Women whose first pregnancy is unwanted and unplanned and who decide to terminate the pregnancy do not increase their risk of depression and might be less likely to suffer from the condition than women who proceed with an unwanted and unplanned pregnancy, according to a study published on Oct. 28 in the online version of the journal BMJ, London's Guardian reports. Nancy Russo of Arizona State University and Sarah Schmiege of the University of Colorado studied data on 1,247 U.S. women who were between the ages of 14 and 24 in 1979 and who either terminated or carried to term an unwanted and unplanned first pregnancy in the U.S. between 1970 and 1992. The analysis showed "no credible evidence" to support the theory that terminating an unwanted pregnancy puts women at a higher risk of depression, according to the researchers. "Some women who undergo abortion will also experience clinical levels of depression. However, other research has found pre-existing mental health is the more important predictor of mental health after pregnancy, regardless of how the pregnancy is resolved," they wrote (Meikle, Guardian, 10/28). The researchers also found that women who decided to undergo abortion were more educated, earned higher incomes and came from smaller families than women who delivered. All of the conditions previously have been shown to reduce the risk of depression, Scotland's Herald reports (Chiesa, Herald, 10/27). The study contradicts another study using the same data that found that terminating a pregnancy heightened a woman's risk of experiencing depression, BBC News reports. The researchers suggested the discrepancies between the two studies might be related to the analysis methods used. In the previous study, researchers evaluated women who said their pregnancies were unplanned, which could have included some pregnancies that were wanted. In the current study, the researchers only studied women who said they did not want to be pregnant (BBC News, 10/27).