TL;DR: A 2026 randomized follow-up study in Maternal & Child Nutrition found no overall hair-cortisol difference at ages 9-11 after early-life small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplementation, but children whose mothers had 0-5 years of schooling had lower cortisol if they received SQ-LNS. Key Findings No overall cortisol shift: Usable hair cortisol data from 680 children showed …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Psychological Medicine found that sleep quality partly explained how early adolescent depression, anxiety, and psychotic-like experience distress were linked to later school grades and social problems in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Key Findings Scale: Researchers analyzed 6,754 adolescents with grade data and 7,550 adolescents with social-problems data across …
TL;DR: A 2026 observational study in International Journal of Legal Medicine found that cocaine dominated analytically confirmed recreational drug toxicity cases in one Bologna emergency department, while ketamine was common and all new-psychoactive-substance-positive patients had psychomotor agitation. Key Findings 110 ED patients: The observational study enrolled 110 patients with suspected acute recreational drug toxicity between …
TL;DR: A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in Journal of Medical Internet Research found that immersive virtual reality reduced anxiety and pain in randomized trials of gastrointestinal cancer care, but wide prediction intervals and low evidence certainty mean the effect may vary across clinical settings. Key Findings 14 RCTs: The review included 14 randomized controlled …
TL;DR: A 2026 preprint on medRxiv found that in-person cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and several shorter behavioral versions were linked with higher post-treatment insomnia remission than sleep hygiene or other control conditions, but the evidence was strongest for full CBT-I. Key Findings 77 randomized trials: The network meta-analysis included 77 RCTs with 5,731 adults …
TL;DR: A 2026 Nature Communications study found that chronic tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), an inflammatory cytokine, pushed human hippocampal progenitor cells toward type I interferon activity, lower neuroblast formation, and CXCR3-dependent T-cell recruitment. Key Findings 0.1-1 ng/ml TNF-alpha: The key experiments used chronic low-dose TNF-alpha exposures that the researchers considered biologically relevant for inflammatory …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging reported that adolescent bipolar II depression showed lower thalamic structural-functional connectivity coupling and glucose metabolism than adolescent major depressive disorder in a small exploratory positron emission tomography/MRI (PET/MRI) sample. Key Findings 28 adolescents scanned: The study compared 14 adolescents with bipolar …
TL;DR: A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in Journal of Medical Internet Research found that care robots showed a low-certainty reduction in neuropsychiatric symptoms, but six other pooled outcome domains did not reach statistical significance. Key Findings 34 randomized trials: The review included 34 randomized controlled studies across 17 countries, with 2,476 participants. 20 meta-analyzed …
TL;DR: A 2026 preprint in medRxiv reported that frailty and medical comorbidity predicted short-term outcomes more clearly than psychiatric history among older adults evaluated by consultation-liaison psychiatry teams in Spanish general hospitals. Key Findings 465 older inpatients: The prospective OLD-3 cohort included adults aged 65 years and older referred to consultation-liaison psychiatry in 10 Spanish …
TL;DR: A 2026 narrative review in International Journal of General Medicine argued that apathy in Alzheimer’s disease is tied to damage across motivation circuits, including the anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, locus coeruleus, and large-scale brain networks. Key Findings Apathy was framed as its own syndrome: The review separates reduced goal-directed behavior from depression, …
