There are more than 600 measles cases in Texas alone as the U.S. outbreak spreads further. Federal health officials have said that number is also likely an undercount.

West Texas is the epicenter of the largest outbreak in the country, while the number of cases nationally has topped 800.

Amid the surge in cases, a new survey from health policy research group KFF found measles misinformation is also rising and more Americans are being exposed to it.

The survey showed 33 percent of respondents had “heard” or “read” the false claim that “getting the measles vaccine is more dangerous than becoming infected with measles.” That’s compared to 18 percent who reported hearing the claim in 2024, according to the tracking poll.

Knowledge about the outbreak is also highly polarized. About two-thirds of Republican-leaning parents said they were unaware of an uptick in measles cases this year, while about two-thirds of Democratic ones said they knew about it, according to the latest poll.

About 35 percent of Republicans in the survey said they thought the discredited theory linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism was definitely or probably true — compared with just 10 percent of Democrats.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary touted the MMR vaccine in a Wednesday interview on CNN, though stopped short of saying that parents should go get their kids the shot.

“Vaccines save lives, and any child who dies from a vaccine preventable disease is a tragedy,” Makary said in an interview with Dana Bash.

When asked directly if parents should vaccinate their children, Makary said, “I believe in the MMR shot.”

Nearly all the cases in Texas are among unvaccinated individuals.

Two unvaccinated children in Texas have died from measles, and the death of one unvaccinated adult in New Mexico has been linked to the outbreak. The adult tested positive for measles, but the official cause of death is still under investigation.
The children had no known underlying conditions.

The West Texas outbreak has predominantly centered among members of a local Mennonite community.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official last week said more than 90 percent of the cases are “driven by transmission in close-knit, undervaccinated communities.”

There are more than 600 measles cases in Texas alone as the U.S. outbreak spreads further. Federal health officials have said that number is also likely an undercount.

They’re the fixers, the ones who step in when Affordable Care Act enrollees have a problem with their coverage, like a newborn incorrectly left off a policy or discovering that a rogue broker had signed them up or switched their plan without consent.

Specially trained caseworkers help resolve such issues, which might otherwise cause consumers to rack up large doctors’ bills or prevent them or their family members from getting care.

Now, though, the broad federal reduction in force set in motion by the Trump administration has cut the ranks of those caseworkers, slashing two out of six divisions of caseworkers, according to one affected worker and a former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official familiar with the situation, Jeffrey Grant.

Currently, the number of ACA enrollees is at an all-time high of 24 million. The ACA — known as Obamacare — has long drawn disfavor from Republicans and Trump himself. The health law faces additional changes next year that, if adopted, could sow confusion and more problems. Consumers would face a new learning curve with extra paperwork and rules. And the caseworker cuts might extend the time needed to resolve any difficulties.

“It impacts not only our jobs, but all these people we serve,” said one New York City-based caseworker, who was let go in a Feb. 14 purge affecting federal employees in their probationary periods. “Usually, we would have on average 14 days to take care of a case that was very difficult, although the urgent cases would be solved within two to three business days. It will now be delayed so much more. Whole teams got wiped out completely.”

NPR and KFF Health News are not naming the two affected workers in this article because they fear professional or personal repercussions for speaking to the media.

The two teams of caseworkers were dismantled in a haphazard fashion that left some workers without an official notice but locked out of their computers.

The cuts have demoralized caseworkers, whose jobs demand a grasp of complex and arcane health insurance rules in a little-known government department that most consumers don’t interact with — CMS’ Exchange Customer Solutions Group — until they need help.

“The loss in staffing is going to reduce the ability for people to get through” to caseworkers after contacting the marketplace or other organizations for help, said Jackie Kiger, executive director of Pisgah Legal Services, a nonprofit that provides legal and ACA help for North Carolina consumers and is facing a budget reduction under a separate effort by the Trump administration to cut “navigator” funding by 90%. Navigators are government-funded nonprofits that help people enroll in the ACA or resolve problems with coverage.

The federal force reduction aims to decrease the number of employees at agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services from 82,000 to 62,000, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and CMS.

CMS, which oversees the ACA and other government health programs, will lose about 300 workers, including about 30 caseworkers scattered nationwide. The cuts come amid thousands of other federal job losses, including front-line workers across an array of agencies, from Social Security field offices to the National Park Service.

In a press release, HHS estimated its reduction in force will save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year. No one from CMS responded to KFF Health News’ questions about the caseworker reductions.

What will be affected?

When consumers have a problem with their ACA plan, their first step is usually to call the federal or state marketplace where they purchased coverage.

Those call centers can handle basic questions about plans purchased on the federal exchange, which serves 31 states. (State marketplaces handle their own complex cases and don’t rely on federal caseworkers.)

When someone calls the federal marketplace 800 number with coverage problems, the inquiry probably winds up on a caseworker’s desk, said one affected caseworker. That employee received a reduction-in-force notice several days after losing access to their work computer on April 1.

Caseworkers usually don’t speak directly with consumers, the worker said. Using information sent over by the federal marketplace — including notes taken when consumers called in with problems, as well as ACA applications — they handle or oversee consumer requests, such as canceling a plan or adding a member.

One of the last problems handled by that caseworker involved a child born in November who was not added correctly to the family’s plan for 2024, meaning any care the child received during the last two months of the year was not covered and the family risked being stuck with the bills.

“This person did everything right, including calling the marketplace within 60 days to report the birth and add the newborn to their coverage,” said the worker, who was quickly able to resolve it because it was a marketplace error.

The worker, who is now soured on federal employment and will look for a new job in the private sector, said that caseworkers handled an average of 30 issues a day, but that in recent months the number kept climbing, heading past 45, and grew even more intense after the Feb. 14 dismissal of probationary employees.

“It’s not an easy job,” the worker said, noting the challenge of constantly evolving rules and policies governing health plans.

Ferreting out fraud

In the past year, caseworkers have dealt with cases involving unauthorized enrollments or switching, a problem that ticked up in late 2023, according to KFF Health News investigations, and continued through much of last year, resulting in at least 274,000 complaints to CMS through August.

The complaints centered on practices by rogue brokers who enrolled or switched coverage for consumers without their express knowledge. The result could leave them without access to their health provider networks, drug coverage, or even facing a tax bill.

Though it is unclear how many such complaints fell to a federal caseworker, some improperly switched consumers want to be restored into plans they had originally chosen, while others want them canceled.

“I have seen people who were enrolled and every two or three months a broker would switch them to a different plan,” said the caseworker who was locked out in April. “The more health plans they were enrolled in, the more difficult it was to handle on the back end.”

New hires spend months learning the ropes.

The New York-based worker let go in February during her probationary period said she had joined CMS in October and spent three months in training. Just about a month after completing that training, she was let go — a bitter irony, she said, because she had sought stability in a job with the federal government, having experienced a layoff during her private-sector career.

“I took a huge pay cut — over $40,000 — when I went from the private sector into the government,” said the mother of three whose husband serves in the military. Her federal salary was about $76,000, which is not high for an expensive market like the New York metropolitan area. “But I took it as an opportunity to get in the door and move up. Then, boom, I get hit with another layoff.”

“I can only imagine how hard it is for people with 10 to 15 years with the government who are banking on it for retirement,” she said.

Starting next year, the Trump administration has proposed several changes to the ACA, including ending year-round eligibility for very low-income applicants, requiring additional financial and eligibility documentation, and charging some people a monthly $5 fee when auto-reenrolled in coverage until they confirm their eligibility.

Such changes will “make things harder, so there you will have more things that go wrong,” said Grant, the former CMS official, who founded Schedule F Healthcare Strategies after leaving CMS. “You will then also have fewer caseworkers to handle the work.”

Summary: New research reveals how dopamine helps the brain learn to avoid unpleasant outcomes by responding differently in distinct brain regions during negative experiences. In a study with mice, scientists tracked dopamine activity over time as animals learned to escape an adverse event, showing that one brain area adapted early in learning while another supported long-term avoidance behavior.

These findings challenge simplistic views of dopamine as purely “rewarding” and suggest it plays a critical role in adaptive — and maladaptive — learning from threats. The study may offer insights into psychiatric conditions marked by excessive avoidance, like anxiety and OCD, and underscores why the trendy idea of a “dopamine detox” misses the complexity of this vital brain chemical.

Dopamine is the brain’s motivational spark, driving us to chase what feels good, say scrolling another reel on social media, and steer clear of what doesn’t, like touching a hot stove.

But scientists haven’t fully understood how dopamine helps us learn to avoid bad outcomes — until now.

A new study from Northwestern University shows that dopamine signals in two key brain areas involved in motivation and learning respond differently to negative experiences, helping the brain adapt based on whether a situation is predictable or controllable.

While previous research has shown that dopamine can respond to negative experiences, this is the first study to track how those signals evolve over time as animals move from novices to experts in avoiding them.

The study will be published April 22 in the journal Current Biology. 

The study authors said the findings help explain how we learn from bad experiences, and why some people learn to avoid danger better than others.

They also shed light on how excessive avoidance — a hallmark symptom of multiple psychiatric conditions such as anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression — may come to be via alterations in dopamine function.

This can lead to an overestimation of danger in the environment and a decreased quality of life as the brain prioritizes avoiding certain experiences.

Finally, the study helps explain why the concept behind the recent “dopamine-detox” wellness trend is too simplistic.

“Dopamine is not all good or all bad,” said first author Gabriela Lopez, a doctoral candidate in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“It rewards us for good things but also helps us tune into cues that signal trouble, learn from consequences and continuously adapt our learning strategies in unstable environments.”

How the study worked

In the study, scientists trained mice to respond to a five-second warning cue that predicted an unpleasant outcome. If the mice moved to the other side of a two-chamber box during the warning cue, they could avoid the outcome entirely.

As the mice learned the task, researchers recorded dopamine activity in two areas of the nucleus accumbens, a brain region involved in motivation and learning.

Previous research had suggested that dopamine in the ventromedial shell of the nucleus accumbens increases during bad experiences, while dopamine in the core of the nucleus accumbens decreases.

Therefore, the scientists wanted to understand how these different dopamine responses work together when the mice learn to avoid bad experiences.

They found that the two areas of the nucleus accumbens responded differently:

• In the ventromedial shell, dopamine levels initially surged in response to the unpleasant event itself. As the mice actively learned about the meaning of the warning cue, the dopamine response shifted to the cue itself. Eventually, though, the dopamine response faded away as the mice became skilled at avoiding the outcome.
• In the core, dopamine decreased for both the unpleasant event and the warning cue. The reduction in dopamine in response to the warning cue steadily increased throughout training, especially as the mice became more successful at avoiding the event.

“These responses are not only different in their sign — where in one area, dopamine goes up for something bad and, in the other area, it goes down for something bad — but we also saw that one is important for early learning while the other one is important for later-stage learning,” said corresponding author Talia Lerner, associate professor of neuroscience and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Feinberg.

Later, the researchers tested what would happen when the outcome couldn’t be avoided, regardless of the mice’s actions.

Under those conditions, dopamine patterns returned to what they looked like earlier in training — suggesting that these brain signals are sensitive to context and may help animals adapt their behavior when the environment changes.

“This shows that the dopamine signals are flexible, sensitive to task rules, and may help us adapt to changes in the environment,” Lopez said.

Why a ‘dopamine detox’ is too simplistic

People have been singing the praises of the “dopamine detox” wellness trend — cutting out things that trigger a dopamine rush, like eating junk food or scrolling social media, to regain control over these behaviors.

But this study helps explain why the concept of a “dopamine detox” is too simplistic.

“We think of dopamine as a learning molecule that is important for normal behavior in everyday life,” Lopez said. “So, cutting it out completely can do more harm than good.”

Next steps

“The dopamine signals we are studying are important for representing aversive signals that are involved in problems like chronic pain, depression and withdrawal from addictive substances,” Lopez said.

“Overactive avoidance learning may also be a pathway that contributes to obsessive-compulsive disorder and other clinical anxiety disorders. We hope to follow up on these basic research findings to address clinical problems affecting patients.”

A simple blood test could reveal who is at high risk of skin cancer recurrence after tumor-removal surgery.

The test can detect fragments of tumor DNA with a simple blood draw to reveal the lingering presence of Stage III melanoma — a metastatic form of the deadliest form of skin cancer — that can’t be seen with CT scans. Although the test isn’t perfect, it could help flag patients who need aggressive treatment because their cancer is likely to come back.

“We’re envisioning the test being used to monitor patients over time (perhaps every month or couple of months in the first 1-3 years after surgery) for an early indication that the melanoma is recurring,” study senior author Dr. David Polsky, a dermatologic oncologist at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, told Live Science in an email.

If the test showed signs of tumor DNA, Polsky continued, the doctor might choose to use more advanced imaging techniques to search for small, easy-to-miss tumors, or they might move to a more aggressive treatment regimen that uses a combination of cancer drugs instead of just one, for example.

Melanoma is a cancer of melanocytes, a type of pigmented skin cell. It accounts for only 1% of skin cancers, but it causes the most skin cancer deaths because it can quickly spread to other organs, or metastasize. Early detection is one of the best ways to boost the likelihood of survival.

Polsky and his colleagues focused on Stage III melanoma, which is melanoma that has spread to nearby lymph nodes, where immune cells are made and stored. Doctors perform surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible before starting medications to kill any remaining tumor cells.

Patients then get CT scans to look for any signs of recurrence, but some patients have tiny deposits of melanoma that are too small to be detected by CT. To catch those deposits earlier, Polsky and his team turned to circulating tumor DNA, or ctDNA. These are DNA fragments released from tumor cells during their normal life cycle. The fragments circulate in the plasma — the liquid portion of the blood — and can be detected by telltale mutations that are unique to cancer.

As part of a larger clinical trial of a combination of cancer drugs, the research team studied blood samples from 597 patients who had recently undergone surgery. The participants also had follow-up blood samples taken three months, six months, nine months and 12 months after either starting a treatment or receiving a placebo.

Immediately after surgery, 13% of the patients had detectable ctDNA in their blood plasma. Every single one of these patients experienced a cancer recurrence, the researchers found. Patients were also more likely to see their melanoma return when their ctDNA rose during the follow-up tests or if the ctDNA remained persistently high over the course of the testing.

The presence of the ctDNA predicted the return of the cancer 100% of the time; no one with a positive test escaped melanoma relapse. But the absence of ctDNA did not mean the patients were out of the woods. A negative test was correct 71% of the time in predicting that the person’s cancer would not return. But some patients with no detectable ctDNA still saw recurrence.

“[T]he tests are highly accurate when they are positive, but not as accurate when they are negative,” Polsky said.

The study’s results were published April 15 in the journal The Lancet Oncology. The next step, Polsky said, is to make the test available to a clinical molecular pathology laboratory, where it can be used to make decisions about treatment. A clinical trial can then show whether using the blood test leads to better outcomes than not using them — a measure called “clinical utility.”

“Demonstrating clinical utility of the test would be a major advance for the management of melanoma patients whose disease has spread beyond the skin,” Polsky said.

Summary: New research has uncovered a genetic connection between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), a rare neuromuscular disease. The study identifies tandem repeat expansions (TREs) in the DMPK gene as a shared mechanism that disrupts gene splicing and contributes to ASD-like social behaviors in individuals with DM1.

This mis-splicing creates protein imbalances that interfere with brain development and function. The findings provide new insights into autism’s genetic pathways and could inform future precision therapies aimed at restoring protein function.

Key Facts:

• Shared Genetic Mechanism: TREs in the DMPK gene link DM1 and ASD by disrupting gene splicing essential for brain development.
• Increased Risk: Individuals with DM1 are 14 times more likely to develop autism compared to the general population.
• Potential Therapies: Research is underway to explore treatments that could release proteins absorbed by toxic RNA caused by TREs.

 

Source: Hospital for Sick Children

Scientists from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and University of Las Vegas Nevada (UNLV) have uncovered a genetic link between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a rare genetic condition called myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1).

The study, published today in Nature Neuroscience, suggests that while ASD has previously been characterized by a loss of gene function, another mechanism may be leading to the social behaviours often observed in individuals with ASD.

DM1 is an inherited condition which causes progressive muscle loss and weakness. While ASD is present in around one per cent of the general population, it is 14 times more likely to develop in people with DM1.

The study revealed that the genetic variation that causes DM1 — tandem repeat expansions (TREs) in the DMPK gene — also impacts brain development. The research team found that the effects of TREs interfere with a critical process called gene splicing, which is essential for gene function.

The disruption causes a protein imbalance that can result in mis-splicing of multiple genes involved in brain function, and may explain why some of the social and behavioural outcomes of ASD develop in people with DM1.

“Our findings represent a new way to characterize the genetic development of autism,” explains Dr. Ryan Yuen, Senior Scientist in the Genetics & Genome Biology program at SickKids.

“By identifying the molecular pathway behind this connection, we can begin to investigate new approaches to ASD diagnosis and the development of precision therapies that release these proteins back into the genome.”

What are TREs?

TREs occur when sections of a DNA strand are repeated two or more times, and the likelihood of those repeats causing errors in gene function increases each time.

In 2020 Yuen discovered that TREs are genetic contributors to autism, identifying more than 2,588 different places in the genome where TREs were much more prevalent in people with ASD. Similarly, people with DM1 have a TRE in the DMPK gene.

“A variation really stood out to me that we see in rare neuromuscular disease,” says Dr. Łukasz Sznajder, a research lead and Assistant Professor at UNLV.

“This is how we started connecting the dots. We found a molecular link, or overlap, which we believe is the core of causing autistic symptoms in children with myotonic dystrophy.”

Gene splicing a key contributor to the development of ASD

As the tandem repeat expands in the DMPK gene, the research team, including collaborators at the University of Florida and Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland), found its altered RNA binds to a protein that is involved in gene splicing regulation during brain development.

This so-called “toxic RNA” depletes the protein and prevents it from binding to other RNA molecules in important areas of the genome, causing a protein imbalance which results in mis-splicing other genes.

“TREs are like a sponge that absorbs all these important proteins from the genome. Without this protein, other areas of the genome don’t function properly,” explains Yuen.

The Yuen Lab and Sznajder Lab are already exploring whether this mis-splicing is happening in other genes associated with ASD, as well as how their findings could inform precision therapies that release these proteins back into the genome.

Some of this work is already underway. In 2020, Dr. Christopher Pearson, Senior Scientist in the Genetics & Genome Biology program at SickKids, identified a molecule that can contract TREs in Huntington’s disease.

While more research is needed to identify how this could be applied to other conditions, the team remains optimistic their findings could inform future research and care for DM1, ASD and other conditions.

Funding: This study was funded by the Azrieli Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy Association, the UNVL startup fund, the University of Florida Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopment, the National Science Centre, Poland, SickKids Research Institute, Brain Canada, the Government of Ontario, the University of Toronto McLaughlin Centre, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), The Petroff Family Foundation, Tribute Communities, The Marigold Foundation and SickKids Foundation.

Summary: Lucid dreaming, where people become aware they are dreaming, has long fascinated both scientists and dreamers. A new study with the largest dataset of its kind has identified distinct brain activity patterns that separate lucid dreaming from both REM sleep and wakefulness.

The research reveals unique shifts in perception, memory, and self-awareness that occur during this rare conscious state within sleep. These findings challenge the traditional boundary between wakefulness and sleep, suggesting consciousness can emerge entirely from within the dream state.

Key Facts:

• Unique Brain Activity: Lucid dreaming shows neural patterns distinct from REM sleep and wakefulness.
• Self-Awareness in Sleep: Brain regions linked to cognitive control and self-perception are more active.
• Consciousness Redefined: The study supports the idea that consciousness can arise during sleep without waking.

 

Source: SfN

Lucid dreaming is a surreal phenomenon in which people are consciously aware that they are in a dream. Çağatay Demirel, from Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Medical Center, and colleagues shed light on the neural correlates of lucid dreaming in their Journal of Neuroscience paper.  

The researchers used a rigorous processing pipeline as they collected and assembled data from multiple labs to create what is, according to the authors, the largest sample size to date for this field of research.

Comparisons of brain activity during lucid dreaming, rapid eye movement sleep, and wakefulness revealed distinct activity patterns for lucid dreaming.

These unique patterns reflect shifts in brain region activation and how brain regions communicate that may be linked to changes in perception, memory processing, self-awareness, and cognitive control.

According to Demirel, “This research opens the door to a deeper understanding of lucid dreaming as an intricate state of consciousness by pointing to the possibility that conscious experience can arise from within sleep itself.

“This work offers a perspective that could challenge the traditional binary view of sleep and wakefulness in future research.”

Louisiana, Missouri and Virginia have all reported their first measles cases in 2025, and they say all three patients’ cases are linked to international travel.

The most recently announced case in northwest Virginia is a child in the 0 to 4-year age range who had recently traveled internationally, according to the state’s health department. Officials did not clarify if the child was vaccinated against the virus.

“This first case of measles in Virginia this year is a reminder of how easily this highly contagious disease can spread, particularly with international travel,” said state epidemiologist Laurie Forlano. “Vaccination remains our best defense against measles and is safe and highly effective at protecting people and preventing outbreaks.”

The Virginia Department of Health identified two Kaiser Permanente medical centers in Woodbridge and Fredericksburg as areas of potential exposure, adding that officials are working to help identify those exposed to the illness.

The Louisiana case is an adult from the southeast of the state who was not vaccinated against measles, according to the Department of Health. The patient received treatment at a hospital and is in isolation, where they will remain until no longer infectious.

“The LDH Office of Public Health is working to identify and notify those who have come into contact with the infected individual,” the department said.

The Missouri measles case involves a child “associated with recent international travel” visiting Taney County, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said. The child’s age and vaccination status are not clear.

“There is no indication of widespread exposure as this person was diagnosed soon after arrival to Taney County,” the department said in an update. “Exposure is believed to be limited, and known contacts have been identified and contacted.”

These cases come amid the largest measles outbreak the U.S. has faced in six years. Even given the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has remained relatively silent on the public health threat, providing just weekly updates on its website and sending an alert to doctors last month.

Earlier this month, the Texas Department of State Health Services said the measles toll in the state rose to 481 confirmed cases, including six young children at a day care center in Lubbock. Fifty-six people have been hospitalized in the area since the disease started spreading in late January.

The CDC sent 2,000 doses of the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine to Texas health officials at their request, but hasn’t held a news briefing about the illness since 2019, when two large outbreaks in New York threatened to reverse the United States’ status of having eliminated the virus.

Before this year, the United States had not had a measles death in a decade, and a child had not died of measles since 2003.

Amid very real worries that tech is eroding our cognitive skills – why learn math or facts when you always have a calculator and Google? – a new study suggests that staying tech-savvy later in life can reduce dementia risk.

Researchers in Texas analyzed data from 57 previous studies, covering more than 411,000 people aged over 50, to look at the link between digital tech habits and cases of dementia.

“You can flip on the news on just about any day and you’ll see people talking about how technologies are harming us,” says psychologist and neuroscientist Michael Scullin, from Baylor University.

“People often use the terms ‘brain drain’ and ‘brain rot’, and now digital dementia is an emerging phrase. As researchers, we wanted to know if this was true.”

The statistical analysis showed that technology use was associated with a 58 percent reduction in the risk of cognitive impairment. Additionally, tech users showed between 26 and 34 percent lower rates of cognitive decline over time.

It’s important to note that this isn’t the type of research that can prove direct cause and effect. Each study used different approaches, and measured technology use in a different way: some studies looked at smartphone use, for example, while others were measuring social media use.

However, the reduction in risk still held after adjustments for factors including occupation, education, and socioeconomic status. It seems there is a link here, which is worth investigating in further research.

“Our data suggests encouraging older adults to engage with technology, particularly in a manner that helps challenge, connect, and compensate for cognitive problems, could be a powerful approach to promoting cognitive health,” says neuropsychologist Jared Benge, from the University of Texas at Austin.

Technology use could help protect against cognitive decline and dementia in a few different ways, the researchers suggest. It might help to stimulate the brain, for instance, especially when it comes to learning how to use new devices and apps.

Tech can also keep us better connected, with social media and video calls. We already know that being lonely is associated with a higher chance of developing dementia, while maintaining social ties can keep the brain humming along.

There’s also the idea of technology acting as ‘scaffolding’ around a drop in mental capabilities, and keeping elderly people more independent for longer – apps helping with reminders for medications and health appointments, for example.

It’s a complex picture, with a lot of factors involved, but given the broad reach of this new study and the large sample size, it could well be worth maintaining our relationship with tech as we get older – and helping others to do the same.

“If you have a parent or grandparent who’s just staying away from technology, maybe revisit that,” says Scullin.

“Could they learn to use photo, messaging, or calendar apps on a smartphone or tablet? Start simple and be very patient while they learn.”

The research has been published in Nature Human Behaviour.

A new type of antibiotic for treatment of urinary tract infections in women could also work against gonorrhea infections, a new study finds. This could put the medication, called gepotidacin, on track to become the first new antibiotic for gonorrhea since the 1990s.

“Gepotidacin is a novel oral antibacterial treatment with the potential to become an alternative option for the treatment of gonococcal infections, supported by an acceptable safety and tolerability profile,” the researchers wrote in the study published Monday in The Lancet, adding that the drug “could mark a meaningful advancement in patient care.”

As an antibiotic, gepotidacin works by inhibiting bacteria from replicating in the body. In March, it was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women and girls ages 12 and older. Recurrent UTIs have become a bigger problem as the bacteria that cause them have become more resistant to the antibiotics available to treat them.

Now, there is new hope that gepotidacin may help fight drug-resistant gonorrhea.

“The big takeaway is that having additional treatment options for gonorrhea is fantastic,” said Dr. Jason Zucker, an infectious disease and sexually transmitted infections expert and assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, who was not involved in the new study.

Effective treatments for gonorrhea have become increasingly limited in recent years due to the global rise of antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that cause gonorrhea, rendering many previously used first-line antibiotics ineffective.

The current standard of care involves an intramuscular injection of the antibiotic ceftriaxone, which requires a visit to a care facility.

A key benefit of gepotidacin is that it would not involve an injection at the doctor’s office, which could make treating gonorrhea more convenient for patients, Zucker said.

“Right now, patients come in, especially if they are not having symptoms, if they test positive, we have to ask them to come back. For some people, that’s not so easy,” he said. “So obviously, the ability to have the pharmacy send treatment to their house, or have them be able to pick it up, would really make things a lot easier for people and reduce the number of doctor visits they have, especially if they have jobs where they don’t have a lot of time off.”

Gonorrhea can lead to serious health problems if left untreated, and though rare, can even spread to the blood or joints. Among women, untreated gonorrhea can cause an infection of the reproductive organs called pelvic inflammatory disease, which can lead to a greater risk of pregnancy complications and infertility. In men, gonorrhea also can lead to infertility in rare cases.

In the United States, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted infections or STIs have become more common. Reported cases of three nationally notifiable STIs – chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis – were up 90% in the US in 2023 compared with about two decades prior in 2004, according to data released last year by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 2.4 million cases of STIs were reported in 2023 nationally.

A race to treat gonorrhea

The Phase 3 trial, conducted between October 2019 and October 2023, included more than 600 people ages 12 and older who were diagnosed with gonorrhea in the urogenital area across six countries: Australia, Germany, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The study was funded by the pharmaceutical company GSK, which developed the antibiotic, and the development of gepotidacin was funded in part with federal funds from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, according to GSK.

About half of the study participants were treated with a gepotidacin regimen of two oral doses administered about 10 to 12 hours apart, at 3,000-milligrams per dose. The other participants were provided with the current standard treatment of administering a single dose of the antibiotic ceftriaxone as an injection paired with orally taking the antibiotic azithromycin.

The trial data, which is being presented at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases conference, showed that gepotidacin was as effective as the current leading combination treatment, and was also effective against treatment-resistant infections, which occur when strains of gonorrhea are resistant to currently used antibiotics.

The gonorrhea infections were cured among 92.6% of the study participants who were administered gepotidacin compared with 91.2% of the study participants who were treated with ceftriaxone plus azithromycin.

Among the 7.4% of participants in the gepotidacin group who were not successfully treated, they all were due to missing data, according to GSK, which added that “in participants with complete data, there was no bacterial persistence at the urogenital body site.”

While the study primarily assessed gepotidacin as a treatment for urogenital gonorrhea, some participants with rectal and throat infections were evaluated. Of those with complete data, the study showed that it was more difficult to treat gonorrhea in the throat compared with other body sites, as 14 out of 16 people with throat gonorrhea and complete data – 88% – were successfully treated.

The researchers wrote that the prevalence of throat infections “warrants further investigation” in a larger group of participants, as does studying the efficacy of geptodiacin in the treatment of gonorrhea in the throat.

“Pharyngeal gonorrhea is notoriously harder to treat and plays a key role in silent transmission and resistance development, so having reliable oral options at all anatomical sites is critical,” Zucker, said.

The international team of researchers found no life-threatening nor fatal side effects associated with either treatment approach used in the study, but the gepotidacin group had higher rates of side effects compared with the ceftriaxone-plus-azithromycin group, which were mostly gastrointestinal, such as diarrhea and nausea, and almost all were mild or moderate, according to the study.

“One of the challenges is that a lot of oral antibiotics have GI side effects,” Zucker said.

The researchers noted that it will be important to investigate the efficacy of gepotidacin for treating gonorrhea in groups not primarily represented in the study especially women and Black and Brown communities, as 92% of participants in the study were men, 74% were White and 71% were men who have sex with men.

If gepotidacin is approved for the treatment of gonorrhea in the United States, “the price will be disclosed when the product will be supplied in a market. Our approach would be for it to reflect the value and outcomes they bring to patients, providers and payers while being sensitive to market and societal expectations,” according to a GSK spokesperson.

Bluejepa, the brand name for the version of gepotidacin approved in the United States to treat UTIs, is expected to be available in the second half of 2025.

‘A true advance’

The new study was “very well-done” with “rigorous data,” and having more options to treat gonorrhea is critical for slowing down the bacteria’s drug resistance, said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a clinical professor of public health at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the trial.

“The more options doctors have to treat gonorrhea means that they do not have to use the same drug over and over again, which is a recipe for disaster and more resistance. We know that using the same drug over and over again leads to drug resistance,” Klausner said in the email. “If gepotidacin is approved and recommended for gonorrhea treatment, that is a true advance and will greatly help our efforts to slow down drug resistance in gonorrhea.”

In the study, researchers noted that using gepotidacin to treat gonorrhea as an oral treatment option, not an injection, may be more efficient and reduces the risk of persistent, drug-resistant infections.

Yet there is some concern that strains of gonorrhea may eventually develop resistance to gepotidacin, according to a comment paper accompanying the new study in The Lancet.

“In our opinion, N gonorrhoeae will also develop gepotidacin resistance when the selective pressure increases and where compliance to the dual-dose regimen is suboptimal,” Magnus Unemo of Örebro University in Sweden and Teodora Wi of the World Health Organization in Switzerland wrote in the paper.

“Due to the inherent ability of gonococci to develop resistance, difficulties in increasing the gepotidacin dose due to adverse events, and the lack of other treatment options, preclinical and clinical development of additional gonorrhoea treatments remains important,” they wrote. “In conclusion, gepotidacin is promising for the treatment of gonorrhoea, but the challenges to retain gonorrhoea as a treatable infection will continue.”

Depression is a mental illness that can make everyday tasks feel difficult. But health professionals can offer many tools to help keep symptoms at bay.

Depression, also referred to as major depressive disorder or clinical depression, is a condition that can cause severe symptoms related to the way you feel, think and go about doing daily activities, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Common symptoms of depression include fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, changes in appetite, sleep disturbances and more.

“It’s important to realize that these are conditions to manage,” psychiatrist Dr. Judith Joseph tells USA TODAY. “Doing daily preventative practices to prevent worsening of depression … is important.”

One popular avenue to prevent worsening of depression is by taking daily medication, such as an SSRI. While this kind of medication has come under scrutiny as of late, medical experts maintain that they’re safe and effective.

Here’s what health professionals want you to know about SSRIs, and whether they may help you or a loved one experiencing depression or anxiety symptoms.

What is an SSRI?

SSRI stands for “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor,” a class of medication that medical professionals most commonly prescribe to treat a variety of mental health conditions, according to StatPearls, a digital resource available through the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information.

“They modulate serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the brain and help to ease symptoms of anxiety and depression,” Joseph says, and improve quality of life.

Common SSRIs include fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine, fluvoxamine, citalopram, escitalopram and vilazodone.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also approved SSRIs to treat a number of other issues including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), bulimia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Health professionals sometimes also prescribe SSRIs for off-label uses including to help with binge eating disorder, fibromyalgia, premature ejaculation, autism and vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause.

How do SSRIs work?

SSRIs are a subsection of the larger class of antidepressants. Other antidepressants usually prescribed for depression, according to NYU Langone Health, include serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors such as venlafaxine and duloxetine and atypical antidepressants including bupropion and mirtazapine.

Joseph highlights benefits of SSRIs including helping to release tension and anxiety while improving mood. “Other antidepressants may be more activating because of their norepinephrine quality,” she adds.

Antidepressants in general may cause side effects including an upset gastrointestinal tract, decreased libido, weight gain, headaches, insomnia, tremor or temperature changes, according to Joseph.

But medical professionals usually prescribe SSRIs, along with other forms of approved antidepressants because they believe the benefits outweigh the side effects. Health providers often prescribe SSRIs because of their “safety, efficacy and tolerability,” per StatPearls.