A new study published in the December issue of Biological Psychiatry finds people who had a low birth weight are more likely to experience depression and anxiety later in life.

"We found that even people who had just mild or moderate symptoms of depression or anxiety over their life course were smaller babies than those who had better mental health," said lead author Ian Colman of the University of Alberta in Canada.

The study suggests that as birth weight progressively decreases, it's more likely that an individual will suffer from mood disorders later in life.

The investigators used data from a wide-range survey that tracked more than 4,600 people born in Canada's Great Britain in 1946 for symptoms of anxiety and depression over a 40-year period.

The results support the theory that conditions in the womb do indeed have an effect on our future development.

"The idea that things that are happening in the womb might predict your health much later on in life is absolutely fascinating. And the public health implications of that are huge," said Colman.

"I have been asked by many people what the 'take-home message' of this study is, and I would say that, in the simplest terms, it is 'We should take better care of pregnant women.' The kind of stress that pregnant mothers are under has a significant long-term effect on the developing fetus." When a mother is really stressed, blood flow to the uterus is restricted and the fetus gets fewer nutrients, which tends to lead to lower birth weight, said the researchers.

(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency December 5, 2007)