Bans against smoking in public places have benefited people who work in bars, restaurants, or other places where exposure is high. Some have worried that the laws could shift smoking from the workplace into the home, harming children, so researchers from Scotland looked at hospital admissions for children with asthma to see whether they changed after smoking restrictions started in 2006. Children are more vulnerable than adults to tobacco smoke, which can aggravate asthma, because their bodies are smaller, they breathe faster, and have smaller air passages.
Daniel Mackay of the University of Glasgow and his team found that hospital admissions for asthma in children under 15 had been rising since 2000 at an average rate of 5.2 percent a year, but after the ban, admissions fell an average of 18.2 percent a year.
Rather than increasing smoking by adults in the home, the public smoking ban may have spurred people to quit at home, too, the authors suggest.
BOTTOM LINE: In Scotland, hospital admissions for children with asthma fell after a ban on smoking in public places, reversing a rise in hospitalizations before the law took effect.
CAUTIONS: The researchers counted only episodes of asthma that were severe enough to require hospital care. Also, the observational study can’t rule out other factors that might have been responsible for the decline in acute asthma attacks, such as less smoking among children themselves.
WHERE TO FIND IT: New England Journal of Medicine, Sept. 16
Acne, not acne drug, tied to suicidal thoughts
The prescription acne drug isotretinoin, better known as Acutane, has been tied to suicides in young people who were taking it for their skin. A Norwegian study questions whether it is the medication, or the acne itself, that is to blame for suicidal thoughts and depression.Jon Halvorsen of the University of Oslo led a team that surveyed more than 3,700 Oslo youths 18 or 19 years old. They answered questions about their skin and whether they had friends, were close with family members, did well at school, or were involved in romantic relationships. They were also asked if they had thought about suicide in the previous week.
About 13 percent of the teenagers said they had severe acne. Among this group, boys were less likely to have good relationships with family or friends, or to have had sexual intercourse, than teenagers who had little or no acne. Girls with severe acne were less likely to thrive in school than girls with little or no acne.
One in four with severe acne said they had mental health problems, twice the rate for teenagers without acne. Girls with severe acne were more than twice as likely as girls without acne to have had suicidal thoughts. For boys, the likelihood was three times higher.
These teenagers were not taking isotretinoin, although their condition was serious enough for treatment, the authors say. They concluded that acne by itself may be distressing enough to cause suicidal thoughts and other mental health problems.
BOTTOM LINE: Teenagers with severe acne were two to three times more likely than peers with little or no acne to have thought about suicide.
CAUTIONS: The study relied on teenagers’ own reports about their acne and their mental health. It also cannot prove acne caused their problems.
WHERE TO FIND IT: Journal of Investigative Dermatology, online Sept. 16
ELIZABETH COONEY 
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