Moderate-dose corticosteroid treatment found to improve patient recovery rates from sepsis

Cancer cells are known to reawaken embryonic genes to grow. A new study reveals the disease also hijacks the proteins, or "editors," that control how those genes are read.

Dengue has been a public health problem in the tropical world for decades and 2024 saw a global dengue surge, with more than 14 million cases and 10 thousand deaths reported worldwide—more than double the figures for dengue epidemics previously recorded in 2023 and 2019.

As we age, keeping our bodies active helps us stay healthier for longer and protects against chronic disease. We can also exercise our brains to prevent age-related mental decline with activities like reading aloud, writing by hand, and simple math exercises.

Every day, your brain makes thousands of decisions under uncertainty. Most of the time, you guess right. When you don't, you learn. But when the brain's ability to judge context or assign meaning falters, thoughts and behavior can go astray. In psychiatric disorders ranging from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder to schizophrenia, the brain may misjudge how much evidence to gather before acting—or fail to adjust when the rules of the world change based on new information.

For many years, the Indian Health Service (IHS) has been underfunded, leading to health and life expectancy disparities among Indigenous people, according to University of Oklahoma researchers. In an article in Health Affairs, OU researchers propose a novel trust fund solution to increase and sustain the funding level, with the ultimate goal of improving health care access and outcomes.

New study findings show the vast majority of small-scale quality improvement (QI) projects in surgery suffer from poor planning that can doom the effort from the start. To address this challenge, researchers have developed and tested a new tool, the Early Planning of Small-Scale Surgical Improvement (EPoSSI) framework, to guide surgeons and their teams through a comprehensive planning process.

Our noses are home to a variety of bacteria. Some, like Staphylococcus aureus or Streptococcus pneumoniae, can cause serious infections, especially when bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Other bacteria, like the lesser-known Dolosigranulum pigrum, are often found in healthy noses and may help keep bad bacteria at bay.

A smartphone app for muscle relaxation significantly reduced migraine-related disability in patients visiting the emergency department, a new study shows.

Approximately 20% of American adolescents experience a mental health disorder each year, a number that has been on the rise. Genetics and life events contribute, but because so many factors are involved, and because their influence can be subtle, it's been difficult for researchers to generate effective models for predicting who is most at risk for mental health problems.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that patients with violent injuries often face legal and financial needs that can have an impact on their recovery—and that providing legal help at the bedside can make a measurable difference.

An international research team led by a University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine investigator has revealed ultra-detailed intricacies in how nerve signals activate at the neuromuscular junction, a specialized synapse that connects motor neurons to skeletal muscle fibers.

Mental health disorders are more prevalent among incarcerated individuals than in the general population, and disorders related to substance use are especially prevalent among incarcerated women. Yet little research has focused on how women's mental health changes or persists following incarceration and during re-entry.

Researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine have recently found that a certain protein may have a large influence on how the immune system functions.

The doctor suggests opting for a treatment that is better for the environment. How do patients react to this? Doctors and psychologists together discovered that this has little impact on patient confidence in the doctor.

Wiring up the brain's trillions of circuit connections is an enormous job performed by a huge crew of molecules. Among the less understood members are circular RNAs, transcripts from DNA that assume a closed loop shape. A study by a team of neuroscientists centered at MIT shows that one such circular RNA from the Homer gene (circHomer1) takes on a significant and somewhat surprising role in how the developing brains of mice form connections (synapses) in the visual system.

A study published in Science reveals a cellular mechanism involved in the inheritance of genetic mutations. The study also points to a potential treatment that could reduce the risk of babies being born with serious, incurable mitochondrial diseases.

Oral cancer remains a serious health concern, often diagnosed too late for effective treatment, even though the mouth is easily accessible for routine examination. Dentists and dental hygienists are frequently the first to spot suspicious lesions, but many lack the specialized training to distinguish between benign and potentially malignant conditions.

As our hair goes gray and our muscles weaken with age, our immune system also changes. In particular, the stem cells that become blood or immune cells can develop mutations, potentially leading to cancers or other dysfunctions.