The Washington Post (9/25, Timsit) reports a study published Wednesday in Science Advances explores why our brains sometimes “hold on to some seemingly ordinary moments while letting others slip away.” The study found that “our brains selectively strengthen certain memories when they are associated with important experiences, in a mechanism known as memory enhancement. As part of that process, the brain uses a sliding scale to decide which memories to preserve.” Moreover, the study “suggests that tying ‘fragile’ memories – of typically routine events – to memorable or rewarding moments could prevent them from slipping away, and that doing this in a systematic way could help strengthen useful memories or weaken irrelevant ones.” Study results further indicated “that people were more likely to remember neutral memories that came after a major event if that event was important or meaningful.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (9/25) reports a systematic review of 25 school-based interventions found that “two school-based trauma intervention programs – Enhancing Resiliency Amongst Students Experiencing Stress (ERASE-Stress) and Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) – were found to have a high level of evidence for effectiveness.” The eligible studies “tested the intervention effects on posttraumatic stress and other mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, psychological distress, conduct problems, and other internalizing or externalizing symptoms.” ERASE-Stress and TRT were “rated as having a high level of evidence.” Meanwhile, “four interventions met criteria for a moderate level of evidence: Bounce Back, Classroom-Based Intervention, Support for Students Exposed to Trauma, and a selective intervention for Israeli children exposed to violence.” The review was published in Psychiatric Services.

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— “Six School-Based Trauma Interventions Found to Have High or Moderate Effectiveness, Psychiatric News , September 26, 2025

STAT (9/24, Cooney, Gaffney, Merelli, Subscription Publication) reports, “Federal health officials are telling Americans no, they shouldn’t take Tylenol during pregnancy for fear of autism and yes, they should try a drug used in cancer care to treat children who have developed autism. The medical world disagrees.” APA CEO and medical director Marketa Wills, MD, said, “We were actually pretty alarmed by some of the output that was coming from the administration.” And “until more research is conducted, Wills recommends that doctors rely on professional societies, peer-reviewed research in medical journals, and resources like UpToDate and the Washington Manual for guidance on how to talk with patients.” Meanwhile, “despite the FDA’s unusual reapproval of leucovorin as a potential treatment for speech-related autism symptoms, there is not enough evidence for any doctor to recommend the drug to a patient in any scenario, Wills said.” She remarked, “We’re years away from a recommendation for that type of intervention.”

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— “Trump’s ‘tough it out’ to pregnant women meets wave of opposition by medical experts,” Elizabeth Cooney, Theresa Gaffney, and Annalisa Merelli, STAT, September 24, 2025

HealthDay (9/24, Gotkine) reports a study found that “for children at federally qualified health centers implementing behavioral health integration, encounters with a behavioral health clinician (BHC) and psychotropic prescriptions are associated with improved psychosocial symptoms.” Researchers observed that among 942 unique children at federally qualified health centers, “57.5 percent received any type of treatment and 42.5 percent were in the control group. The researchers found that the 17-item Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC-17) scores were 1.51 points lower among children in the treatment group after having at least one encounter with a BHC compared with the control group. PSC-17 scores were 2.21 points lower among children in the treatment group after they received a psychotropic prescription compared with the control group. There was no significant change in scores among children with at least one community health worker encounter.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Behavioral Health Integration Can Improve Psychosocial Health of Children,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay, September 24, 2025

MedPage Today (9/23, George) reports, “Drinking any amount of alcohol increased dementia risk, data from a combined observational and genetic study suggested.” Researchers observed that “light alcohol consumption was associated with low dementia risk in observational analyses, and genetic analyses showed a monotonic increasing dementia risk with higher alcohol intake.” Furthermore, “Mendelian randomization suggested a causal role of alcohol consumption in increasing dementia risk with no evidence supporting a protective effect at any consumption level.” Overall, the study authors concluded the results “challenge the notion that low levels of alcohol are neuroprotective.” The study was published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.

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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.”

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— “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.

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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.

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— “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.

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— “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.

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