Laird Harrison January 07, 2022 A portable neuromodulation device can put the user in a meditative state with the potential to ease chronic pain, according to its teenage inventors. The Fluxwear Shift pulses electromagnetic energy into the user’s brain, synchronizing neurons in patterns that resemble meditation, said Kamran Ansari, the company’s 16-year-old CEO. The low-level...
Megan Brooks November 16, 2021 The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared EaseVRx (AppliedVR), an immersive virtual reality (VR) system that uses the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy and other behavioral therapy techniques to reduce pain and pain interference in adults with chronic lower back pain. “Millions of adults in the United States are...
Megan Brooks January 05, 2022 Adjunctive treatment with the novel oral medication REL-1017 (esmethadone) is effective in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) who have failed other antidepressants, new research suggests. REL-1017, from Relmada Therapeutics, is a novel N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) channel blocker that preferentially targets hyperactive channels while maintaining physiologic glutamatergic neurotransmission. Results from...
Steve Cimino January 20, 2022 Intranasal ketamine may be a viable treatment option for acute cluster headache attacks, a pilot study has found, though it did not reduce pain intensity as quickly as initially anticipated. “In clinical practice, intranasal ketamine might be a valuable tool for severely affected patients with insufficient response or intolerance to current first-line treatment,” wrote Anja...
GEORGE INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH Findings from preliminary tests of a new dialysis system have confirmed its ability to make sterile, medical grade water to provide an affordable, accessible home-based treatment option for patients with kidney failure. This means that the Ellen Medical Devices Point-of-Care dialysis system can create peritoneal dialysis fluid (a mix of...
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER Findings from a recent study evaluating the impact of the antibiotic azithromycin during severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis overwhelmingly support current national bronchiolitis guidelines, which recommend against antibiotics during acute bronchiolitis due to lack of effect on the acute illness. There is also substantial evidence that severe RSV bronchiolitis in...
Older adults with dementia or mild cognitive impairment sometimes struggle to remember daily tasks, including managing medications, shopping for groceries and tracking upcoming events, including birthdays, anniversaries or doctor appointments. In a recent study involving researchers at the University of Missouri and Baylor University, older adults with dementia or mild cognitive impairment were able to...
Patients treated for Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) face a five-year recurrence rate of 40%—markedly higher than the recurrence rates for melanoma and other skin cancers, according to research published in JAMA Dermatology. Additionally, in the study cohort of more than 600 patients, 95% of MCC recurrences happened in the first three years, suggesting that surveillance efforts...
A blood test developed at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has proven highly accurate in detecting early signs of Alzheimer’s disease in a study involving nearly 500 patients from across three continents, providing further evidence that the test should be considered for routine screening and diagnosis. The study is available in the journal Neurology....
During the pandemic, news reports surfaced of a surge of young adults showing up at doctors’ offices with unexplainable movement disorders that looked, perhaps to a nonspecialist, a little bit like Tourette syndrome. But when those patients were sent to see a specialist, “They’d say, ‘that doesn’t look at all like any of my first thousand...
