Healio (4/24, Oldt) reports, “Adults with mental illness were significantly more likely to smoke, compared with adults without any mental illness,” SAMHSA researchers found after analyzing “data from the 2012 to 2014 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health.” The study revealed that “adults with mental illness were more likely to report past-month cigarette use, compared with those without mental illness (33.3% vs. 20.7%).” The data can be seen here.

Related Links:

— “Smoking more common in adults with mental illness,” Amanda Oldt, Healio, April 24, 2017.

Healio (4/21, Oldt) reported, “Moderate-severe menopausal vasomotor symptoms were independently and significantly associated with moderate-severe depressive symptoms in women aged 40 to 65 years,” researchers found after conducting “a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of 2,020 Australian women aged 40 to 65 years,” then adjusting for confounding factors. The findings were published online March 6 in the Journal of Women’s Health.

Related Links:

— “Severe hot flashes increase risk for depression,” Worsley R, et al., Healio, April 21, 2017.

The CBS Evening News (4/18, story 9, 1:15, Pelley) reported, “Studies have shown that pregnant women who take antidepressants are more likely to have children with autism.” Now, research looks into whether the medication is causing this.

TIME (4/18, Park) reports that in two studies, investigators “found that other factors, including genes linked to mental illness, may be more strongly associated with autism than exposure to antidepressants.” One study “analyzed data from more than 1.5 million children whose mothers reported on whether they used antidepressants during pregnancy,” while the other study examined “more than 35,000 births and also compared rates of autism among brothers and sisters whose mothers used antidepressants during some pregnancies but not others.” The studies, both of which were published April 18 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Related Links:

— “Does Taking Antidepressants During Pregnancy Cause Autism?,” Alice Park, Time, April 18, 2017.

Reuters (4/17, Seaman) reports, “Antidepressant use right before and during pregnancy may be linked with a higher risk of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children,” researchers concluded after examining data from 10 studies. The findings of the review were published online April 17 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Anti-depressant use before, during pregnancy tied to autism risk,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, April 17, 2017.

HealthDay (4/17, Preidt) reports that research published in online in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, indicates “cervical cancer screening rates are much lower among women with severe mental illness than among other women.” Investigators looked at 2010-11 California Medicaid data. The data indicated “that 20 percent of women with severe mental illness were screened for cervical cancer.” However, “42 percent of women in the general population received screening.”

Related Links:

— “Just 1 in 5 Mentally Ill Women Gets Cervical Cancer Screenings,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 17, 2017.