Cognitive biases in processing infant emotion by women with depression,anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder in pregnancy or after birth: A systematic review

Perinatal psychological problems such as post-natal depression are associated with poor mother–baby interaction, but the reason for this is not clear. One explanation is that mothers with negative mood have biased processing of infant emotion. This review aimed to synthesise research on processing of infant emotion by pregnant or post-natal women with anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Systematic searches were carried out on 11 electronic databases using terms related to negative affect, childbirth and perception of emotion. Fourteen studies were identified which looked at the effect of depression, anxiety and PTSD on interpretation of infant emotional expressions (k = 10), or reaction times when asked to ignore emotional expressions (k = 4). Results suggest mothers with depression and anxiety are more likely to identify negative emotions (i.e., sadness) and less accurate at identifying positive emotions (i.e., happiness) in infant faces. Additionally, women with depression may disengage faster from positive and negative infant emotional expressions. Very few studies examined PTSD (k = 2), but results suggest biases towards specific infant emotions may be influenced by characteristics of the traumatic event. The implications of this research for mother–infant interaction are explored.     

A Mild Panic? Media Accounts of Kratom

ABSTRACT

Historically, the news media has been a primary participant in the construction of moral panics surrounding various drugs and their users. The current study utilizes the moral panic framework to depict how the media represents a drug new to the Western world: kratom. Kratom, a traditional plant-based substance from South Asia, came in to the public’s view when the DEA announced its intent to emergency schedule the substance, citing a threat to public health. We use content analysis to explore how kratom and kratom use is depicted in a sample of news media articles gathered from an online source. Broadly, we find that the news media seems to report more information about the substance and less hyperbole than is typical of media reports on drugs in the past.