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NEW YORK — Women with perinatal anxiety have an altered immune system in comparison to pregnant women without anxiety. Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine report that pregnant women with anxiety before or after childbirth have elevated levels of cytotoxic T cells in their bodies. These immune cells destroy infected or otherwise compromised cells within the body. There were also differences in immune marker activity within the bloodstreams of women with anxiety.
The findings add more evidence to the case linking anxiety and immune changes over the course of a woman’s pregnancy. The study is published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
Having anxiety during pregnancy is common. Over 20% of women develop anxiety during this time. However, since mental health can still be a taboo topic for many, researchers believe that number might be even higher. The findings could help encourage more pregnant patients to seek treatment for their mental health issues. It could also facilitate discussions on the safety of certain anti-anxiety medications during pregnancy.
“Women with anxiety appear to have an immune system that behaves differently from that of healthy women during pregnancy and after delivery,” says Lauren Osborne, the vice chair for clinical research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine, who conducted the research while working with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in a media release. “During pregnancy, a delicate dance is supposed to occur, in which the immune system changes so that it does not reject the fetus but is still strong enough to keep out foreign pathogens.”
Anxiety during pregnancy can harm both the parent and the developing fetus. Previous research has linked perinatal anxiety with an increased risk for preterm delivery and lower birth weight.
Methodology
Dr. Osborne and her co-authors monitored the pregnancies of 107 women. Among the 107 participants, 56 reported having anxiety during their second and third trimesters, as well as six weeks after giving birth. The team collected blood samples to measure the women’s immune activity and psychological evaluations to confirm signs of clinical anxiety.
Key Results
Women with anxiety during pregnancy had high levels of cytotoxic T cells during pregnancy, with the T cell level decreasing weeks after childbirth. Women without anxiety showed reduced levels of cytotoxic T cells during pregnancy and after birth. Additionally, women with anxiety showed reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine activity — substances released from cells as part of the immune response. Those levels rose after delivery. Women without anxiety experienced the opposite pattern.
“The takeaway is that this is the first clear evidence that immune activity differs for pregnant women depending on their anxiety status. Knowing that there is immune system involvement is a first step toward understanding the biological factors related to anxiety in pregnancy, and a first step toward developing new treatments,” explains Dr. Osborne. “We know that anxiety needs to be treated to ensure healthy outcomes for both mother and child.”
