A 2026 mouse study linked cholestatic liver injury to smaller thalamic volume than control injury-free mice, broad thalamus gene-expression changes, and partial pathway rescue after systemic tumor necrosis factor neutralization. Research Highlights Thalamic volume decreased: bile duct ligation (BDL; a mouse model of obstructive cholestatic liver injury) reduced thalamic volume vs. sham surgery by magnetic …
A Saudi dental-clinic study found very high caries burden, but dental fear and anxiety were not the main adjusted explanation for dental caries. In 619 Al Ahsa patients, 89.5% had caries, 36.3% reported dental fear, and 25.8% reported anxiety; age, education, and oral hygiene carried a stronger caries signal than fear or anxiety.1 Research Highlights …
A 299-person remote randomized trial found that 10 min of daily focused-attention meditation reduced anxiety and mind wandering more than waitlist control, with the strongest gains among adults who started with higher internalizing symptoms. Research Highlights Anxiety improved in the randomized phase: Glick et al. randomized 299 meditation-naive adults and found greater 8-week Generalized Anxiety …
Australian coronial data show that fatal poisonings involving new psychoactive stimulants and hallucinogens were rarely single-drug events. In 70 toxicology-confirmed deaths from 2007 through 2025, 92.9% involved other psychoactive drugs and 75.7% involved multiple stimulants or hallucinogens. Research Highlights Fatal cases were usually polysubstance cases: 65 of 70 deaths (92.9%) had psychoactive drugs beyond the …
A 2026 multi-cohort Alzheimer’s disease study found that MRI radiomics from the hippocampus and amygdala linked plasma pTau217 and smell identification to cognitive impairment — with more added cognitive signal than simple regional volume. The result is useful because it points to a possible bridge between blood biomarkers and brain-circuit damage, but it is still …
A 2026 rat study found that 21 days of late-adolescent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) exposure produced adult anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze and weaker novel object recognition than vehicle exposure. The controlled animal result gives a biologically anchored model for why repeated high-THC exposure during development remains a real concern.1 Research Highlights Late-adolescent THC exposure …
A 2026 Egyptian study of 76 children found a sharp mental-health gradient in phenylketonuria (PKU): late-diagnosed children had higher depression scores, lower quality of life, lower IQ, and a 21.4% rate of reported suicidal thoughts. Early-diagnosed children still differed from controls on some functioning measures, but the late-diagnosed group carried the heaviest psychiatric and cognitive …