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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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)