EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-May-2025 11:08 ET (1-May-2025 15:08 GMT/UTC)

23-Jan-2025

AI judged to be more compassionate than expert crisis responders: Study

University of Toronto
Peer-Reviewed Publication

According to new U of T Scarborough research, artificial intelligence (AI) can create empathetic responses more reliably and consistently than humans, even when compared to professionals whose job relies on empathizing with those in need.

Journal: Communications Psychology

23-Jan-2025

Study tracks physical and cognitive impairments associated with long COVID

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Two-thirds of people with post-COVID-19 syndrome have persistent, objective symptoms – including reduced physical exercise capacity and reduced cognitive test performances – for a year or more, with no major changes in symptom clusters during the second year of their illness, according to a new study published January 23^rd in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Winfried Kern of Freiburg University, Germany, and colleagues.

Journal: PLOS Medicine

23-Jan-2025

Child mortality has risen since pandemic, new study shows

University of Bristol
Peer-Reviewed Publication

While child deaths in England fell temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have now risen to new heights, a new study from researchers at the University of Bristol and based on unique National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) data has found.

Journal: PLOS Medicine
Funder: National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) Programme, National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West)

23-Jan-2025

U of M Medical School study highlights financial burden of medical equipment on cancer survivors

University of Minnesota Medical School
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Published in JAMA Network Open, a University of Minnesota Medical School research team examined the financial burden of different medical services — including outpatient care, inpatient care, prescription drugs and physical therapy — on cancer survivors.

Journal: JAMA Network Open
Funder: Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

23-Jan-2025

Boosting this molecule could help retain muscle while losing fat

Salk Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With the recent surge in popularity of weight loss drugs like Ozempic, altogether called GLP-1s, there has been renewed scientific interest in understanding how our bodies regulate muscle growth. Salk scientists have linked the protein BCL6 to the maintenance of muscle mass and further suggested that BCL6-boosting therapeutics could help GLP-1 users retain muscle while losing fat. Similar therapies could also be used to treat other populations prone to muscle loss, such as older adults and patients with systemic diseases like sepsis or cancer.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

23-Jan-2025

Researchers track sharp increase in diagnoses for sedative, hypnotic and anxiety use disorder in young adults

Rutgers University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The prevalence of diagnosed disorders from recurrent use of sedative, hypnotic and antianxiety medications in adolescents and young adults has increased sharply since 2001, according to Rutgers Health researchers.

Their study, published in Addiction, examined diagnoses of these disorders in adolescents and young adults between 2001 to 2019.

Journal: Addiction

23-Jan-2025

Communities of color face greater barriers in accessing opioid medications for pain management

Weill Cornell Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Non-white communities had significantly less access to opioid medications commonly prescribed for moderate to severe pain than white communities over the decade beginning in 2011, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.

Journal: Pain