Women are far more likely to suffer an early death if they develop depression during or after pregnancy, a new Swedish study has found. Women who developed what’s known as “perinatal” depression were generally twice as likely to die as women who didn’t experience the mood disorder, researchers reported Jan. 10 in the BMJ. They also are six times more likely to commit suicide than women without this form of depression, researchers found. The death risk tied to pregnancy-related depression peaks in the month after a woman is diagnosed with the disorder, but it can remain elevated nearly two decades later, results show. “I believe that our study clearly shows that these women have an elevated mortality risk, and that this is an extremely important issue,” said study co-author Qing Shen, an affiliated researcher at the Karolinska Institute. Perinatal depression is fairly common, affecting 10% to 20% of all pregnant women, the researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 86,500 Swedish women diagnosed with perinatal depression, which can occur either during pregnancy or up to a year following childbirth. Six to eight weeks after childbirth, all Swedish women are asked to complete a screening tool used to detect signs of depression. The research team compared those females to more than 865,000 women of the same age who had…  read on >  read on >

Nearly half of homes tested in a new study contained toxic byproducts of cigarette smoke. Known as thirdhand smoke, these tobacco byproducts remained on furniture, floors and bric-a-brac.  Researchers who tested homes of 84 children found nicotine on surfaces in every home, and nearly half had detectable levels of a tobacco-specific carcinogen called NNK. “This is critically important and concerning,” said lead author Ashley Merianos, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati and affiliate member of the Thirdhand Smoke Research Consortium.  The study found that NNK levels on surfaces and in vacuumed dust were similar. Merianos said that indicates that both can be similar sources of thirdhand smoke exposure for kids. “This research highlights that home smoking bans do not fully protect children and their families from the dangers of tobacco,” she added in a university news release. Researchers also found that kids in lower-income households and those in homes that allowed indoor smoking were exposed to higher levels of NNK and nicotine on surfaces. But both were also detected in homes with voluntary bans on indoor smoking. Researchers said that underscores the persistence of thirdhand smoke pollutants on surfaces. The findings were recently published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. More information Learn more about the health effects of thirdhand smoke at Thirdhand Smoke Resource Center. SOURCE: University of Cincinnati,…  read on >  read on >

The number of American teens who smoke or have even tried smoking has dropped dramatically compared to a generation ago, with less than 1% now saying they light up cigarettes daily. Researchers tracked data on students in grades 9 through 12 from 1991 through to 2021. They report a 16-fold decline in daily cigarette use — from 9.8% of teens saying they smoked daily in 1991 to just 0.6% by 2021. Even trying smoking is clearly unpopular now: Whereas about 70% of teens surveyed in 1991 said they had “ever” smoked, that number fell to less than 18% by 2021, a fourfold decline. “The substantial decrease in cigarette use among U.S. adolescents spanning three decades is an encouraging public health achievement,” said senior study author Panagiota Kitsantas, of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. “This decrease underscores the importance of continued vigilance, research and intervention to further reduce tobacco use and its associated harms,” Kitsantas said in a university news release. She’s chair of population health and social medicine at the university’s Schmidt College of Medicine. The findings are based on federal government surveys comprising more than 226,000 teens. The study is published online in the winter 2023 issue of the Ochsner Journal. Other findings from the study: “Frequent” smoking (on at least 20 days of the prior month) fell from 12.7% of teens in…  read on >  read on >

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin remains hospitalized while recovering from complications related to a December surgery to treat prostate cancer, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. His doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Dr. John Maddox, director of trauma medical, and Dr. Gregory Chesnut, director of the Center for Prostate Disease Research, said the 70-year-old is expected to make a full recovery once his complications have cleared. “His prostate cancer was detected early, and his prognosis is excellent,” the doctors said in a hospital statement.  Austin first underwent minimally invasive prostate cancer surgery on Dec. 22 following routine screening in November, his doctors said. He went home the next day to recover. But on New Year’s Day, “Austin was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with complications from the December 22 procedure, including nausea with severe abdominal, hip, and leg pain,” his doctors said. “Initial evaluation revealed a urinary tract infection. On January 2, the decision was made to transfer him to the ICU for close monitoring and a higher level of care.” “Further evaluation revealed abdominal fluid collections impairing the function of his small intestines. This resulted in the backup of his intestinal contents, which was treated by placing a tube through his nose to drain his stomach,” the doctors said. “He has progressed steadily throughout his stay,” Maddox and Chesnut added.…  read on >  read on >

Could the immune system play a role in why some women become depressed during and after a pregnancy?   Swedish researchers have uncovered a “bidirectional relationship” between pregnancy-linked depression and autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis and celiac disease. In other words, women who experienced depression specific to a pregnancy were more prone to developing these illnesses, and women who already had an autoimmune disease were more likely to develop pregnancy-linked depression, the study found. “Our study suggests that there’s an immunological mechanism behind perinatal depression and that autoimmune diseases should be seen as a risk factor for this kind of depression,” concluded study lead author Emma Bränn. She’s a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system goes awry and begins attacking healthy tissue. In their research, Bränn’s group analyzed data on 1.3 million pregnancies in Sweden between 2001 and 2013.  A little more than 55,000 women in the database had developed depression during their pregnancy or within a year of delivery. Looking at the women’s health histories, the researchers found that those who’d been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease were 30% more likely to develop pregnancy-linked depression, compared to women without such diagnoses. The reverse was also true: Women with pregnancy-linked depression were 30% more likely to develop…  read on >  read on >