A new study shows that Alzheimer’s disease both starts earlier and moves faster in people with Down syndrome, The finding may have important implications for the treatment and care of this vulnerable group of patients. Nearly all adults with Down syndrome will develop evidence of Alzheimer’s disease by late middle age. The new findings were part of a study in Lancet Neurology comparing how Alzheimer’s develops and progresses in two genetic forms of the disease: a familial form known as autosomal-dominant Alzheimer’s disease, and Down syndrome-linked Alzheimer’s. “Currently, no Alzheimer’s the ..read more

New research digs into how TikTok’s algorithm is personalized and how users engage with TikTok based on its recommendations. TikTok’s swift ascension to the upper echelons of social media is often attributed to its recommendation algorithm, which predicts viewer preferences so acutely it’s spawned a maxim: “The TikTok algorithm knows me better than I know myself.” The platform’s success was so pronounced it’s seemed to spur other social media platforms to shift their designs. When users scroll through X or Instagram, they now see more recommended posts from accounts they don’t follow. Yet for ..read more

A new analysis of the economic toll of mental illness considers a host of adverse economic outcomes not considered in earlier estimates. Mental illness costs the US economy $282 billion annually, which is equivalent to the average economic recession, according to the new study coauthored by Yale University economist Aleh Tsyvinski. The first-of-its-kind study integrates psychiatric scholarship with economic modeling to better understand the macroeconomic effects of mental illness in the United States. The study was prepared as a working paper of the National Bureau of Research, a private nonp ..read more

In a new study, giving babies in the NICU acetaminophen instead of opioids following surgery correlated with fewer unplanned intubations and improved mortality rates. The study, published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, streamlined care following surgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center in 2019 through routine use of acetaminophen (Tylenol) for pain control and used a checklist to ensure patients were ready for extubation. To understand the impact of these changes, the researchers observed the rate of unplanned intubations over time using statistical process control charts ..read more

Nursing homes in disadvantaged communities are more likely to overmedicate residents with antipsychotics, especially homes that are understaffed, according to a new study. “The neighborhood in which a nursing home is located seems to influence how widely antipsychotics are used, even when they may not be indicated,” says Jasmine Travers, assistant professor at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing at New York University and senior author of the study published in JAMA Network Open. Antipsychotic medications are used to treat serious psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. These medications ..read more

A drug used to treat children with epilepsy prevents brain tumor formation and growth in two mouse models of neurofibromatosis type 1, according to a new study. Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic condition that causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body, including the optic nerves, which connect the eyes to the brain. The findings lay the groundwork for a clinical trial to assess whether the drug, lamotrigine, can prevent or delay brain tumors in children with NF1. The study appears in the journal Neuro-Oncology. “Based on these data, the Neurofibromatosis Clinical Trials Co ..read more

As solar energy development accelerates, a new survey explores how Americans actually feel about those large scale solar farms they see along the highway or near their neighborhood. The survey finds that for residents living within three miles of a large-scale solar (LSS) development, positive attitudes outnumber negative attitudes by almost a 3-to-1 margin. The researchers surveyed almost 1,000 residents living near solar projects—the first time a representative survey of this kind has been deployed nationally. Among these respondents, 42% support additional development in their community, c ..read more

Researchers have created a vaccine to fight antibiotic resistance. Driven by the overuse of antimicrobials, pathogens are quickly building up resistances to once-successful treatments. It’s estimated that antimicrobial-resistant infections killed more than 1 million people worldwide in 2019, according to the World Health Organization. “There are worries that at the rate things are going, in perhaps 20 or 30 years, few of our drugs will be effective at all,” says Xuefei Huang, a Michigan State University Research Foundation Professor in the chemistry and biomedical engineering departments. “Th ..read more

A new study explores the effect of climate change on the spread of malaria. Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite that spreads from bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. If left untreated in humans, malaria can cause severe symptoms, health complications, and even death. In tropical and subtropical regions where malaria is prevalent, scientists are concerned that climate warming might increase the risk of malaria transmission in certain areas and contribute to further spread. However, there is still much to learn about the relationship between temperature and the m ..read more

Rates of Salmonella in fecal and environmental samples are more prevalent on larger commercial farms than on smaller backyard farms, according to a comparison of differently sized poultry farms. Perhaps more importantly, multidrug resistance was found in Salmonella samples from both types of production systems, even though antibiotics are not used on backyard farms and are only used sparingly on commercial farms. The findings could help small and larger farms understand more about the spread of Salmonella in their respective systems. “We wanted to look at backyard broiler farms; broilers are ..read more