The constitutionality of a Colorado law[1] that bans so-called “conversion therapy[2]” is scheduled to go before the Supreme Court on Oct. 7, 2025. The question at the center of the case, Chiles v. Salazar, is whether a therapist who uses talk therapy to try to convince minors to change their sexual orientation or gender identity is protected by a First Amendment right to free speech.
Poor sleep speeds brain aging and may raise dementia risk
People who sleep poorly are more likely than others to have brains that appear older than they actually are. This is according to a comprehensive brain imaging study from Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal eBioMedicine. Increased inflammation in the body may partly explain the association.
Poor sleep has been linked to dementia, but it is unclear whether unhealthy sleep habits contribute to the development of dementia or whether they are rather early symptoms of the disease. In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated the link between sleep characteristics and how old the brain appears in relation to its chronological age.
The study includes 27,500 middle-aged and older people from the UK Biobank who underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. Using machine learning, the researchers estimated the biological age of the brain based on over a thousand brain MRI phenotypes.
Low-grade inflammation
The participants' sleep quality was scored based on five self-reported factors: chronotype (being a morning/evening person), sleep duration, insomnia, snoring, and daytime sleepiness. They were then divided into three groups: healthy (≥4 points), intermediate (2-3 points), or poor (≤1 point) sleep.
"The gap between brain age and chronological age widened by about six months for every 1-point decrease in healthy sleep score," explains Abigail Dove, researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, who led the study. "People with poor sleep had brains that appeared on average one year older than their actual age."
To understand how poor sleep can affect the brain, the researchers also examined levels of low-grade inflammation in the body. They found that inflammation could explain just over ten per cent of the link between poor sleep and older brain age.
"Our findings provide evidence that poor sleep may contribute to accelerated brain aging and point to inflammation as one of the underlying mechanisms," says Abigail Dove. "Since sleep is modifiable, it may be possible to prevent accelerated brain aging and perhaps even cognitive decline through healthier sleep."
Several possible explanations
Other possible mechanisms that could explain the association are negative effects on the brain's waste clearance system, which is active mainly during sleep, or that poor sleep affects cardiovascular health, which in turn can have a negative impact on the brain.
Participants in the UK Biobank are healthier than the general UK population, which could limit the generalisability of the findings. Another limitation of the study is that the results are based on self-reported sleep.
The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, and Tianjin Medical University and Sichuan University in China, among others. It was funded by the Alzheimer's Foundation, the Dementia Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, the Loo and Hans Osterman Foundation for Medical Research, and the Knowledge Foundation. The researchers report no conflicts of interest.
A single dose of psilocybin may rewire the brain for lasting relief
Researchers at Penn Medicine have identified specific brain circuits that are impacted by psilocybin -- the active compound found in some psychedelic mushrooms -- which could lead to new paths forward for pain and mental health management options. Chronic pain affects more than 1.5 billion people worldwide and is often deeply entangled with depression and anxiety, creating a vicious cycle that amplifies suffering and impairs quality of life. The study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania- published today in Nature Neuroscience- offers new insight into ways to disrupt this cycle.
"As an anesthesiologist, I frequently care for people undergoing surgery who suffer from both chronic pain and depression. In many cases, they're not sure which condition came first, but often, one makes the other worse," said Joseph Cichon, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Penn and senior author of the study. "This new study offers hope. These findings open the door to developing new, non-opioid, non-addictive therapies as psilocybin and related psychedelics are not considered addictive."
Targeting the Brain's Pain and Mood Hub
In studies using mice with chronic nerve injury and inflammatory pain, researchers found that a single dose of psilocybin reduced both pain and pain-induced anxiety and depression-like behaviors, with those benefits lasting almost two weeks. Psilocybin acts by gently activating specific brain signals, called serotonin receptors (5-HT2A and 5-HT1A). "Unlike other drugs that fully turn these signals on or off, psilocybin acts more like a dimmer switch, turning it to just the right level," said Cichon.
To pinpoint where the effects originated, researchers injected psilocin -- the active substance into which the body converts psilocybin -- into different regions of the central nervous system. The team used advanced fluorescent microscopy, a technique that uses glowing dyes to see and capture neuronal activity, to see chronic pain neurons spontaneously firing. When psilocin was injected directly into the prefrontal cortex of the brain, specifically the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a part of the brain that processes pain and emotions, it provided the same pain relief and mood improvements as when psilocybin was given to the whole body.
Researchers also injected psilocin into the spinal cord, but it didn't have the same calming effect. "Psilocybin may offer meaningful relief for patients by bypassing the site of injury altogether and instead modulating brain circuits that process pain, while lifting the ones that help you feel better, giving you relief from both pain and low mood at the same time," said Cichon.
Results Can Drive Future Psilocybin Research
Researchers believe the findings from this study could also inform therapies for other conditions involving dysregulated brain circuits, such as addiction or post-traumatic stress disorder. Cichon adds that more research is needed to determine the effectiveness of psilocybin. "In my anesthesiology practice, I often see that both pain and mood symptoms can worsen following surgery due to the physiological and psychological stress imposed by the procedure. While psilocybin shows promise as a treatment for both pain and depression, it remains uncertain whether such therapies would be safe, effective, or feasible in the context of surgery and anesthesia," adds Cichon. The Penn team plans to investigate optimal dosing strategies, long-term effects, and the ability of the brain to re-wire itself in sustaining these benefits in rodent models. "While these findings are encouraging, we don't know how long-lived psilocybin's effects are or how multiple doses might be needed to adjust brain pathways involved in chronic pain for a longer lasting solution," adds Stephen Wisser, co-author and a Penn Neuroscience PhD student in Cichon's lab.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R35GM151160-01) and the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) Chronic Pain Medicine Research Award.
Breastfeeding is ideal for child and parent health but challenging for most families – a pediatrician explains how to find support
As a pediatrician[1], I thought my medical background and pediatric training meant I would be well prepared to breastfeed my newborn. I knew all about the research on how an infant’s diet can affect both their short- and long-term health[2]. Compared to formula, breastfeeding is linked to a lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome, lower rates of infections and hospitalizations and a lower risk of developing diabetes later...