HealthDay (1/7, Gotkine) reports, “Dried blood collection derived from capillary blood shows potential for Alzheimer disease (AD) biomarker testing, according to a study.” Researchers “examined the potential of dried plasma spot (DPS) and dried blood spot (DBS) analysis, derived from capillary blood, for detecting AD biomarkers, including phosphorylated tau at amino acid 217 (p-tau217), glial fibrillary acidic protein, and neurofilament light.” The investigators “identified strong correlations between DPS p-tau217 and venous plasma p-tau217. There was a progressive increase in DPS p-tau217 with increasing disease severity, with good accuracy for predicting cerebrospinal fluid biomarker positivity.” By “using paired venous plasma samples, glial fibrillary acidic protein and neurofilament light were successfully detected, with strong correlations between DBS and DPS, respectively.” The findings were published in Nature Medicine.

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— “Dried Blood Collection Shows Potential for Alzheimer Disease Biomarker Testing,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay , January 7, 2026

MedPage Today (1/7, Firth) reports, “Yoga alongside standard buprenorphine therapy hastened opioid withdrawal recovery and improved autonomic regulation compared with buprenorphine alone, an early-stage randomized trial in India showed.” Researchers found that “among 59 participants with opioid use disorder (OUD) in the intent-to-treat analysis, those in the yoga group recovered from withdrawal faster than those in the control group…with a median stabilization time of 5 days versus 9 days, respectively.” Participants in the yoga group “had better heart rate variability improvements, with large effects on low frequency power, high frequency power, and low frequency/high frequency ratio.” The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HCP Live (1/6, Derman) reports a study found that “changing therapists or therapy approach does not offer additional benefit for adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) who do not respond to initial psychotherapy,” although “further psychotherapy after initial non-response produces modest reductions in depressive symptoms.” The study “showed a modest but statistically significant reduction in depressive symptoms after continuing psychotherapy. However, investigators observed no significant differences in symptom reduction, response, or remission rates between the 3 treatment strategies.” Investigators concluded, “Switching therapist or both therapist and method does not appear to offer additional benefit, but also does not hinder outcomes.” The study was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

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— “Switching Therapists for Psychotherapy Offers No Advantage in MDD,”Chelsie Derman , HCP Live, January 6, 2026

Psychiatric News (1/6) reports a meta-analysis of 62 studies suggests that “children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to receive negative parenting – such as lack of warmth or responsiveness to developmental needs, and greater hostility, abuse, or family conflict – than children without the disorder.” Researchers observed that “children with ADHD showed significantly lower levels of positive parenting and higher levels of negative parenting than controls. There were group differences across all 14 parenting factors, but the strongest effects were found for authoritative parenting, warmth, abuse, family conflict, and hostility.” The analysis was published in the Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

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— “Significant Differences Found in Parenting of Children With ADHD, Psychiatric News, January 6, 2026

The Washington Post (1/6, Johnson) reports a new study shows that “the stimulants Ritalin and Adderall…don’t act on the brain’s attention circuitry as had long been assumed.” Rather, the ADHD medications “primarily target the brain’s reward and wakefulness centers.” The research team “compared images of children who took prescription stimulants on the day of their scan with those of children who did not take stimulants. By studying the connections that allow different regions of the brain to communicate with one another, the scientists discovered that stimulants were promoting increased activity in the wakefulness and reward regions, but not in the attention ones.” The study “supports an increasing body of research that has pointed toward lack of proper sleep as a contributor to ADHD.” The study was published in Cell.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)