Stress may cause brain changes in prematurely born children
Prematurely born children can develop brain changes as a result of the stress experienced in neonatal intensive care unit, and should receive an aftercare to monitor brain function in the childhood, researchers reported. Stressors, ranging from diaper changes to intubation, can contribute to smaller brains and wrong motor behavior.
“Our results suggest that the stress exposure reduces the brain size in early preterm infants and long-term consequences are unknown,” study co-leader Dr. Terrie Inder, researcher at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri, said in a journal news release. “However, previous research has found that the brain volume at (term) birth is a predictor of neurodevelopmental outcomes later in childhood.”
In carrying out of the study researchers have started to observe 44 preterm infants, born before 30 weeks’ gestation within 24 hours of their birth. They have measured stress; these babies have been exposed, in limits from usual nursing to invasive medical procedures, and have estimated the brain structure and function, using MRI scans.
The daily average exposure of babies to stressors was the greatest within first two weeks after life. The increased stress has been connected with the reduced frontal and parietal brain width. The investigators also have found that brains of babies have changed a microstructure and functional connectivity within time petals. Babies have exposed to greater amounts of stress for the first two weeks of life, also had abnormal movement patterns and lower reflected set.
The researchers noted that more works is needed on stress exposure among premature infants to improve these results.
According to the background information in release of news, approximately 12 percent of pregnancies United States result in preterm births — before 37 weeks’ pregnancy, and up to 60 percent of these children shows social difficulties, cognitive and emotional problems.
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