Disease Update

Soda taxes can’t reverse the obesity epidemic

OPINION: They might be able to help, but only if well-designed and in combination with other policies

Sounding out the brain

Ultrasound isn’t just for images. Sonogenetics and other promising technologies let researchers use focused sound waves to control genes and entire cells deep in the tissues of living animals, without surgery.

The lasting anguish of moral injury

Psychologists are finding that moral code violations can leave an enduring mark — and may require new types of therapy

Reading the mind with machines

Researchers are developing brain-computer interfaces that would enable communication for people with locked-in syndrome and other conditions that render them unable to speak

Living with chronic illness: Why some cope and others don’t

What helps some people diagnosed with cancer, heart disease or diabetes stay relatively happy and healthy, while others are devastated? Psychologist Vicki Helgeson explains the traits and mindsets that can make the difference.

Making and breaking connections in the brain

The links between nerve cells, called synapses, allow us to learn and adapt, and hold clues to conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and more

Under-diagnosed and under-treated, girls with ADHD face distinct risks

It took a long time to figure out how attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder presents in girls and women and the problems it can create. A pioneering study helped change that, but the condition is still often missed.

Always look on the bright side of life

How a positive outlook may buffer us from stress and ward off health problems 

Alzheimer’s holds science at bay

A summary of “Update on Alzheimer’s Disease Therapy and Prevention Strategies” by W. Vallen Graham and coauthors, in the 2017 issue of the Annual Review of Medicine

The baby brain: Learning in leaps and bounds

VIDEO: Learn how the baby brain changes from gestation to toddlerhood, and what parents, teachers and policymakers can do to ensure kids are set up for success

Short-circuiting the suicide cascade

Psychologists are seeking better ways to cut the link between dire thoughts and fatal action. Among their strategies: individualized plans for pulling back from the brink, and limiting access to deadly means, especially guns.

In promoting health, when to tiptoe — and when to stomp?

Inform, incentivize, legislate: There’s a ladder of escalating approaches for changing citizens’ behavior — and nudges for every rung

The neurons that make us feel hangry

Neuroscientists think a cluster of cells in the brain that stimulate appetite could be a target for eating disorder therapies

Could the immune system be key to Alzheimer’s disease?

Increasing evidence suggests that chronic inflammation takes a toll on the brain over the course of a lifetime

The vicious cycle of food and sleep

OPINION: More than a third of Americans don’t log enough hours in bed, provoking serious impacts on their health. Diet is an important and under-recognized reason.

The imagination effect: A history of placebo power

Does online opioid treatment work?

The Covid-19 pandemic brought a sudden shift to virtual health care. That has increased access — and possibly outcomes, too — for patients with opioid use disorder.

Pandemic psychology: Nothing new under the Sun

OPINION: Our behavior during Covid-19 echoes that of individuals, societies and governments during past plagues. We can and should do better.

Sex, immunity and the brain

Differences between the immune systems of males and females — in particular, ones involving cells called microglia — might help explain why the risk for conditions such as autism and Alzheimer’s varies between the sexes

Can ketamine stop suicides? A neuroscientist’s perspective

VIDEO: Ketamine shows promise in treating clinical depression — but it also has a history as a recreational drug and a potential for abuse.