Trauma—either as a one-time event or prolonged exposure— can cause a wide range of mental health issues including flashbacks, sleep disturbances, anxiety, grief and substance misuse. Healing from trauma can take time and work, but throughout, a positive shift can happen—this experience is known as post-traumatic growth.

A new study has found that trauma-exposed Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and externalizing psychiatric disorders, like substance use disorders and antisocial personality disorder, are at greater risk for early death.

The question of which physical and cognitive effects can be conclusively associated with Long COVID has been notoriously difficult for researchers to pin down. A new Brookings report reveals that nearly 4 million Americans have been so impacted by Long COVID that they remain unable to return to work, with similar statistics reported in other parts of the world. The continued severity of the problem has put pressure on scientists to accelerate efforts to better understand the disease, and on health, agencies to offer more systemic support for its sufferers.

Emotional detachment refers to the inability of a person to fully engage with feelings of their own or those of others. It may interfere with a person’s physical, psychological, emotional, and social development. However, being able to disconnect from one’s feelings may be helpful for people experiencing stressful situations. This article discusses the signs and symptoms, as well as the potential causes, of emotional detachment.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)—a non-invasive, painless electrical brain stimulation delivered via electrodes placed over the head—has the potential to improve chronic pain. But the treatment usually involves trips to a medical facility where the equipment is used. In a pilot study led by Dr. Melba Hernandez-Tejada of the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina, VA researchers have shown that an entirely home-based transcranial stimulation treatment for chronic pain is feasible and could help Veterans with co-occurring pain and PTSD. 

Study reveals altered brain dynamics in those with unresponsive arousal syndrome, previously known as “vegetative state”, and in those with minimally conscious state.

CIA physician Dr. Paul Andrews was one of the first people sent to Havana, Cuba, to investigate a spate of mysterious health incidents that were impacting embassy and agency personnel in 2017 when he was struck by the same set of debilitating symptoms, he told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in his first public interview for a CNN Special Report: “Immaculate Concussion: The Truth About Havana Syndrome.”

Among the long-term symptoms associated with COVID-19 investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cognitive dysfunction has emerged as one of the most persistent. 

A company started by two scientists has developed a hard hat that will do a better job protecting workers from on-the-job brain injuries.