SynthesisBMJ open2025
Prenatal psychological distress and neurodevelopmental trajectories in the first 3 years: a systematic review.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- AI-driven high-risk pregnancy prediction: balancing early detection, anxiety, and discrimination in digital public health.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThis systematic review aims to examine the association between maternal psychological distress (specifically perceived stress, clinical anxiety and depressive symptoms), measured exclusively during pregnancy, and child neurodevelopmental outcomes assessed within the first 3 years of life (0-36 months), including cognitive, language, socioemotional and behavioural development.
designThe review was conducted in line with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and registered on PROSPERO (CRD42024599742). It focused exclusively on studies assessing maternal distress during the prenatal period and its impact on cognitive, language, socioemotional and behavioural outcomes in infancy and toddlerhood. DATA SOURCES: A comprehensive search of six databases, PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, EBSCOhost and PsycINFO, was conducted up to 10 April 2025, using structured combinations of keywords related to maternal stress and child development. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Studies were included if they assessed psychological distress during pregnancy with validated tools and evaluated neurodevelopmental outcomes in children aged 0-36 months using standardised measures. Excluded were studies measuring distress only postnatally, animal models, non-original articles and studies without neurodevelopmental endpoints. DATA EXTRACTION AND DATA SYNTHESIS: Data were extracted and reviewed independently by two authors using predefined criteria, with a third reviewer resolving disagreements. Methodological quality was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias in Non-randomised Studies of Exposures tool for non-randomised studies and Cohort Studies. Given study heterogeneity, a structured narrative synthesis with standardised effect summaries was used.
results44 studies met the inclusion criteria. Across these, small, correlational associations linked higher maternal distress during pregnancy with modest differences in cognitive and language scores and with elevated risks of behavioural and socioemotional difficulties. Children exposed to higher distress more often showed attention problems, greater negative emotionality, lower verbal ability and weaker emotion regulation, with effects frequently attenuated after adjustment and selective attrition.
conclusionsMaternal psychological distress during pregnancy is a context-sensitive correlate, not a proven cause, of early neurodevelopmental differences across cognitive, emotional and behavioural domains.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.