Reuters (11/28, Seaman) reports, “Pregnant women who get the flu…are not increasing their baby’s risk for an autism spectrum disorder (ASD),” research suggests.

The NPR (11/28, Shute) “Shots” blog reports that “getting a flu shot while pregnant” also appears not to increase the risk for ASD.

MedPage Today (11/28, Walker) reports researchers arrived at both conclusions after examining “data from 196,929 children in Kaiser Permanente Northern California inpatient and outpatient databases who were born from 2001 to 2010.” The findings were published Nov. 28 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Flu – or flu vaccine – in pregnancy not tied to autism in kids,”Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, November 28, 2016.

In a special piece for the Wall Street Journal (11/27, Agronin, Subscription Publication), geriatric psychiatrist Marc E. Agronin, MD, vice president for behavior health and clinical research at Miami Jewish Health, writes that memory loss in persons in their middle years most often may be attributed to factors besides Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.

Related Links:

— “Baby Boomers, Relax. It Probably Isn’t Dementia,”Marc Agronin, The Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2016.

Medscape (11/25, Harrison) reported, “Almost one-third of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) also have a diagnosis of depression,” researchers found after reviewing some “57 studies involving 20,892 patients.” The findings of the meta-analysis were published online Nov. 23 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HCP Live (11/23) reported that “family-based cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT] may be a key factor in treating children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have problems sleeping.” The findings of the 81-child study were published in the June issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental June issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental.

Related Links:

— “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children with Autism and Sleep Disorders, MD Magazine, November 23, 2016.

HealthImaging (11/23, Pearson) reported, “The shared environment of twins – possibly in utero as well as in childhood – ups the risk of brain incidental findings associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in both siblings even when only one of them has ASD,” researchers found after comparing magnetic resonance imaging “brain scans of 50 ‘case pairs’ of twin children in whom at least one twin had a diagnosis of ASD with the scans of 32 non-ASD control pairs.” The findingswere published online Nov. 22 in Autism Research.

Related Links:

— “MRI suggested as part of initial autism workup of twins, especially boys,”Dave Pearson, HealthImaging , November 23, 2016.