HealthDay (1/28, Preidt) reports that even though “fewer Americans are smoking, the rates of psychiatric disorders among those who do – particularly more recent smokers – are on the rise,” the findings of a study published online Jan. 26 in Molecular Psychiatry suggest. After analyzing “data from 25,000 people born in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s,” researchers found that “nicotine-dependent smokers who began smoking in the 1980s were more likely than older smokers to have psychiatric conditions such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder or antisocial personality disorder.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Disorders Increasing for Younger Smokers,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, January 28, 2016.

According to Reuters (1/29, Rapaport), a study published online Jan. 29 in Pediatrics reveals that women who are obese while pregnant may have nearly double the likelihood of giving birth to a child with autism. When expectant mothers are both obese and diabetic, the risk for autism in their offspring may be quadrupled. Researchers arrived at these conclusions after examining data on some 2,734 pairs of mothers and babies tracked between 1998 and 2014.

Related Links:

— “Maternal obesity, diabetes tied to increased autism risk in kids,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, January 29, 2016.

CNN (1/25, Grinberg) reports that the American Psychiatric Association “has called for the development and testing of better methods to identify high-risk individuals who should be denied gun access, implying that current criteria under federal law related to mental illness are inadequate to serve as a basis for gun disqualification.”

In a position statement, the APA points out that “while research shows most people diagnosed with serious mental health conditions are never violent toward others, and most violent individuals do not suffer from these major mental disorders, merely having a diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder should not be the only basis for disqualification from firearms.”

Some “common mental health conditions – including personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder – tend to be associated with the risky mix of pathological anger with gun access,” the APA has found.

Related Links:

— “Gun violence not a mental health issue, experts say, pointing to ‘anger,’ suicides,” Emanuella Grinberg, CNN, January 25, 2016.

In a 2,500-word article titled “As Mass Killings Rise, How Can Sheriffs Keep Guns From Mentally Unstable?,” McClatchy (1/22, Gordon) reported, “Addressing the obstacles to keeping firearms away from mentally troubled people has emerged as an area of potential common ground among some stakeholders in the…debate over gun control.” But, “any attempt at compromises is sure to be complicated by thorny legal, ethical and political questions over how to balance mental health patients’ privacy, Americans’ Second Amendment rights…and the need to keep guns away from those posing a clear danger.”

Related Links:

— “As mass killings rise, how can sheriffs keep guns from mentally unstable?,” Greg Gordon, McClatchy, January 22, 2016.

In a nearly 1,600-word article, the Scientific American (1/25, Landhuis) reports, “Recent studies in North America, the UK and Europe suggest that dementia risk among seniors in some high-income countries has dropped steadily over the past 25 years.” Should that trend be “driven by midlife factors such as building ‘brain reserve’ and maintaining heart health, as some experts suspect, this could lend credence to staying mentally engaged and taking cholesterol-lowering drugs as preventive measures.”

Related Links:

— “Is Dementia Risk Falling?,” Esther Landhuis, Scientific American, January 25, 2016.