{"title":"Attention control in the peripartum period: a longitudinal study.","authors":"Tamar Bakun Emesh, Nachshon Meiran, Dar Ran-Peled, Hamutal Ben-Zion, Avel Horwitz, Omer Finkelstein, Liat Tikotzky","doi":"10.1007/s00737-024-01530-5","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Given research inconsistency, this study aimed to assess whether attention control changes from pregnancy to postpartum, focusing on the moderating role of maternal objective and subjective sleep. Our second objective was to evaluate attention control's role in predicting psychological outcomes in peripartum women.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A cohort of 224 pregnant women completed the Antisaccade task, a measure of attention control, during the third trimester and again four months post-delivery. Objective and subjective sleep were measured using actigraphy and sleep diaries. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing depression, anxiety, emotion regulation, and maternal perceptions of the mother-infant relationship.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Attention control improved significantly from late pregnancy to postpartum (β = 0.91, p < .001). While objective sleep was not linked to attention control, poorer between-person subjective sleep was associated with better postpartum attention control (β = - 0.84, p < .001). Better within-person subjective sleep was associated with higher attention control during pregnancy (β = 0.87, p < .001), but a negative interaction with time (β = -1.5, p = .001) suggests a reverse trend postpartum. Attention control did not predict postpartum psychological outcomes.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Cognitive recovery may occur by four months postpartum, although the observed improvement could reflect practice effect. The novel finding of a negative association between subjective sleep and postpartum attention control may indicate better adaptation to perceived poor sleep or heightened attunement to sleep fluctuations in women with higher attention control. Attention control did not predict psychological outcomes, suggesting other factors may be more critical for maternal coping postpartum.</p>","PeriodicalId":8369,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Women's Mental Health","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Archives of Women's Mental Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-024-01530-5","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose: Given research inconsistency, this study aimed to assess whether attention control changes from pregnancy to postpartum, focusing on the moderating role of maternal objective and subjective sleep. Our second objective was to evaluate attention control's role in predicting psychological outcomes in peripartum women.
Method: A cohort of 224 pregnant women completed the Antisaccade task, a measure of attention control, during the third trimester and again four months post-delivery. Objective and subjective sleep were measured using actigraphy and sleep diaries. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing depression, anxiety, emotion regulation, and maternal perceptions of the mother-infant relationship.
Results: Attention control improved significantly from late pregnancy to postpartum (β = 0.91, p < .001). While objective sleep was not linked to attention control, poorer between-person subjective sleep was associated with better postpartum attention control (β = - 0.84, p < .001). Better within-person subjective sleep was associated with higher attention control during pregnancy (β = 0.87, p < .001), but a negative interaction with time (β = -1.5, p = .001) suggests a reverse trend postpartum. Attention control did not predict postpartum psychological outcomes.
Conclusion: Cognitive recovery may occur by four months postpartum, although the observed improvement could reflect practice effect. The novel finding of a negative association between subjective sleep and postpartum attention control may indicate better adaptation to perceived poor sleep or heightened attunement to sleep fluctuations in women with higher attention control. Attention control did not predict psychological outcomes, suggesting other factors may be more critical for maternal coping postpartum.
期刊介绍:
Archives of Women’s Mental Health is the official journal of the International Association for Women''s Mental Health, Marcé Society and the North American Society for Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynecology (NASPOG). The exchange of knowledge between psychiatrists and obstetrician-gynecologists is one of the major aims of the journal. Its international scope includes psychodynamics, social and biological aspects of all psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders in women. The editors especially welcome interdisciplinary studies, focussing on the interface between psychiatry, psychosomatics, obstetrics and gynecology. Archives of Women’s Mental Health publishes rigorously reviewed research papers, short communications, case reports, review articles, invited editorials, historical perspectives, book reviews, letters to the editor, as well as conference abstracts. Only contributions written in English will be accepted. The journal assists clinicians, teachers and researchers to incorporate knowledge of all aspects of women’s mental health into current and future clinical care and research.