13.04.2018Talk by Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ehlert

Research on stress provocation in pregnant women may increase our understanding of psychobiological mechanisms underlying the compensation of negative stress effects. Up to now this research has resulted in heterogeneous findings regarding the alterations of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system with respect to the on-going pregnancy and the type of stressor. In a series of studies we examined the endocrine and autonomic responses to (a) standardized psychosocial stress at different stages of pregnancy, (b) to an invasive diagnostic procedure (amniocentesis) during the second trimester, and (c) standardized psychosocial stress in 10 year old children whose mothers have received glucocorticoids (GC) during second trimester as a consequence of preterm labour compared to 10 year old children from healthy pregnancies.

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