[tobacco prices & alcohol]
Psychiatry researchers at Washington University have published a study that links high tobacco prices to a reduction in alcohol consumption. First author Melissa J. Krauss notes a traditional link between smoking and drinking, reporting that the states with the highest cigarette prices—like New York at $8.54 per pack and Illinois at 6.35 per pack—saw the greatest declines in alcohol consumption. The price per pack in Missouri increased from $1.76 to $4.35. Researchers analyzed changes in cigarette prices and public smoking policies from 1980 to 2009 and looked at per capita alcohol consumption during that same period. The study was published online in the October 2014 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

[chemical exposure & menopause]
Findings reported online Jan. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE show that women whose bodies have high levels of chemicals found in plastics, personal-care products, household items and the environment experience menopause two to four years earlier than women with lower levels, according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine. The researchers looked at levels in blood and urine of 111 chemicals suspected of interfering with the natural production of hormones. This is the first study to explore broadly this association on a large scale, using a nationally representative sample of patients. Senior author Dr. Amber Cooper, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, says “Many of these chemical exposures … are in the soil, water and air. But we can educate ourselves about our day-to-day chemical exposures and become more aware of the plastics and other household products we use.” A decline in ovarian function can adversely affect fertility and lead to earlier development of heart disease, osteoporosis and other health problems.

[genes & jeans]
Researchers at Cornell University have identified a bacterial family, Christensenellaceae, that is highly inheritable and that appears to have a role in staying thin. The finding fuels more speculation that weight loss is harder for some individuals than others, based on genetic makeup. “Up until now, there had been no direct evidence that anything in the human gut is under that kind of genetic influence,” says lead author Ruth Ley. The importance of the ‘microbiome,’ as microorganisms are called, is creating serious questions about disruptions in gut bacteria caused by such pharmaceutical interventions as antibiotics. Other studies, including one at Washington University, have shown that altering gut bacteria in mice can change body weight adversely, leading to fatter mice. The Cornell study, published Nov. 6 in the journal Cell, is the first to show that genetics has a role in the bacteria that regulate weight gain. Continued research into the role of bacteria is underway as part of the Human Microbiome Project at the National Institutes of Health.

[brain changes]
Washington University researchers have found that a key brain region involved in emotion is smaller in children diagnosed with depression than in their peers. The region, the right anterior insula, may predict the risk of future depression as well. Published online Nov. 12 in JAMA Psychiatry, the study also found smaller right anterior insula in young children with pathological guilt. “For many years now, excessive guilt has consistently been a predictor of depression and a major outcome related to being depressed,” says first author AndrewC. Belden, Ph.D. Pathological guilt manifests itself as a sense of responsibility for things that have gone wrong, even if the subject had nothing to do with the misfortune. A previous, but related study found that children diagnosed with depression as preschoolers were 2.5 times more likely to be clinically depressed in later childhood than their preschool peers.