The AP (9/22, Swenson, Seitz) reports that on Monday, the President promoted “unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism as his administration announced a wide-ranging effort to study the causes of the complex brain disorder.” In a news conference at the White House, the President urged pregnant women not to take acetaminophen. He urged “mothers not to give their infants the drug, known by the generic name acetaminophen.” Trump “also fueled long-debunked claims that ingredients in vaccines or timing shots close together could contribute to rising rates of autism in the U.S., without providing any medical evidence.”
        
Reuters (9/22, Erman, Aboulenein, Steenhuysen) reports the President, who was accompanied by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “called for a reexamination of a link between vaccines and autism, a theory that has been repeatedly debunked, and a series of changes not grounded in science.” According to Reuters, the Administration’s advice “goes against that of medical societies, which cite data from numerous studies showing acetaminophen plays a safe role in the well-being of pregnant women.” The Administration “also suggested leucovorin, a form of folic acid, as a treatment for autism symptoms.”
        
NBC News (9/22, Lovelace Jr., Bendix, Edwards) reports the President “spoke alongside Kennedy, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.” Kennedy “said the FDA will issue a letter advising health care [professionals] that acetaminophen should be used during pregnancy only in cases of high fever, when the fever itself may pose a health risk to the fetus.” Bhattacharya also “said at Monday’s briefing that the NIH will dedicate $50 million to 13 research projects focused on identifying root causes and treatments for autism,” an effort known as the “autism data science initiative.”
        
Chief Healthcare Executive (9/23, Southwick) reports that the American Psychiatric Association “issued a statement Monday criticizing the federal government for its statements on acetaminophen.” In its statement, the APA said, “Autism is a complex disorder, and it is incorrect to imply that a handful of studies have established causation. A strong base of evidence shows that acetaminophen, when taken as directed, is safe for use during pregnancy. Any decisions around a course of treatment should be determined by a patient and their doctor.”

Related Links:

— “Trump makes unfounded claims about Tylenol and repeats discredited link between vaccines and autism,”Ali Swenson and Lauran Neergaard, AP, September 22, 2025

MedPage Today (9/19, George) reports, “A cascade of brain injuries was evident in contact sport athletes long before they had signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), autopsy data showed.” These “injuries led to neuron loss, inflammation, and vascular damage in the former athletes, most of whom played American football and all of whom died before age 51, according to” researchers. The findings were published in Nature.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

PBS NewsHour (9/19, Brown) reported, “The music industry, full of glamorous stars and thrilling performances, can also be grueling for the musicians themselves, sometimes even with tragic consequences.” A MusiCares survey from 2024 “revealed that over 8 percent of respondents within that industry had…serious thoughts of suicide in the past year. That is notably higher than the 5 percent rate among the general population.” Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown discussed the Park City Song Summit in Utah that featured an emphasis on mental health and wellness.

Related Links:

— “Music festival helps artists confront and manage the industry’s mental health impact,”William Brangham, PBS NewsHour , September 19, 2025

Infectious Disease Advisor (9/19, Kuhns) reported a study found that “pre-COVID-19 mental and physical health is significantly worse in patients who later develop long COVID.” For the study, researchers “aimed to determine whether health-related quality of life (HRQOL) prior to COVID-19 infection predicts development of long COVID symptoms. They also compared pre-COVID-19 HRQOL between patients who developed long COVID and matched control patients, as well as HRQOL trajectories from initial infection through 1 year.” Researchers observed that “lower pre-COVID-19 HRQOL scores were significantly associated with a higher risk for multiple long COVID symptoms, including after adjustments for age, sex, and initial COVID-19 hospitalization.” Furthermore, “after 1 year of follow-up, the researchers noted both mental and physical health scores remained significantly lower in patients with long COVID compared with matched control patients. Although patients with long COVID experienced a greater decline in HRQOL 1 year after initial infection, the decline was not clinically significant.” The study was published in Frontiers in Public Health.

Related Links:

— “Pre-COVID-19 HRQOL Predicts Severity of Long COVID Symptoms,”Lisa Kuhns, Infectious Disease Advisor , September 19, 2025

Healio (9/18, Gawel) reports a study found that “soccer players with more frequent repetitive head injuries from heading the ball had significantly greater microstructural disruption in their juxtacortical white matter at sulci depths.” Subsequently, “these injuries also were associated with poorer performance on verbal learning and memory performance testing.” Study lead Michael L. Lipton, MD, PhD, professor of radiology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told Healio, “The study builds on our prior work showing that heading is associated with changes in brain microstructure and cognitive performance.” He added, “However, the peripheral white matter has never been examined, although it is known to be a site of injury in TBI and a focus of pathology in CTE.” The study was published in Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Soccer heading linked to microstructural injury, lower cognitive performance,”Richard Gawel, Healio , September 18, 2025

KFF Health News (9/18, Wolfson) reports the goal of fostering physicians who train locally and stay to work in rural areas is weakened by “recent state and federal spending cuts” that will “pull dollars out of an already frayed health system, exacerbating the shortage of care and making their efforts more challenging.” KFF details how “California’s health care shortage is driven by the struggles of rural hospitals; an aging physician workforce; the inherent appeal to up-and-coming doctors of more urban areas; and the financial pressures of doing business in a region with a high proportion of low-paying government insurance, especially Medi-Cal, the state’s version of the Medicaid program, for people with low incomes and disabilities.” Specialists are in “acutely short supply” in many northern counties, with some areas with no specialists at all. Beyond funding cuts, “medical educators also worry about new caps on federal student loans, which could deter lower-income students, including those in rural areas, from medical school. Altogether, the financial constraints will only make the health care shortage worse.”

Related Links:

— “Health Care Cuts Threaten Homegrown Solutions to Rural Doctor Shortages,”Bernard J. Wolfson, KFF Health News, September 18, 2025

HealthDay (9/17, Gotkine) reports a study presented at the 2025 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress suggests that “patients with atopic eczema (AE) have an increased risk for suicidal ideation (SI).” The researchers “surveyed 15,223 adults with AE and 7,968 controls without eczema across 27 countries to examine the prevalence of SI and its associated risk factors in the Scars of Life study.” They observed that “SI was reported by 13.2 percent of AE patients compared with 8.5 percent of controls. No significant difference was seen in the prevalence of SI across AE subgroups, but all had elevated odds of SI versus controls. Key predictors were revealed on comparison of 2,010 SI cases with 13,213 non-SI cases, including younger age and obesity.” Meanwhile, clinical risk factors “included moderate-to-severe AE, pruritus, skin pain, and high symptom intensity.”

Related Links:

— “Suicidal Ideation Risk Elevated for Patients With Atopic Eczema,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay, September 17, 2025

USA Today (9/17, Ramirez) reports Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) stated Wednesday they will introduce legislation that “would reinstate the specialized suicide crisis lifeline for LGBTQ+ young people and direct the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to dedicate funding toward ‘re-establishing, operating and maintaining’ the program.” The Administration eliminated the service two months ago, leaving a “void for young LGBTQ+ people who have no place to turn, according to the senators. Before being shut down, a troubled youth could call 988 and press ‘3’ to get connected directly to a counselor specializing in LGBTQ+ issues.” According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the LGBTQ+ program had served nearly 1.6 million young people since its inception, with a rising number of contacts each year.

Related Links:

— “Senators propose bill to reinstate LGBTQ+ youth crisis lifeline option eliminated by Trump,”Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY, September 17, 2025

Healio (9/15, Gawel) reports a meta-analysis of more than 50 clinical trials and observational studies presented at the American Neurological Association Annual Meeting 2025 found that the “risks for developing Alzheimer’s disease can increase or decrease depending on when women begin hormone replacement therapy.” Patients in the meta-analysis included “women who used estrogen alone, estrogen and progestin, or estrogen and a selective estrogen receptor modulator after menopause, as well as those who took a placebo or did not receive any treatment.” Researchers observed a “38% increase in risk for Alzheimer’s disease among women who began hormone replacement therapy at age 65 years or older, especially among those who used progestin.” Meanwhile, “women who began therapy around the time of their menopause saw a 22% reduction in risk, based on data from 45 observational studies of real-world outcomes. This increased to a 32% reduction for those who began within 5 years of menopause, based on an analysis of the observational studies and the randomized controlled trials.”

Related Links:

— “Hormone replacement therapy timing linked to Alzheimer’s disease risks,”Richard Gawel, Healio , September 15, 2025

Healio (9/15, Wursta) reports a study found that “patients with autoimmune conditions and chronic inflammation may be at twice the risk for mental health disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety vs. the general population.” The researchers “examined data from the Our Future Health research cohort, which included 1,563,155 participants…in the United Kingdom. Among the cohort, 37,808 patients had lifetime diagnoses of one of six autoimmune conditions: rheumatoid arthritis, Graves’ syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis and psoriasis.” The researchers observed that “patients with an autoimmune condition demonstrated significantly higher rates of depression (28.8% vs. 17.9%), bipolar disorder (28.4% vs. 17.8%) and anxiety (29.3% vs. 18%) compared with healthy participants. The researchers additionally found risk for mental health issues in this patient group remained higher even after controlling for variables such as income, history of chronic pain and history of social isolation.” The study was published in BMJ Mental Health.

Related Links:

— “Anxiety, bipolar disorder risks nearly twice as high in patients with autoimmune disease,”Max R. Wursta, Healio , September 15, 2025