母语和外语之间转换的迹象,而到10个月的时候当他们停止关注非母语声音,则又失去了这项能力。(注:这不适用于在双语家庭抚养的孩子。)
结果如何?首先,妈妈没有抑郁症的婴儿趋向于显现正常语言发展:他们在子宫里可以辨别出元音而非辅音,并且,在子宫外,他们6个月大的时候在母语和外语之间可以转换,而非10个月。
妈妈有抑郁症而没有治疗的婴儿们更可能10个月大的时候仍然集中于母语和外语,有语言发育迟缓的潜在迹象。
但是当研究者们研究妈妈们服用过抗抑郁药物的婴儿时,婴儿们在语言技能方面显示出不寻常的成熟度。当他们在子宫里的时候,他们更可能区分出元音和辅音。到6个月大的时候,他们同样更可能在他们的母语之间转换。
听起来不错,对不对?那么为什么这个问题备受关注?“加速发展可能听起来更好,但是我们的大脑以一个微调的时间表经历重要发育阶段,”Jon在洛杉矶时报的今日科学博客中写道,并且“有人不想经历语言阶段,比如,发生在依然在子宫里的胎儿身上。”
研究者们不确定长期语言影响这一早期发展会影响一个孩子的生活,但是他们计划进一步研究。
妈妈们参与这项研究了吗?将注意力放在为抑郁症妈妈们提供支持上。来自马赛诸色州米尔福德的妈妈Amanda说,“听起来研究者们不是真的知道如何理解这些结果,但是有一件事是完全清楚的—患有抑郁症的妈妈们需要某种形式的帮助,因此他们没有将问题传递给他们的宝宝。这真让我心酸。”
地址:https://www.babyzone.com/pregnancy/is-it-safe/antidepressants-during-pregnancy-language-development_229202
作者:Jacqueline Tourville
正文:
Yes, it’s yet another study about the effects of taking antidepressants during pregnancy. But this one, an analysis of language development in babies born to depressed moms and moms taking antidepressants, comes with a twist. Moms with untreated depression, as might be expected, have babies at higher risk for language delays. But moms-to-be who take antidepressants? Their babies could be born with accelerated language skills.
And some say this may not be a good thing.
The study followed three groups of expectant mothers: moms who had no mood disorder, moms with depression who did not take medication, and moms who had depression and took a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI), a common class of depression medications that includes Zoloft, Prozac, and Paxil.
At 36 weeks into pregnancy, babies were “tested” to see how they responded when the researchers played recordings of different consonants and vowels through their mothers’ tummies. Based on prior research, it is believed that babies’ heart rates temporarily go down when they can discriminate between sounds, explains Janet Werker, PhD, one of the study’s authors and a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. Pretty amazing, huh?
Later on, the research team tested how heart rates and eye movements of 6- and 10-month-olds changed while watching videos of someone reading passages from The Little Prince in both French and English. Babies normally show signs of being able to “tune in” to both their native language and a foreign language at 4 to 6 months but lose the ability by 10 months when they stop paying attention to sounds that are not in their native language (Note: this doesn’t apply to kids raised in bilingual homes).
The results? First of all, babies of moms without depression tended to demonstrate normal language development: They discriminated vowels but not consonants in the womb, and, out of the womb, they tuned in to both their native language and a foreign language at 6 months, but not at 10 months.
Babies born to moms with untreated depression were more likely to still focus on both native and foreign languages at 10 months, a potential sign of a language delay.
But when researchers looked at babies born to moms taking antidepressants, babies displayed unusual maturity in their language skills. While in utero, they were more likely to discriminate between vowels and consonants. And by 6 months, they were also more likely to already be tuned in to their native language.
Sounds good, right? So why is this a concern? “Accelerated development may sound better, but our brains go through important developmental periods on a finely-tuned schedule,” writes Jon Bardin in the Los Angeles Times’ Science Now blog, and “one would not want a language period, for example, to occur while the infant is still in the womb.”
Researchers aren’t sure what long term language effects this early development can have in a child’s life, but are planning further study.
“I would be very happy if it doesn’t have any lasting consequences for language acquisition,” says Welker.
The real-mom take on this study? Keep the focus on providing support to depressed moms. According to Amanda Morris from Milford, Massachusetts, “It sounds like researchers don’t really know what to make of these results, but one thing does stand out as perfectly clear—moms who suffer from depression need help in some form so they don’t pass on problems to their babies. This is what really breaks my heart.”
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