Unwanted pregnancy, mental health and abortion: untangling the evidence

Unwanted pregnancy, mental health and abortion: untangling the evidence

Abortion policy is still contentious in many parts of the world, and periodically it emerges to dominate health policy debates. This paper examines one such debate in Australia centering on research findings by a New Zealand research group, Fergusson, Horwood & Ridder, published in early 2006. The debate highlighted the difficulty for researchers when their work is released in a heightened poli...

Abortion, unwanted childbearing, and mental health

Abortion and mental health: Evaluating the evidence.

The authors evaluated empirical research addressing the relationship between induced abortion and women's mental health. Two issues were addressed: (a) the relative risks associated with abortion compared with the risks associated with its alternatives and (b) sources of variability in women's responses following abortion. This article reflects and updates the report of the American Psychologic...

Abortion and mental health.

The December 2008 issue, with its original papers by Fergusson et al, 1 Dingle et al 2 and its commentaries, 3 was of great interest to us. Fergusson et al have overcome some of the methodological problems of previous studies. 4 Nevertheless, their latest study has weaknesses: the womens' abortion status is not verified objectively, only by self-report. There were 153 abortions in 117 women but...

Evidence Based Herbal Medicine and Mental Health

Many cultures have developed folk herbal remedies for various symptoms of mental illness. An evidence base now is being developed for some of these “alternative” herbal remedies. There has been an increase in the number and proportion of clinical trials of complementary medicine, which suggests a trend toward an evidence-based approach. This review presents the scientific information reg...