Main description:

Perinatal psychiatry is an emerging field that investigates the role of perinatal events - for example pregnancy complications and infections - in the development of neuropsychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia and mood disorders. Among the implicated pathological mechanisms, perinatal-induced inflammation seems to play a major role and is being considered as a potential target for therapeutic intervention.

Bringing together various approaches in the field (preclinical and clinical, epidemiological, immunological and genetic methods), the book discusses the available evidence, the putative mechanisms and the challenges ahead.

Contents:

Chapter 1. Perinatal psychiatry: ready for prime time?- Chapter 2. Pregnancy, stress response and neuroinflammation: effects on offspring and risk for psychiatric disorders.- Chapter 3. Epigenetic modifications of early life stress and adult life psychopathology.- Chapter 4. Perinatal HPA programming and adult psychopatholgoy.- Chapter 5. Intergeneration transmission of depression: focus on inflammation.- Chapter 6. Neonatal bacterial meningitis: mechanisms and implications for adult life psychopathology.- Chapter 7. Toxoplasmosis as risk factor for severe psychiatric disorders: clinical and pre-clinical evidence.- Chapter 8. A critical appraisal on the epidemiological evidence linking perinatal inflammation and risk of psychosis.- Chapter 9. Maternal Immune Activation as a Risk Factor for Schizophrenia: Evidence from Preclinical and Clinical Studies.- Chapter 10. Influences of sex and age in MIA-induced behavioral and neurobiological alterations.- Chapter 11. MIA and autism.- Chapter 12. Zika virus infection and neuropsychiatric complications.- Chapter 13. Placenta immunology: impact on fetus development.- Chapter 14. Placenta and cord blood as source of immune markers of offspring development and psychopathology.- Chapter 15. Cytokine model of cognitive function.