Time | Oct 2, 2026
The Six Flags theme park company announced on Tuesday that it would permanently close the X2 roller coaster at its Magic Mountain park in Valencia, Calif., following allegations of serious brain injuries linked to the ride.
The Conversation | Oct 2, 2026
But for those in eastern parts of Ukraine, which have been in a state of conflict since 2014 since Russia annexed Crimea and occupied large swaths of territory, conflict has been a constant and traumatic reality of life.
We often read of the Ukrainian people being “resilient in the face of conflict”. And so they are. But Gwendolyn Sasse and Deirdre MacManus believe this is unhelpful, as it can mask the trauma that has inevitably affected so many in this war-torn country.
The Conversation | Oct 2, 2026
Trauma is an unavoidable effect of war. Measuring the psychological effects of trauma in countries following war and conflict can be difficult. Obtaining a reliable picture of the situation in Ukraine – where, after four and a half years, there is no end to the conflict in sight – has proved even more challenging.
Military.com | Sep 25, 2026
Active-duty marines with higher levels of the natural anti-NMDAR1 antibody had a lower risk of developing these conditions.
The Washington Post (gift article) | Sep 25, 2026
Commonly caused by falls in older adults, concussions are linked to an 18 percent increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The New York Times (gift article) | Sep 25, 2026
Scientists are developing imaging techniques and blood tests that one day may enable doctors to identify the disease definitively in living patients.
The New York Times (gift article) | Sep 25, 2026
The lawsuits accuse the company of failing to adequately warn passengers about the risks to riders of the X2 coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
The War Horse | Sep 25, 2026
Being a Marine and later an international aid and human rights worker taught me how to read a room. Vietnam. Beirut. Somalia. Bosnia. Rwanda. Iraq. Afghanistan. Survival depended on noticing what other people missed. The shift in a crowd’s weight, the change in a voice, the silence that arrives before violence does. I came to believe I understood people and what they carried inside themselves.
Then I got Blue, and realized I had only been reading the surface.
Variety | Sep 25, 2026
Debby Ryan, the former Disney Channel star revealed during an interview that she suffered a “life-altering brain injury a few years ago” after a long history of battling migraines. The brain injury included “sustained shaking over a minute of time” and resulted in “pre-incident Debby and post-incident Debby,” the actor said.
Psychology Today | Sep 3, 2026
Sensory-based therapies may help the brain update to a felt sense of safety.
Psychology Today | Sep 3, 2026
PTSD may not fully explain the challenges some veterans face after returning home.
BBC | Sep 3, 2026
Thousands of women in the UK may be suffering from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after giving birth, a study has found.
Lead researcher and GP Dr Megan Foreman said the University of East Anglia (UEA) report showed one in 20 new mothers developed PTSD.
Women can suffer from the disorder after a difficult pregnancy or birth and symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety and persistent troubling thoughts.
NPR | Sep 3, 2026
Pebbles, Daisy and Rider walked onto the stage, led by their trainers. One by one, the trainers handed over the leashes.
For five veterans, it marked the start of a new partnership with a service dog.
The Conversation | Sep 3, 2026
Hundreds of first responders have told me they remember exactly how they felt during the World Trade Center attacks, even 25 years on.
They tell me that they remember not being able to think, see or smell anything. They could focus only on digging and pulling debris out of the way. They could not rest because those trapped beneath the rubble could not wait. Death was all around them, and they could only do as much as they could to hold it back.
These first responders may also need to recover human remains from the rubble. Surrounding these moments of intimate grief are dust, toxic fumes and cries for help. And this trauma takes a toll.
The New York Times (gift article) | Sep 3, 2026
New York Times reporting found that rescuse-boat crews in the Coast Guard showed signs of brain injuries from rough seas. A victim's daughter helped bring the issue to light.
NPR | Aug 27, 2026
Campers, ranging in age from 10 to 21, have been coming to Camp Cranium in Pennsylvania's rural Columbia County since 2008. Some of their brain injuries are so severe that they have to relearn basics, from talking to tying their shoelaces. Some use wheelchairs or crutches. But during a week at camp, they climb rock walls, swim and whiz down a zip line through the lush forest.
The existence of Camp Cranium, as well as a handful of others like it, is a response to a decades-long national trend: More people, including children, now survive crises resulting in brain injury than they did in the 1980s. But recently, efforts to track and prevent one type of brain injury — traumatic ones — are in flux after Congress didn't renew a law to further research and prevention of traumatic brain injuries, and the Trump administration fired hundreds of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including the team tracking traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs.
The New York Times (gift article) | Aug 25, 2026
The most notorious form of workplace illness in the United States might be black lung disease. Scientists say that 10 to 20 percent of coal miners who have worked 25 years or more have gotten it. It has long been considered an epidemic.
Imagine an American job that is less safe than that, where one in four workers (and maybe far more) ends up with an incurable, degenerative brain disease that withers the mind, sometimes after just a few years of exposure.
New research shows that 25 percent of all former N.F.L. players who died during a recent six-year period had the degenerative brain disease known as C.T.E. — a tally that does not include the nearly three-quarters of deceased players who were not tested for the disease, which can be diagnosed only posthumously.
The New York Times (gift article) | Aug 25, 2026
Two things are true: Football has a hold on American culture, and tackle football is not good for brains. Navigating that contradiction can be especially tricky for parents of children who play the game.
Twenty years into the era of C.T.E. awareness, parents know enough to be worried but perhaps not enough to avoid the risks entirely.
NPR | Aug 25, 2026
While professional football and the degenerative brain disease known as CTE have long been linked, true prevalence has remained an open question. A new study finds that, among former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021, at least a quarter had CTE.
The New York Times (gift article) | Aug 25, 2026
Since the degenerative brain disease known as C.T.E. was first scientifically linked to football about 20 years ago, and as hundreds of former professional football players have been diagnosed with the disease after their deaths, a haunting question has lingered:
Just how many N.F.L. players will end up with C.T.E.?
New data provides a sobering indication: At least one in four of all the people who have played in the N.F.L. might expect to end up with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to a study of hundreds of cases over a recent six-year period.
Stars and Stripes | Aug 20, 2026
Pentagon efforts to monitor the impact of blasts on service members’ brain health have improved in recent years, but programs meant to track their exposure and catch potential cognitive changes are under-resourced, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.
The Conversation | Aug 20, 2026
Recently, the Australian Football League (AFL) was rocked when it was revealed a Geelong player with a history of concussion had been asked to waive his legal rights to claim for any future brain trauma.
It was the latest in a series of concussion issues the AFL has had to address in recent years.
But the focus on concussion is problematic. Indeed, concussions are not necessarily the most pressing issue in contact sports when it comes to brain injuries.
The bigger concern should be chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Military.com | Aug 20, 2026
The Department of Defense (DOD) has launched a new research program to develop treatments for traumatic brain injuries (TBI).
A new program called Selective Harnessing of Intrinsic Neuroplasticity Engineering (SHINE) is pushing through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research arm of the DOD, developing non-invasive tools to "enhance the brain's ability to adapt and rewire itself" when it is injured.
CBC | Aug 20, 2026
Researchers in Alberta have been exploring how walking combined with psychotherapy can help in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They say the results of a recent clinical trial build on a growing body of evidence indicating the treatment is effective.
NPR | Aug 20, 2026
New research on the experiences of people who took magic mushrooms through Oregon's homegrown psychedelic industry — the first program of its kind in the U.S. — is offering a largely favorable picture.
