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Left amygdalar volumes were smaller in newborns whose mothers had high psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, a small cross-sectional study suggested.

Infants of mothers with elevated maternal distress during the pandemic had median reductions in white matter, right hippocampal, and left amygdala volumes compared with neonates whose mothers had low distress levels, reported Nickie Andescavage, MD, of Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., and co-authors.

"The findings did generally corroborate our previous work regarding prenatal stress, anxiety, and depression, but also unveiled an increased susceptibility of the amygdala to these changes during the pandemic," Andescavage wrote in an email to MedPage Today. Head over to MedPage Today to read more about it.