News & Headlines

Long COVID is a brutal illness without a known mechanism or cure. Far from being psychosomatic in nature, a new study adds weight to the idea that this misunderstood disease is very much biological.

In a new study, Oregon Health & Science University researchers find that women veterans who had recently attempted suicide were more likely than men to feel social rejection and betrayed by military institutions. They also reported feeling less independent and compassionate toward themselves. The findings, recently published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, suggest that women veterans may be at higher risk of repeat suicide attempts.

Did you know that research has showed that women sustain more frequent and more severe head and brain injuries in sports, including horse riders, than their male counterparts? Ongoing research is evidencing that women’s cervical spine and neck strength have a considerable impact on the outcome of a brain injury, due to the way that the head moves during an accident, a fall or a collision. This results in the brain moving differently, and consequently impacting the level of damage at a neuronal level. So if you fall off your horse or are kicked in the head, be aware that due to the difference in neck strength, there could potentially be a head injury risk.

Todd Nelson could feel it coming on. And he began to run. He was going dark again, retreating to a place where he would curl into a fetal position with his thumb in his mouth, watching from behind closed eyes as his personal reel of horror unspooled. Sights and sounds from three decades of firefighting cued up — shrieks from behind an impenetrable wall of flame, limbs severed in car accidents and the eyes of the terrified and the dead he was meant to save.

A team of researchers led by Penn Medicine will investigate the link between traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) over the next five years with a $10 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). 

Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found that young children between the ages of 5 and 12 were more likely to experience a concussion from recreation and other non-sport activities, yet those injuries were not seen by specialists until days later compared with sports-related concussions in the same age group. This study suggests concussion research is needed for children outside of sports and that providing more resources and education to those providers diagnosing most concussions in this age group, particularly emergency departments and primary care, could reduce inequities in concussion care regardless of the mechanism of injury by which these patients experience concussions. The findings were recently published by the Journal of Pediatrics.

A government watchdog will probe the Pentagon's efforts to identify, treat and prevent traumatic brain injuries caused by blast exposure. The Government Accountability Office has accepted a request from two dozen lawmakers in both parties and chambers of Congress to conduct a review in response to their concerns that the Pentagon is not taking the issue seriously enough, according to a copy of a letter the GAO sent to the lawmakers that was obtained by Military.com.

A critical part of the brain linked to risks for anxiety later in life – the left amygdala – was significantly smaller by volume in babies of mothers who reported stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new manuscript published in JAMA Network Open. The right hippocampus, which governs spatial, visual and verbal memories, and the white matter were also reduced in children whose mothers reported stress. The research from Children’s National Hospital provides mounting evidence that children of the pandemic, even those far too young to understand it, need ongoing assessments of developmental or mental health support later in life.

Dr. John Kirwan, Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center, is serving as a co-principal investigator on the Pathobiology in RECOVER of Metabolic and Immune Systems, or PROMIS, study. The study has been awarded more than $802,000 by the National Institutes of Health to identify potential causes of Long COVID. "The PROMIS study will help us better understand what is driving Long COVID," Dr. Kirwan said. "In the early days of the pandemic, Pennington Biomedical directed its resources to address the urgent health needs of our population. Now with estimates that more than 25 percent of people in the U.S. who had COVID have experienced Long COVID at some point, there is a need for Pennington Biomedical scientists to find the causes and potential cures of this debilitating syndrome. It is well known, for example, that those with diabetes and obesity are at a higher risk for Long COVID. Following our mission, this is one more reason for Pennington Biomedical to pursue measures in treating these chronic diseases as well."

A vote against using MDMA as part of therapy for PTSD has provoked a powerful backlash among researchers who study psychedelic drugs. Some 13 million Americans struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Existing therapies only bring relief for a fraction of patients, and new treatments are sorely needed, according to psychiatrists wrestling with the scale of the problem. So, there was distinct disappointment when an advisory committee at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted earlier this month against a therapy that many had hoped could offer the first new treatment for PTSD in 25 years.

Soldiers are more likely than their civilian peers to die by suicide. Many people wrongly believe this is because of combat trauma, but in fact the most vulnerable group are soldiers who have never deployed. The Army’s suicide rate has risen steadily even in peacetime, and the numbers now exceed total combat deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A Times investigation into the death of Specialist Austin Valley, stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas, found that mental-health care providers in the Army are beholden to brigade leadership and often fail to act in the best interest of soldiers.