dr. Maurizio Orlandella

No causal link between abortion and mental health problems

An authoritative new study from researchers in Denmark, noteworthy for its exceptionally strong methodology, confirms what the best scientific evidence has long shown—that there is no causal link between abortion and mental health problems.

The new study, “Induced First-Trimester Abortion and Risk of Mental Disorder,” by Trine Munk-Olsen and colleagues, was published in the January 27, 2011, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study succeeds in addressing several critical limitations that have afflicted some other studies that purport to show causation between abortion and subsequent mental health problems. It can be viewed as unusually rigorous for this type of research for several reasons.

• The sample was very large, comprising 84,620 women who had first-time, first-trimester abortions between 1995 and 2007.

• It did not rely on retrospective self-reports from women, who typically underreport abortions. Instead, it was based on complete patient medical registries, which include virtually all mental health disorders, births and abortions experienced by the Danish population: the Danish Psychiatric Central Register and the Danish National Register of Patients.

• The study has strong controls for women’s mental health prior to abortion, a critical factor that many other studies do not control for sufficiently, if at all.

The study found no higher rate of mental health problems among Danish women in the 12 months following an abortion than in the nine months prior to the procedure.

Not all studies on the mental health impact of abortion are created equal. In fact, according to the American Psychological Association, methodological flaws are “pervasive in the literature on abortion and mental health.” Antiabortion activists often attempt to capitalize on the fact that the public and many policymakers cannot distinguish between studies that allow legitimate conclusions to be drawn about the effects of abortion and those that show only associations between abortion and mental health outcomes.

Antiabortion activists have relied on questionable science in their efforts to push inclusion of the concept of “postabortion syndrome” in both clinical practice and law. This latest study strongly confirms the existing body of methodologically sound evidence in clearly refuting the idea that abortion causes harm to women’s mental health. The body of evidence is now so robust that researchers should consider shifting their focus to related issues that might be more valuable to explore, such as the factors that cause women to experience mental health problems in the first place

New Research Says Birth Control Pills Do Not Cause Weight Gain

Secondo una ricerca condotta al "Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University", la comune credenza che la contraccezione orale possa causare un aumento del peso corporeo risulta falsa. I risultati dello studio sono pubblicati online e successivamente lo saranno nel numero di febbraio 2011 del "Journal Human Reproduction".

Basta una semplice ricerca su google per verificare che l'aumento di peso con l'uso di pillola sia un argomento particolarmente dibattuto, come affermato dalla ricercatrice Alison Edelman, M.D., dottoressa e ricercatrice del Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at OHSU e prima autrice dello studio.

"Issues surrounding weight are hard to study in humans, and the research thus far has been insufficient to demonstrate whether or not oral contraceptives cause weight gain or loss. But this is an extremely important question as concern about weight gain is one of the main reasons why women may avoid or discontinue birth control, which in turn places them at greater risk for an unplanned pregnancy."

To conduct their research, scientists and physicians studied a group of rhesus macaque monkeys at the OHSU Oregon National Primate Research Center for almost a year. Rhesus monkeys were used in this study because their reproductive system is nearly identical to humans. However, unlike human studies, more variables can be controlled and measured - such as exact food intake - to provide more meaningful data.

At the beginning of the study, half the animals were obese and half were normal weight. During the eight-month treatment period, animals received doses of oral contraceptives, adjusted to the weight of the animals so that it mimicked dosage in humans.

Researchers tracked weight, food intake, activity levels, body fat and lean muscle mass. At the study's conclusion, the normal weight group remained weight stable whereas the obese group lost a significant amount of weight (8.5%) and percent of body fat (12%) due to an increase in basal metabolic rate. No changes were seen in food intake, activity or lean muscle mass for either group.

"This study suggests that worries about weight gain with pill use appear to be based more on fiction than on fact," said Judy Cameron, Ph.D., senior author of the paper and a researcher at the primate center.

"Additionally, there may be a differential affect depending on your starting weight - heavier individuals who keep their diet stable may see a weight loss with pill use. Most likely, the reason why this belief continues to exist is that the weight gain that seems to occur with age is being attributed to these medications.

We realize that research in nonhuman primates cannot entirely dismiss the connection between contraceptives and weight gain in humans, but it strongly suggests that women should not be as worried as they previously were."

The research was funded by the Society for Family Planning.

Source: Medical News Today, 21 January 2011