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COPE-A Reduced Youth PTSD in Substance-Use Trial

MHD featured image for youth PTSD, substance use, COPE-A, and symptom sequencing during therapy.

A 2026 randomized youth trial found that integrated exposure-based treatment reduced posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms more than supportive counseling, while substance-use changes were smaller and showed no clear treatment-specific advantage. Research Highlights COPE-A reduced PTSD more: youth receiving Concurrent Treatment of PTSD and Substance Use Disorders Using Prolonged Exposure – Adolescent version had a 17.00-point …

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Rats Beat Humans in 2-Second Temporal Error Monitoring Study

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A 2026 iScience study found that both humans and rats could report whether their own 2-second timing responses were small-error or large-error trials, but rats were more accurate on test choices: human accuracy was 55%-57%, rat accuracy was 65%-67%, and the species gap remained significant before task-variable matching.1 Research Highlights Both species monitored timing errors: …

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Dream Content Tracks Personality, Sleep Quality, and Stress

Dreams transform waking life rather than replaying it directly. In a 2026 Communications Psychology study of 3,366 reports, dreams were more visual, spatial, social, and bizarre than waking reports, while attitude toward dreaming, mind-wandering tendency, sleep quality, and COVID lockdown stress each left measurable fingerprints on dream content.1 Research Highlights Dreams were not random word …

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Virgin Olive Oil Linked to Cognitive Preservation and Gut Diversity

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A 2026 PREDIMED-Plus cohort analysis linked higher olive-oil intake with 2-year cognitive preservation in 656 older adults, with each 10 g/day increment associated with higher global cognition change compared with lower intake (beta 0.044 z-score; 95% CI 0.013 to 0.075; p = 0.006).1 The more specific signal favored virgin olive oil and gut-microbiome diversity, while …

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Chronic Disease Linked Loneliness to Cognitive Risk

A longitudinal MIDUS analysis involving 840 adults found that loneliness scores higher than a person's objective social-isolation score were linked to later cognitive impairment mainly through chronic disease burden, while the allostatic-load pathway was weaker than the chronic-disease pathway and not statistically confirmed for the main cognitive outcomes.1 Research Highlights Loneliness was separated from isolation: …

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Long COVID Fatigue Was Severe Without Clear Inflammation Biomarkers

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A 2026 controlled study of 96 people found severe long-COVID fatigue across 3 validated fatigue scales, but the tested peripheral inflammation, cellular-stress, neuroprotection, and autoimmunity markers did not significantly differ by group or explain fatigue severity.1 The finding argues against a simple blood-marker story, not against the reality of long-COVID fatigue. Research Highlights Fatigue was …

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