News & Headlines

An independent advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration rejected the use of MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder on Tuesday, highlighting the unparalleled regulatory challenges of a novel therapy using the drug commonly known as Ecstasy.

The risks of traumatic brain injuries in American football are well known, but some researchers have found that sports involving horses are also a leading cause. These injuries can be fatal and usually occur during falls of either the rider or both the horse and the rider. Last month, British event rider Georgie Campbell died after a fall while competing in the Bicton International Horse Trials in Devon, England. Her death has renewed focus on the perennial issue of safety in the sport.

Post-traumatic stress disorder closes people off. They withdraw — often reluctant to talk about what they’ve experienced and unable to trust others or themselves. But many leading treatments for the condition require just that. The treatments for PTSD — including several forms of psychotherapy and medication — are effective for many patients, but they don’t work for everyone. They can be expensive. Sometimes, they can be so distressing that patients stop the treatment before it’s complete.

No new treatment for PTSD has been approved for more than 20 years, and this one, using an illegal drug known as Ecstasy, has been closely watched.

Scotland will become one of the first countries in the world to acknowledge a difference between males and females in national concussion protocol, when new guidelines for sport are announced later this month. The groundbreaking move will see sportscotland refer to studies which identify a variation in risk and recovery. Currently, only Australia and New Zealand mention a difference between the sexes in national concussion guidelines.

Some 13% of older adults are diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to a study by UC San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Health Care System. These injuries are typically caused by falls from ground level. Researchers followed about 9,200 Medicare enrollees, whose average age was 75 at the start of the study, and found that contrary to other studies of younger people, being female, white, healthier and wealthier was associated with higher risk of TBI. The study was published in JAMA Network Open on May 31, 2024.

A recent study on soccer players found that heading a soccer ball can impair cognitive function and disrupt the organization of neural processes associated with this activity. The findings were published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Scientists have inserted a “window” into a patient’s skull to monitor their brain activity in real-time. An individual’s brain activity could be observed outside of the operating room with the help of a custom-made, ultrasound-transparent cranial window implant, which was given to an adult patient undergoing skull reconstruction surgery after a traumatic brain injury. While the patient was playing a video game and strumming a guitar, ultrasound was used to record brain activity, which was then mapped to specific cortical responses. This research establishes a foundation for future work toward using ultrasonic imaging through transparent skull replacement materials to understand better how the human brain works.

Low-level light therapy appears to affect healing in the brains of people who suffered significant brain injuries, according to a study published in Radiology. Lights of different wavelengths have been studied for years for their wound-healing properties. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) conducted low-level light therapy on 38 patients who had suffered moderate traumatic brain injury, an injury to the head serious enough to alter cognition and/or be visible on a brain scan. Patients received light therapy within 72 hours of their injuries through a helmet that emits near-infrared light.

The devastating prevalence of suicide among American Indian and Alaska Native veterans has not decelerated. In fact, the latest data from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows a historic rise. Now, Televeda, a group with a recently launched program to address that startling reality is hoping their work can offer an upstream approach to tackle the multilayered challenge.

Although service members know they may lose their lives in combat in service of their country, they may not expect to lose their lives – or those they love – to suicide. A 2021 study estimated that four times as many active duty service members and veterans died by suicide as died in battle since 9/11.

Military families are working to solve the "greatest challenge"—preventing veteran suicide—to commemorate Memorial Day this year. An average of 17 veterans died from suicide each day in 2020, according to a 2022 report from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). While this number has dropped in recent years, advocates say more work needs to be done to properly address mental health among veterans, whose experience overseas can cause lifelong challenges.