Risk of Depression in the Adolescent and Adult Offspring of Mothers With Perinatal Depression A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

IMPORTANCE Maternal depression during pregnancy is associated with emotional and behavioral difficulties of offspring during childhood that can increase the risk of depression in adolescence and adulthood. OBJECTIVE To investigate the association between perinatal maternal depression and an increased long-term risk of depression in their adolescent and adult offspring. DATA SOURCES A systematic search of the electronic databases of PubMed and PsycINFO was conducted from May 2019 to June 2019. STUDY SELECTION A total of 6309 articles were identified, of which 88 articles were extracted for full-text review by 2 reviewers. Only articles reporting data from prospective longitudinal studies that assessed maternal depression during antenatal and/or postnatal periods and resulting offspring 12 years or older with measures of established psychometric properties were included. Exclusion criteria consisted of all other study designs, mothers with other medical and psychiatric comorbidities, and offspring younger than 12 years. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS Data were extracted by 2 independent reviewers, and discrepancies were mediated by an expert third reviewer. Meta-analysis was performed using Bayesian statistical