Eight weeks of mindfulness or cognitive behavioral therapy were associated with improved pain, physical function and quality of life and reduced daily opioid dose in adults with chronic low back pain that required treated with daily opioids, according to a new study led by researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine. This is one of the largest studies to date to evaluate mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy as treatment for opioid-treated chronic pain.

About The Study: In this cohort of Black women, living in disadvantaged neighborhoods was associated with a higher mortality from breast cancer, even after accounting for stage at diagnosis, treatments, and individual-level lifestyle factors. Community-level interventions to reduce environmental stressors and improve conditions in disadvantaged neighborhoods, including access to high-quality cancer care, may be critical to reducing racial disparities in breast cancer survival.

About The Study: While cardioprotective glucose-lowering therapies were not associated with an overall reduction in all-cause dementia, this meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials found that glucose lowering with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) was associated with a statistically significant reduction in all-cause dementia.

More than 7 million American adolescent girls ages 13 to 17 live in states with abortion bans, restrictive gestational limits or parental involvement requirements, according to Rutgers Health researchers.

MIT scientists find the protein IL-17 that fights infection also acts on the brain, inducing anxiety or sociability. This adds to evidence that immune molecules can influence behavior during illness.

About The Study: Invasive group A Streptococcus infections increased substantially in 10 U.S. states during a surveillance period from 2013 to 2022. Accelerated efforts to prevent and control group A Streptococcus are needed, especially among groups at highest risk of infection.

A new body of research suggests that by adopting a specific suicide prevention protocol called the Zero Suicide (ZS) Model health systems can reduce suicide rates among their patients by 25%. Over the course of eight years, researchers at Henry Ford Health and Kaiser Permanente examined implementation of the ZS Model in primary care and behavioral health settings. Previously, the method had only been studied at Henry Ford Health, the Detroit-based health system where the model was founded in 2001.