History of Peripartum Depression Moderates the Association Between Estradiol Polygenic Risk Scores and Basal Ganglia Volumes in Major Depressive Disorder

The neurobiological differences between women who have experienced a peripartum episode and those who have only had episodes outside of this period are not well understood. Our findings demonstrate that women who have experienced a peripartum episode are neurobiologically distinct from women who have no history of PPD in a cluster within the basal ganglia, an area important for motivation, decision making, and emotional processing. Furthermore, we show that the genetic load for estradiol has a differing effect in this area based on PPD status, which supports the claim that PPD is associated with sensitivity to sex steroid hormones.