There are certain phrases that Wachuka Gichohi finds difficult to hear after enduring four years of living with long COVID, marked by debilitating fatigue, pain, panic attacks and other symptoms so severe she feared she would die overnight. Among them are normally innocuous statements such as, "Feel better soon" or "Wishing you a quick recovery," the Kenyan businesswoman said, shaking her head. Gichohi, 41, knows such phrases are well-intentioned. "I think you have to accept, for me, it’s not going to happen." Recent scientific studies shed new light on the experience of millions of patients like Gichohi. They suggest the longer someone is sick, the lower their chances of making a full recovery.

Some of the lowest-paid essential workers during the pandemic also suffered the most trauma. Nursing aides have had trouble getting healthcare officials to pay attention to their plight.

Intense stress can lead to fuzzy memories, which can lead to more generalized fear responses. Now, scientists may have just discovered why. A study in mice, published Friday (Nov. 15) in the journal Cell, suggests that stress hormones can distort how memories are recorded, leading to less-precise recollections and a future tendency to be unable to properly distinguish between safe triggers and threats. The new findings could help uncover new avenues to treat people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and generalized anxiety disorder.

Suicides in the U.S. military increased in 2023, continuing a long-term trend that the Pentagon has struggled to abate, according to a Defense Department report released on Thursday. The increase is a bit of a setback after the deaths dipped slightly the previous year. The number of suicides and the rate per 100,000 active-duty service members went up, but that the rise was not statistically significant. The number also went up among members of the Reserves, while it decreased a bit for the National Guard.

All it takes is one moment of rage to change lives forever. That‘s the message one Lincoln family is sharing through their documentary ’Forever Shaken.' The first version of that documentary followed four families impacted by Shaken Baby Syndrome, a form of Abusive Head Trauma. Now they’re releasing a new version to show the effects 10 years later. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Abusive Head Trauma is the leading cause of child abuse deaths in children under five. For the children that do survive, their lives change drastically.

The Concussion Center at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology is using visual art to capture the experiences of concussion patients. Ypsilanti, Michigan-based artist Avery Williamson, along with a team of students from the U-M Stamps School of Art & Design, recently completed an expansive mural at the center after interviewing patients and visualizing their road to recovery from concussion. The finished work grew from a desire by Steve Broglio, director of the Concussion Center, who had been thinking about incorporating art into the center’s public space as a nontraditional way to express the medical process.

A researcher at the University of Missouri has helped identify a new sign that could help diagnose concussions. Dr. Ross Zafonte, Executive Vice Dean for the University of Missouri School of Medicine, contributed to the study published in October which identified a new concussion sign known as SHAAKE. The acronym stands for Spontaneous Headshake After a Kinematic Event. “That individual is shaking their head usually between two to eight times per second. And we believe there are many reasons why that can be occurring,” Zafonte said. “Could be visual - could be people are trying to stabilize their visual field. It could be they're simply trying to clear their sensorium or get a sense of where am I and what's going on.”

After years of study, there's still no diagnostic test for blast wave injuries.

The pounding that sailors’ brains take from years of high-speed wave-slamming in the Special Boat Teams can cause symptoms that wreck their careers — and their lives.

New research data offers much-needed hope for veterans wrestling with combat-associated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study explores the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to address symptoms that persist despite standard treatments.