Study: Women Smokers More Likely to Develop Depression
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Women who smoke may be risking more than just damage to their bodies.
New Research suggests smoking cigarettes could lead to depression as well, Agence-France Presse reported.
The study, done by Australian researchers, found that women who smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day have almost double the risk of developing major depression compared to nonsmokers.
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The researchers tracked healthy women for more than a decade, giving them a psychiatric assessment at the end, according to the report.
"It was at this point we were able to determine if depression had developed and investigate whether or not smoking pre-dated the onset of depression," said study leader Professor Julie Pasco, in a news release.
Another study of nearly 700 healthy women revealed 15 percent of smokers went on to develop depression, compared to 6.5 percent of nonsmokers, AAP reported.
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In the United States, nearly 21 million women (18 percent) are smokers, The American Heart Association said on its Web Site.