Skip to main content
  • Research article
  • Open access
  • Published:

Prenatal maternal bereavement and risk of eating disorders in infants and toddlers: a population-based cohort study

Abstract

Background

Prenatal stress has been associated to a number of neuropsychiatric diseases but its role on the development of eating disorders (ED) remains unknown. Infants and toddlers with feeding or eating disorders are also at an increased risk of such diseases in later childhood and adolescence. We aimed to examine whether prenatal stress following maternal bereavement is associated with ED in infants and toddlers.

Methods

This population-based cohort study included children born from 1977 to 2008 in Denmark (N = 2,127,126) and from 1977 to 2006 in Sweden (N = 2,974,908). Children were categorized as exposed if they were born to mothers who lost a close relative one year prior to or during pregnancy and were categorized as unexposed otherwise. They were followed until the age of 3 for a first diagnosis of ED. Poisson regression models were used to examine incidence rate ratio (IRR) between the exposed and the unexposed cohort.

Results

A total of 9,403 ED cases were identified and 179 of whom were in the exposed cohort. Offspring born to mothers bereaved by loss of a core family member (older child or spouse) within the six months before pregnancy had a higher risk of ED than the unexposed offspring (IRR: 1.63, 95 % confidence intervals (CI): 1.07–2.47). In stratified analyses, bereavement during the six months before pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of ED in boys (IRR: 2.21, 95 % CI: 1.28–3.82), but not in girls (IRR: 1.18, 95 % CI: 0.61–2.27).

Discussion

This is the first population-based study to explore the association between prenatal stress and the risk of ED in infants and toddlers within two Nordic countries. This study added new evidence of early life stress for etiology of ED while the potential mechanism still needs further studies.

Conclusions

Prenatal stress following maternal bereavement by loss of a core family member is associated with an increased risk of ED among infants and toddlers. The six months before conception may be a susceptible time window, especially for boys.

Peer Review reports

Background

The lifetime prevalence of all types of eating disorders (ED) is approximately 5 % and they may lead to profound and long-lasting physical and psychosocial morbidity [1]. Infants with feeding problems are at an increased risk of ED in later childhood and adolescence [2]. ED are characterized by food refusal for at least one month, growth deficiency and an apparent lack of appetite in infants and toddlers [3]. Early problems in eating behaviors are reported to be more common in infants with developmental delays (80 %) than in normally developed infants (25 %) [4]. However, despite its important consequences, the etiology of ED in infants and toddlers is poorly understood [5].

Eating behavior is a complex process controlled by the neuroendocrine system, of which the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal-axis (HPA axis) is a major component [6, 7]. Dysregulation of the HPA axis is associated with ED [811]. ED may have its origins in prenatal life and accumulating evidence from experimental studies suggests that the prenatal stress has a programming effect, particularly on the activity of the HPA axis [12, 13]. Findings from a recent review suggest that prenatal stress exposure, the activity of the HPA axis, and feeding regulation in early years of life are closely linked [14]. However, there has been little empirical evidence on the potential effect of preconceptional and prenatal maternal stress on the risk of ED in infants and toddlers.

Maternal bereavement during or shortly before pregnancy, as an indicator of severe stress, has been associated with a number of psychiatric disorders in the offspring, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [15, 16], and affective psychosis [17]. The risks are often higher for children bereaved by loss of a core family member (i.e., older child or spouse) than by loss of an extended family member (i.e., mother’s sibling or parent), suggesting the presence of dose-response effect. Findings regarding the importance of the timing of stress have been mixed.

We hypothesized that prenatal stress following maternal bereavement may increase the risk of ED in infants and toddlers. As ED is rarely diagnosed in early ages, we use combined data from nationwide registries in two countries (Denmark and Sweden) to examine the association. The large study allowed us to investigate the dose-response patterns and the importance of the timing of stress observed in other psychiatric disorders. In addition, as sex difference was observed for effect of prenatal stress on some other psychiatric diseases [16, 18], we also investigated whether association between prenatal stress and ED differed by sex.

Methods

This study was based on secondary data and all analyses were performed on the secure platform of Statistics Denmark using encrypted identification numbers and thus no access to personal identification numbers of the participants. The study was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency (No. 2008-41-2680) and Scientific Ethics Committee of Central Jutland Region (No. M-201000252) and Karolinska Institutet (No. 2008/4:6).

Study design and participants

We conducted a population-based cohort study by combining data from several national registries from Denmark and Sweden. The unique personal identification number, assigned in both countries to all legal residents, allows individual record linkage across all national registries.

We used data from the Danish Civil Registry System and the Swedish Multi-generation Register to identify children born from 1977 to 2008 in Denmark (N = 2,136,450) and from 1977 to 2006 in Sweden (N = 2,982,647) [19, 20]. We excluded children with unknown sex (N = 20), with no linkage to the mothers (N = 8,889), diagnosed with ED as a comorbidity to cleft lip and palate or any type of digestive system malformation (N = 153), born to mothers who lost a close relative caused by ED (N = 156), children to mothers with no linkage to any relatives (N = 7,453), with missing or implausible maternal age (unknown, ≤14 or ≥60 years, N = 392). Our study population consisted of 5,102,034 children born in Denmark (N = 2,127,126) and Sweden (N = 2,974,908).

Exposure and outcome

We categorized children as exposed if their mothers lost an older child, a sibling, or a parent one year prior to or during pregnancy, or if the mother lost a spouse during pregnancy. Only the first time exposure information was used when one case was exposed to maternal bereavement more than once within the exposure window (0.04 %). The remaining children were included in the unexposed cohort.

Information on ED for the index child was obtained from the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register (N = 5) [21] and the Danish National Patient Register (N = 2002) [22] in Denmark. The Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register contains information on every psychiatric hospital admission since 1969 and onwards, and information on outpatient treatment is included since 1995. Similar information was obtained from the Swedish Patient Register (N = 7,396), which holds information on psychiatric inpatient care since 1973 [23]. Patients with mild to moderate mental disorders are generally diagnosed and treated by the private practice psychiatrists and general practitioners in cooperation, without hospital contact in Denmark, thus are not registered in the Psychiatric Central Research Register. The diagnosis information was based on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The eighth version (ICD-8) was used from 1977 to 1993 in Denmark and from 1973 to 1986 in Sweden, the ninth version (ICD-9) from 1987 to1996 in Sweden, the tenth version (ICD-10) from 1994 onwards in Denmark and from 1997 onwards in Sweden. Based on the diagnosis criteria of feeding disorders proposed by Chatoor [24], a child was defined as a case if he/she had a diagnosis of ED or feeding disorders (ICD-8 codes 306.5 (feeding disturbance); ICD-9 codes 307.B (anorexia nervosa), 307.F (bulimia nervosa); ICD-10 codes F50 (eating disorders), F98.2 (feeding disorder of infancy and childhood), F98.3 (Pica of infancy and childhood)) before the age of 3. Cohort members were followed from birth until the first diagnosis of ED or feeding disorders, death, emigration, the day when they reached 3 years of age, or the last follow up date (December 31, 2010 in Denmark and December 31, 2007 in Sweden), whichever came first.

Potential confounders

Perinatal factors (parity and the number of fetuses in the pregnancy) and children’s sex were retrieved from the Medical Birth Register [25, 26]. Paternal age and maternal characteristics including age, countries of origin, education were obtained from the Danish Integrated Database for Longitudinal Labor Market Research [27], Swedish Medical Birth Register [25] and the Swedish Education Register [28]. Data on family history of psychiatric disorders was retrieved from the Danish Central Psychiatric Register, the Danish National Patient Register and Swedish Patient Register (ICD-8 codes 290–315, ICD-9 codes 290–319 and ICD-10 codes F00-F99) [2123].

Statistical analysis

All data management and analyses were performed with the SAS version 9.2 statistical software packages (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, North Carolina). Poisson regression models were used to estimate incidence rate ratio (IRR) of ED between exposed and unexposed children.

We divided the exposure window in five periods (12–7 months before pregnancy, 6–0 months before pregnancy, the first trimester, the second trimester and the third trimester) to examine whether a potential effect of preconceptional and prenatal stress following maternal bereavement on ED differed across these periods.

To examine a potential dose-response relationship between maternal bereavement and offspring’s ED risk, we categorized exposed children in two ways, which may represent the stress level of bereavement. (1) according to the causes of death: a) death due to unexpected causes (Swedish codes:79590–79599, 79621, E807-E999 (ICD-8); 798, E807-E999 (ICD-9); R95, R96, R98, V01-Y98 (ICD-10); Danish codes: 795, 810–823, 950–959, 800–807, 825–949, 960–999 (ICD-8); R95-R98, V01-V89, X60-X84 (ICD-10)), and b) death due to other causes; and (2) according to the mother’s relationship of the deceased: a) death of a core family member (an older child or a spouse), and b) death of other relatives (a parent or a sibling). We hypothesized that loss of a core family member would have a stronger effect than loss of a parent or a sibling [29]. Similarly, we anticipated a stronger effect in case of unexpected deaths than in case of other deaths [30].

To examine potential sex-differences in prenatal bereavement and risk of ED in offspring, we performed analyses in boys and girls separately.

We adjusted for the following potential confounders: country (Denmark, Sweden), sex (boy, girl), parity (1, 2, ≥3, unknown), maternal age (15–26 years, 27–30 years, 31–59 years), paternal age (15–28 years, 29–33 years, ≥34 years, unknown), maternal countries of origin (Nordic, others, unknown), number of fetuses in the pregnancy (singleton, multiple, unknown), family history of psychiatric disorders (yes, no) and maternal education (≤9 years, 10–14 years, ≥15 years). Calendar year of follow up was included as a time-dependent variable, while the other covariates were included as time-fixed (Model 1). Since adverse birth outcomes (preterm delivery, low birth weight) have been proposed to be risk factors for ED [31, 32], we adjusted additionally for preterm delivery (yes, no) and birth weight (<2500 g, 2500–4000 g, ≥4000 g) (Model 2).

Finally, we restricted the analyses to children without family history of psychiatric disorders to partly disentangle genetic effects from maternal stress effects [33].

Results

Baseline characteristics of the cohort

A total of 86,017 (1.69 %) children were born to mothers experiencing bereavement one year prior to or during pregnancy. The baseline characteristics of the study populations in Denmark and Sweden are presented in Table 1. In both countries, exposed children were more likely to be born to older parents and to have a higher parity than unexposed children.

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the study population

Timing-specific and dose-response pattern of prenatal stress (maternal bereavement)

Of 9,403 infants and toddlers with a diagnosis of ED, 179 were exposed to preconceptional and prenatal maternal bereavement. We did not find an association between preconceptional and prenatal maternal bereavement and the overall risk of ED, neither when taking possible confounders into account (Table 2, Model 1), nor when also accounting for possible mediators (Table 2, Model 2). Neither time of exposure (12–7 months before pregnancy, 6–0 months before pregnancy, the first trimester, the second trimester and the third trimester), nor cause of death (unexpected causes and other causes) influenced risk of ED (Table 3).

Tables 2 Relative risk of eating disorders and prenatal maternal bereavement according to timing of exposure
Tables 3 Relative risk of eating disorders and prenatal maternal bereavement according to cause of death and timing of exposure

Compared to unexposed children, children exposed to maternal bereavement by loss of a core family member (an older child or spouse) had an increased risk of ED (IRR: 1.53, 95%CI: 1.13–2.08), while children exposed to maternal bereavement by loss of other relatives were not at an increased risk (IRR: 1.02, 95 % CI: 0.86–1.20) (Table 4). When we additionally stratified children exposed to maternal bereavement into three groups by timing of exposure, we only observed that maternal bereavement related to loss of a core family number during six months before conception was associated with an increased risk of ED (IRR: 1.63, 95 % CI: 1.07–2.47) (Table 4).

Tables 4 Relative risk of eating disorders and prenatal maternal bereavement according to type of the deceased relative and time of exposure

Sex-difference effects and sensitivity analyses

When stratifying on sex of children, we found an increased risk of ED in children born to mothers who lost a close relative during the six months before conception in boys (IRR: 2.21, 95 % CI: 1.28–3.82), but not in girls (IRR: 1.18, 95 % CI: 0.61–2.27) (Table 5). Results were similar to those from the main analyses after excluding children with a family history of psychiatric disorders (results are available upon request).

Table 5 Relative risk of eating disorders and prenatal maternal bereavement stratified on sex of children

Discussion

The main findings of this study

In this large population-based cohort study, we found that maternal exposure to the loss of a core family member (an older child or spouse) the year before or during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of ED in infants and toddlers. The risk was only significantly increased among children with maternal loss of an older child during six months before conception; whereas it remained high throughout other prenatal periods. The association persisted after excluding children with a family history of psychiatric disorders. When stratifying on sex of children, we only found results similar to the main analyses in boys, but not in girls.

Comparison with previous studies and potential underlying mechanisms

Research on the effect of prenatal stress on ED in early life has been limited. A case report from 1995 presented a three years old boy with infantile anorexia who experienced prenatal bereavement, and suggested that severe prenatal stress may be implicated in the etiology of ED in infants or toddlers [34]. Two observational studies showed that self-reported maternal anxiety or depression during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of infant feeding problems [35, 36]. The sample sizes of these studies were substantially smaller than our study and information on confounders was limited. Another study, examining several offspring psychiatric disorders after prenatal (six months before pregnancy and during pregnancy) and postnatal bereavement, showed different vulnerable periods for these diseases [15]. For instance, for ASD, the second and third trimesters were the most vulnerable periods, while only the third trimester was associated with an increased risk for ADHD, and no preconceptional periods were associated with increased risks. We extended the time window to one year prior to pregnancy and observed that only maternal bereavement six months before conception was associated with an increased risk of ED in offspring.

The mechanism of association between maternal stress and risk of disordered behavior in offspring was not well understood. Based on previous studies, the main proposed mechanism for the link between prenatal maternal stress and psychiatric disorders is the programming effect of HPA axis [37]. Postnatal stress is more likely to affect interaction between mother and child in early life of offspring and has a direct effect on children eating behavior [38, 39]. Therefore prenatal stress and postnatal stress might have different mechanisms on the risk of ED. In this study, we focus on prenatal stress’s effect. Our results can be interpreted by increased CRF1 expression in frontal cortex of brain which is related to appetite regulation following maternal preconceptional stress [40, 41]. Class et al. have reported that preconceptional stress increased the risk of infant mortality, which indicated the period immediately before conception may be a sensitive developmental period [42].

It has been suggested that temperament is an important contributor to the development and maintenance of ED [43]. We observed an increased risk of ED but only in boys exposed to maternal bereavement following the loss of a core family member during six months before pregnancy. The result is consistent with suggestions of an animal study, which found that maternal stress before conception may worsen social interaction and increase fear response in male, but not in female rats [44]. In addition, another animal study reported that exposure to stress in the two weeks prior to mating was associated with neuronal morphology change in the anterior cingulate cortex of brain only in males [45], where is on the pathway of appetite activation [46]. Our results suggested that for mothers having male offspring, several months before conception may be a vulnerable time window.

Strengths and limitations

To our knowledge, this is the first population-based study to explore the association between prenatal stress and the risk of ED in infants and toddlers. Based on nationwide registries of two Nordic countries, we could explore the association between bereavement and ED before the age of 3 with 0.18 % prevalence (rare event). In addition, with almost complete follow-up, the results are unlikely to be biased by selection of study participants or loss to follow up. The large sample size also allowed for adjustment for a number of potentially important confounders. However, our findings should be interpreted with caution due to several limitations. First, we had no data on maternal lifestyle factors, such as prenatal drinking and marijuana use, which might confound the association [47]. For instance, bereaved mothers are likely to drink alcohol, which could partly underlie the association. Second, no systematic study was performed to validate the diagnosis of ED in registries although studies for some major psychiatric diagnoses, such as schizophrenia and single episode depression, have indicated a high validity [48, 49]. Third, patients with mild and moderate ED cannot be identified in the Registries; and the DSM-5 classification (where the feeding and eating disorders have been put together) was not used; and ICD-8 and ICD-10 were used to identify the cases in Denmark while ICD-8, ICD-9 and ICD-10 were used in Sweden. These are expected to lead to bias in disease diagnosis. However, we think that these classifications are independent of exposure status and would thus draw the risk estimates towards unity.

Conclusions

Our study shows that maternal bereavement related to the loss of a core family member was associated with an increased risk of ED in infants and toddlers. The period of six months before conception may be a susceptible time window, especially for boys.

References

  1. Treasure J, Claudino AM, Zucker N. Eating disorders. Lancet. 2010;375(9714):583–93.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Marchi M, Cohen P. Early childhood eating behaviors and adolescent eating disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1990;29(1):112–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Chatoor I, Ganiban J, Surles J, Doussard-Roosevelt J. Physiological regulation and infantile anorexia: a pilot study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2004;43(8):1019–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Manikam R, Perman JA. Pediatric feeding disorders. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2000;30(1):34–46.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Bryant-Waugh R, Markham L, Kreipe RE, Walsh BT. Feeding and eating disorders in childhood. Int J Eat Disord. 2010;43(2):98–111.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Gross MJ, Kahn JP, Laxenaire M, Nicolas JP, Burlet C. Corticotropin-releasing factor and anorexia nervosa: reactions of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis to neurotropic stress. Ann Endocrinol. 1994;55(6):221–8.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Licinio J, Wong ML, Gold PW. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in anorexia nervosa. Psychiatry Res. 1996;62(1):75–83.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Gendall KA, Kaye WH, Altemus M, McConaha CW, La Via MC. Leptin, neuropeptide Y, and peptide YY in long-term recovered eating disorder patients. Biol Psychiatry. 1999;46(2):292–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Hasan TF, Hasan H. Anorexia nervosa: a unified neurological perspective. Int J Med Sci. 2011;8(8):679–703.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Cummings DE, Frayo RS, Marmonier C, Aubert R, Chapelot D. Plasma ghrelin levels and hunger scores in humans initiating meals voluntarily without time- and food-related cues. Am J Physiol-Endoc M. 2004;287(2):E297–304.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Boukouvalas G, Gerozissis K, Kitraki E. Adult Consequences of Post-weaning High Fat Feeding on the Limbic-HPA Axis of Female Rats. Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2010;30(4):521–30.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Glover V, O’Connor TG, O’Donnell K. Prenatal stress and the programming of the HPA axis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2010;35(1):17–22.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Viltart O, Vanbesien-Mailliot CC. Impact of prenatal stress on neuroendocrine programming. TheScientificWorldJOURNAL. 2007;7:1493–537.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Sominsky L, Spencer SJ. Eating behavior and stress: a pathway to obesity. Front Psychol. 2014;5:434.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Class QA, Abel KM, Khashan AS, Rickert ME, Dalman C, Larsson H, et al. Offspring psychopathology following preconception, prenatal and postnatal maternal bereavement stress. Psychol Med. 2014;44(1):71–84.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Li J, Olsen J, Vestergaard M, Obel C. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in the offspring following prenatal maternal bereavement: a nationwide follow-up study in Denmark. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2010;19(10):747–53.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Abel KM, Heuvelman HP, Jorgensen L, Magnusson C, Wicks S, Susser E, et al. Severe bereavement stress during the prenatal and childhood periods and risk of psychosis in later life: population based cohort study. BMJ. 2014;348:f7679.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Glover V, Hill J. Sex differences in the programming effects of prenatal stress on psychopathology and stress responses: an evolutionary perspective. Physiol Behav. 2012;106(5):736–40.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Ekbom A. The Swedish Multi-generation Register. Methods Mol Biol. 2011;675:215–20.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Pedersen CB. The Danish Civil Registration System. Scand J Publ Health. 2011;39(7 Suppl):22–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Mors O, Perto GP, Mortensen PB. The Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register. Scand J Publ Health. 2011;39(7 Suppl):54–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Lynge E, Sandegaard JL, Rebolj M. The Danish National Patient Register. Scand J Publ Health. 2011;39(7 Suppl):30–3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Welfare TNBoHa. Kvalitet Och Innehåll i patientregistet, The National Board of Health and Welfare. 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Chatoor I. Feeding disorders in infants and toddlers: diagnosis and treatment. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2002;11(2):163–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Axelsson O. The Swedish Medical Birth Register. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2003;82(6):491–2.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Knudsen LB, Olsen J. The Danish Medical Birth Registry. Dan Med Bull. 1998;45(3):320–3.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Timmermans B. The Danish Integrated Database for Labor Market Research: Towards Demystification for the English Speaking Audience. In. Edited by University A. Aalborg University: Aalborg University; 2010.

  28. Li J, Vestergaard M, Obel C, Cnattingus S, Gissler M, Olsen J. Cohort profile: the Nordic Perinatal Bereavement Cohort. Int J Epidemiol. 2011;40(5):1161–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Skodol AE, Shrout PE. Use of Dsm-Iii Axis-Iv in Clinical-Practice - Rating Etiologically Significant Stressors. Am J Psychiat. 1989;146(1):61–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Burton AM, Haley WE, Small BJ. Bereavement after caregiving or unexpected death: effects on elderly spouses. Aging Ment Health. 2006;10(3):319–26.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Lindberg L, Hjern A. Risk factors for anorexia nervosa: a national cohort study. Int J Eat Disord. 2003;34(4):397–408.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Cnattingius S, Hultman CM, Dahl M, Sparen P. Very preterm birth, birth trauma, and the risk of anorexia nervosa among girls. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999;56(7):634–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Ahren JC, Chiesa F, Koupil I, Magnusson C, Dalman C, Goodman A. We are family--parents, siblings, and eating disorders in a prospective total-population study of 250,000 Swedish males and females. Int J Eat Disord. 2013;46(7):693–700.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Sanchezcardenas M, Mammar N, Venisse JL, Robin D. Complications of Bereavement as Seen in Infant Anorexia and Adolescent Anorexia-Nervosa. Int J Eat Disord. 1995;17(1):39–44.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Farrow C, Blissett J. Maternal cognitions, psychopathologic symptoms, and infant temperament as predictors of early infant feeding problems: a longitudinal study. Int J Eat Disord. 2006;39(2):128–34.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Ammaniti M, Lucarelli L, Cimino S, D’Olimpio F, Chatoor I. Maternal psychopathology and child risk factors in infantile anorexia. Int J Eat Disord. 2010;43(3):233–40.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Weinstock M. Alterations induced by gestational stress in brain morphology and behaviour of the offspring. Prog Neurobiol. 2001;65(5):427–51.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Nicol-Harper R, Harvey AG, Stein A. Interactions between mothers and infants: Impact of maternal anxiety. Infant Behav Dev. 2007;30(1):161–7.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  39. Chatoor I, Egan J, Getson P, Menvielle E, O’Donnell R. Mother-infant interactions in infantile anorexia nervosa. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1988;27(5):535–40.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Zaidan H, Leshem M, Gaisler-Salomon I. Prereproductive stress to female rats alters corticotropin releasing factor type 1 expression in ova and behavior and brain corticotropin releasing factor type 1 expression in offspring. Biol Psychiatry. 2013;74(9):680–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Pelleymounter MA, Joppa M, Carmouche M, Cullen MJ, Brown B, Murphy B, et al. Role of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) receptors in the anorexic syndrome induced by CRF. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2000;293(3):799–806.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Class QA, Khashan AS, Lichtenstein P, Langstrom N, D’Onofrio BM. Maternal stress and infant mortality: the importance of the preconception period. Psychol Sci. 2013;24(7):1309–16.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  43. Atiye M, Miettunen J, Raevuori-Helkamaa A. A meta-analysis of temperament in eating disorders. Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2015;23(2):89–99.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Shachar-Dadon A, Schulkin J, Leshem M. Adversity Before Conception Will Affect Adult Progeny in Rats. Dev Psychol. 2009;45(1):9–16.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Bock J, Poeschel J, Schindler J, Borner F, Shachar-Dadon A, Ferdman N, et al. Transgenerational sex-specific impact of preconception stress on the development of dendritic spines and dendritic length in the medial prefrontal cortex. Brain Struct Funct. 2014. [Epub ahead of print].

  46. Rolls ET. Brain mechanisms underlying flavour and appetite. Philos Trans R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci. 2006;361(1471):1123–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Day NL, Richardson GA, Geva D, Robles N. Alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco: effects of prenatal exposure on offspring growth and morphology at age six. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1994;18(4):786–94.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Bock C, Bukh JD, Vinberg M, Gether U, Kessing LV. Validity of the diagnosis of a single depressive episode in a case register. Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health. 2009;5:4.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  49. Loffler W, Hafner H, Fatkenheuer B, Maurer K, Riecher-Rossler A, Lutzhoft J, et al. Validation of Danish case register diagnosis for schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1994;90(3):196–203.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the European Research Council (ERC-2010-StG-260242-PROGEURO); the Danish Medical Research Council (project no. 09–072986); the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (grant no. 2010–0092); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81428011); XJ. SU is partly supported by a travel grant from Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiujuan Su.

Additional information

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

XJS, BBX, WY, SC, JO, KL, JL participated in the design of the study and interpretation of data for the work. XJS, BBX, HL, WY performed the statistical analysis. XJS drafted the manuscript. BBX, HL, JO, WY, SC, KL, JL revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. All authors made substantial contributions to the article revision and approved the final manuscript.

Authors’ information

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Su, X., Xu, B., Liang, H. et al. Prenatal maternal bereavement and risk of eating disorders in infants and toddlers: a population-based cohort study. BMC Psychiatry 15, 229 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0612-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0612-9

Keywords