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Compound from snail's venom may offer alternative to opioids for pain relief

A tiny snail may offer an alternative to opioids for pain relief. Scientists at the University of Utah have found a compound that blocks pain by targeting a pathway not associated with opioids.

21 Feb 2017

Researchers explore how patients with COPD, heart failure and heart attack fared in ICU

Does a stay in the intensive care unit give patients a better chance of surviving a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or heart failure flare-up or even a heart attack, compared with care in another type of hospital unit? Unless a patient is clearly critically ill, the answer may be no, according to University of Michigan researchers who analyzed more than 1.5 million Medicare records.

17 Feb 2017

Study reports on health of American women deployed to Vietnam for military or civilian service

A study just released by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health reports on the health of American women who were deployed to Vietnam for either military or civilian service.

14 Feb 2017

New study aims to better understand long-term neurologic effects of mild TBI

An ambitious U.S. federally funded study is enrolling at least 1,100 service members and veterans who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan to learn more about mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and how it can be best evaluated, and perhaps prevented and treated.

9 Feb 2017

VA scientists reveal new theory on how aspirin may ward off cancer

Studies abound that point to a role for plain old aspirin in keeping deadly cancers at bay. While aspirin is not yet part of mainstream treatment for any cancer, it is recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for certain adults to help prevent colorectal cancer.

8 Feb 2017

Study links higher BMI to lower chances of getting hospice care

The heavier someone is, the less likely they are to have what many people might call a "good death", with hospice care and a chance to die at home, a new study finds. And that difference comes with a financial, as well as a personal, cost, the research shows.

8 Feb 2017

MGH researchers develop novel approach to analyze brainwave activity during sleep

Massachusetts General Hospital investigators have developed a novel approach to analyze brainwaves during sleep, which promises to give a more detailed and accurate depiction of neurophysiological changes than provided by a traditional sleep study.

8 Feb 2017

Sleep may be regulated by several brain-based immune proteins, study reveals

Sleep -- one of the most basic, yet most mystifying processes of the human body -- has confounded physicians, scientists and evolutionary biologists for centuries.

2 Feb 2017

Increased growth factor protects retinal blood vessels in animal models with diabetes

Researchers from the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear have shown that a slight increase in transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), which is present in preclinical animal models with diabetic eye disease, protects retinal blood vessels from damage that commonly occurs in the early stages of the disease.

2 Feb 2017

UAB researchers discover novel underlying mechanism involved in anxiety disorders, PTSD

University of Alabama at Birmingham neurobiologist Lynn Dobrunz, Ph.D., has discovered a novel mechanism for how stress-induced anxiety — the type of experience that can produce post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD — affects circuit function in the hippocampus, the area of the brain where aversive memories are formed.

24 Jan 2017

BUSM researchers move one step closer to understanding brain changes linked to PTSD

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and the VA Boston Healthcare System are one step closer to understanding the specific nature of brain changes associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

23 Jan 2017

Mutations in gene that enables memories, sense of direction can contribute to schizophrenia symptoms

Mutations in a gene that should enable memories and a sense of direction instead can result in imprecise communication between neurons that contributes to symptoms of schizophrenia, scientists report.

19 Jan 2017

High-donor-volume hospitals more likely to have improved OTPD rate than low-volume medical centers

Hospitals that manage the highest volume of deceased organ donors are 52 percent more likely to recover an above-average number of transplantable organs per donor compared with low-volume hospitals, according to results from a new study conducted across three U.S. donation regions.

19 Jan 2017

UVC machines can cut transmission of four drug-resistant superbugs by 30%, study finds

A new tool -- a type of ultraviolet light called UVC -- could aid hospitals in the ongoing battle to keep drug-resistant bacteria from lingering in patient rooms and causing new infections.

17 Jan 2017

Alcohol strengthens emotional memories linked to fearful experiences, study shows

Experiments in mice by researchers at Johns Hopkins suggest that if the goal is to ease or extinguish fearful emotional memories like those associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol may make things worse, not better.

10 Jan 2017

Penn study finds evidence of AD neuropathology in post-mortem brains of LBD patients

Patients who had a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) with dementia (PDD) or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and had higher levels of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology in their donated post-mortem brains also had more severe symptoms of these Lewy body diseases (LBD) during their lives, compared to those whose brains had less AD pathology, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

6 Jan 2017

New study from Veterans Health Administration finds significant decline in MRSA HAI rates

The Department of Veterans Affairs' Veterans Health Administration's campaign to limit healthcare facility-associated infections (HAIs) of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to make significant progress, according to a study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official journal of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology .

6 Jan 2017

Veterans Affairs News and Research

Compound from snail's venom may offer alternative to opioids for pain relief

Researchers explore how patients with COPD, heart failure and heart attack fared in ICU

Study reports on health of American women deployed to Vietnam for military or civilian service

New study aims to better understand long-term neurologic effects of mild TBI

VA scientists reveal new theory on how aspirin may ward off cancer

Study links higher BMI to lower chances of getting hospice care

MGH researchers develop novel approach to analyze brainwave activity during sleep

Sleep may be regulated by several brain-based immune proteins, study reveals

Increased growth factor protects retinal blood vessels in animal models with diabetes

UAB researchers discover novel underlying mechanism involved in anxiety disorders, PTSD

BUSM researchers move one step closer to understanding brain changes linked to PTSD

Mutations in gene that enables memories, sense of direction can contribute to schizophrenia symptoms

High-donor-volume hospitals more likely to have improved OTPD rate than low-volume medical centers

UVC machines can cut transmission of four drug-resistant superbugs by 30%, study finds

Alcohol strengthens emotional memories linked to fearful experiences, study shows

Penn study finds evidence of AD neuropathology in post-mortem brains of LBD patients

New study from Veterans Health Administration finds significant decline in MRSA HAI rates

Witnessing fear in others may change how information flows in the brain, study finds

Researchers uncover two factors that play crucial role in chronic autoimmune disorders

New research letter compares melanoma death and incidence by states and geographic regions

How can microdialysis benefit drug development

Global and Local Efforts to Take Action Against Hepatitis

Addressing Important Cardiac Biology Questions with Shotgun Top-Down Proteomics

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