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MDD and Alcohol Use Disorder Polygenic Scores Add 4.88% Prediction

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A 2026 Add Health analysis found that combining major-depression and alcohol-use-disorder polygenic scores added 4.88% variance for comorbid MDD-AUD prediction, while same-trait scores added only 0.65% for MDD and 1.52% for AUD alone.1 The genetic signal is strongest where the clinical problem is hardest: depression plus alcohol-use disorder, not either diagnosis in isolation. Research Highlights …

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Alzheimer’s Smell Loss Linked to Early Locus Coeruleus Axon Damage

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A 2025 Nature Communications study found that Alzheimer’s-like mice lost locus coeruleus noradrenergic axons in the olfactory bulb early: 14% loss by 2 months, 27% by 3 months, and 33% by 6 months, before broader forebrain axon degeneration appeared.1 Early smell loss may reflect a specific brainstem-to-olfactory circuit injury, while smell testing still needs biomarker …

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Medulloblastoma Radiotherapy Changed Language fMRI Networks 80.7%

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A 2026 preprint involving 31 children and adolescents treated for medulloblastoma found that silent verb-generation fMRI separated pre- from post-radiotherapy scans with 80.7% leave-one-subject-out accuracy (p = 0.0149).1 The signal points to early cerebellar-cerebral language-network change, not yet to a proven long-term cognitive endpoint. Research Highlights Classifier performance was above chance: A linear support-vector machine …

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FTL1 Iron Protein Reversal Improved Cognitive Aging in Old Mice

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A 2025 Nature Aging study found that hippocampal ferritin light chain 1 (FTL1) rose with age in mouse neurons, tracked poorer cognition, and became experimentally reversible in old mice. This is an animal-mechanism result, not a human anti-aging treatment.1 Research Highlights FTL1 rose in aged hippocampus: Western blot data showed higher hippocampal FTL1 in aged …

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Teen Emotion-Regulation Profiles Predicted Anxiety and Depression

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A 2026 longitudinal study involving 951 adolescents found 5 emotion-regulation profiles, not the 3-profile structure the researchers expected, and the clearest mental-health separation came from the adaptive and maladaptive profiles.1 Teen coping looked less like a single good-versus-bad scale and more like a pattern of motives, strategies, and beliefs about whether those strategies work. Research …

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PReDicT Antidepressant Algorithm Cost-Effectiveness Was Uncertain

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A 913-person economic evaluation of the PReDicT antidepressant algorithm found nearly identical EQ-5D quality-of-life gains vs. treatment as usual (+0.139 vs. +0.140) and nearly identical societal cost reductions (−€2,589 vs. −€2,602), while cost-effectiveness probabilities were only 46% to 59% at trial level but exceeded 80% in the UK.1 The algorithm signal was country-specific and capability-weighted, …

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C9orf72 ALS/FTD Inflammation Linked to Microbial Glycogen in Gut

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A Cell Reports study tied C9orf72-related ALS/FTD inflammation to a gut-bacterial product: inflammatory microbial glycogen appeared in 15 of 22 ALS fecal samples, 1 of 1 C9orf72-frontotemporal dementia sample, and 4 of 12 healthy controls.1 The result supports a narrower gene-by-microbial-product mechanism that makes C9orf72 loss of function more inflammatory. Research Highlights Human samples carried …

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