Anxiety and depression are major global mental health challenges. Current treatments offer relief but remain unsatisfactory. New research reveals how stress, brain circuits, and genes interact, pointing to better diagnosis and personalized therapies. A recent review in the journal Science China-Life Sciences, led by Chinese researchers, highlights advances from neurobiology, genetics, and psychosocial studies to guide more precise and individualized treatments.

The “great unwinding” at the end of March 2023 meant that more than 25 million people — about 30 percent of all Medicaid recipients — were removed from the program. Now, in the first study of its kind, researchers have analyzed how the unwinding affected the payer mix for children’s emergency department visits in Texas. During the unwinding, about 1.2 million children in the state lost health insurance coverage.

People hesitant about getting a COVID vaccine were more likely to consider getting the shot after hearing a myth explained and corrected with facts, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Science has continually proven the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines, including the mRNA technology behind their development. However, vaccine hesitancy remains common.

Messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines entered the public consciousness when they were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna used the technology in developing their highly effective vaccines to fight the virus. 

Since then, scientists have been fine-tuning this vaccine delivery system to make it more effective. A Yale research team has now developed a technology that improves both the power of mRNA vaccines and their effectiveness against a host of diseases.

The new technology offers the promise of expanding the reach of these vaccines, including for the prevention of other diseases, including cancer and autoimmune diseases.

The results of their study are published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.