Research on how emergency departments break bad news mostly measures how confident staff feel, not how patients and grieving families fare afterward, according to a 2026 scoping review of 156 publications.1 Research Highlights Training was judged by staff confidence: of 36 evaluations of bad-news training, 23 measured confidence or comfort, mostly by self-report. None measured …
A 2026 Generation Scotland study linked traumatic physical injury to diagnosis-stratified blood methylation differences in 4,308 people.1 The clearest recurrent-depression signal pointed toward oxytocin signaling and synaptic-plasticity pathways, but the result is still exploratory pathway evidence rather than a blood test for depression or PTSD. Research Highlights Recurrent depression carried the strongest phenotype signal: traumatic …
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 …
A 2026 functional magnetic resonance imaging study involving 54 adults found that pairing a formerly threatening cue with positive images, a laboratory method called counterconditioning, strengthened later neural safety-memory signals in people with posttraumatic stress disorder. The experiment measured fear-learning biology, not PTSD symptom improvement after therapy.1 Research Highlights 54 adults were analyzed: Cooper et …
Cannabis users often say the drug helps them blunt stressful memories. A 2026 randomized trial of 36 healthy adults tested low-dose oral THC against placebo during retrieval of a standardized lab stressor, and on every subjective and physiological measure that mattered, THC did nothing.1 Research Highlights 36-adult, 3-arm RCT: participants got placebo, 5 mg oral …
Major upper-extremity amputation was linked to substantially higher odds of new mental-health diagnosis, antidepressant initiation, and psychotherapy claims than minor upper-extremity amputation in a matched national database study. The clearest clinical implication is early mental-health screening after major limb loss, not waiting for distress to surface months later.1 Research Highlights 2,452 matched patients were analyzed: …
The most-quoted figure on veteran suicide is “22 a day,” produced from 21-state death-certificate data for 1999–2010.2 The VA’s 2024 Annual Report — with mortality data through 2022 — puts the current daily count at 17.6 Veteran suicides, but the per-Veteran rate has gone the other way.1 Research Highlights Daily count was 17.6: 6,407 Veteran …