Prenatal Stress-induced Behavioral, Cognitive, and Psychopathological Modifications: A Mini Review of Literature

Background: Prenatal stress (PNS) can influence the development of the progeny, which undergoes complex physiological changes during intrauterine and early postnatal life, thus causing them to experience far-reaching undesirable consequences. Prenatal stress is particularly a challenging issue because, by reacting to the mother’s stress through a sequence of biological mechanisms, the fetus is placed under risk of several neurobiological variations that give rise to behavioral and emotional alterations in the offspring. Various studies have been conducted over the last two decades, not only on various stressors that give rise to negative emotions during pregnancy but also on their impact on offspring’s mental health during the entire course of their development. Objective: This review aims at discussing various studies on the effect of prenatal stress in animal models and human subjects, and to explore some of the controversies arising in this field. Materials and methods: We searched PubMed and Scopus for English language abstracts published from 1992 to 2021. Search terms were related to prenatal stress, infant or child cognitive and motor development, and developmental psychopathology. Results and conclusion: A vast number of studies have reported negative neurobiological outcomes in the offspring subjected to PNS, although a clear understanding about the underlying biological mechanisms is not available. Methodological challenges do exist in PNS research which has not been successfully overcome. At present, however, there is a definite need to identify, advise, and support pregnant women with some degree of stress with a hope to minimize any adverse consequences in the progeny.