EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 14-Jun-2026 13:15 ET (14-Jun-2026 17:15 GMT/UTC)

4-May-2026

Engineers track eye movements to advance student simulation training, enhance clinical preparedness in Meridian

Mississippi State University
Reports and Proceedings

A Mississippi State University faculty member and undergraduate researcher are using eye-tracking technology at MSU-Meridian to study how students see, process and respond in high-pressure training scenarios, helping reshape how future healthcare professionals are educated.

4-May-2026

Why risk perception matters for quitting smoking

Medical University of South Carolina
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A 2019 vaping-related health scare reshaped how many smokers view the risks of e-cigarettes – and those perceptions still linger today. New research from MUSC Hollings Cancer Center found that smokers came to see e-cigarettes as equally or more dangerous relative to combustible cigarettes, even after the true cause of the illness was identified, which may influence decisions about quitting or switching.

“That period really changed how people think about these products,” said lead researcher Tracy Smith, Ph.D., who co-leads the Hollings Cancer Prevention and Control Program. “Even after we learned more about what caused the illness, those perceptions didn’t fully reset.”

Journal: Addictive Behaviors
Funder: TD Bank

4-May-2026

Minor federal fines offer little deterrence to insurers for Medicare Advantage violations, study finds

Brown University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study from health policy researchers at the Brown University School of Public Health suggests that while regulators have several tools at their disposal to penalize insurance plans that break the rules, they rely mostly on relatively small financial penalties that may do little to deter violations.

Journal: JAMA Internal Medicine

4-May-2026

New research links prenatal chemical exposure to chromosomal abnormalities in adult sperm

George Mason University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Environmental health epidemiologist Melissa Perry and collaborators report new human evidence that prenatal and childhood exposure to persistent environmental chemicals may influence sperm chromosomal integrity decades later.

Journal: Environmental Health

4-May-2026

Sanford Burnham Prebys awarded $3.9 million NIH grant to develop first-in-class non-opioid pain treatment

Sanford Burnham Prebys
Grant and Award Announcement

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a $3.9 million grant to a multi-institutional team led by scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute to develop a non-opioid pain therapeutic and advance it into a Phase 1 clinical trial.

4-May-2026

Research aims to identify underlying causes for linked mental-health issues

University of Kansas
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The investigation, appearing in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, relied on the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP), an emerging alternative to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the traditional guide for diagnosing and treating patients. The findings suggest HiTOP’s use of symptom dimensions may better support more precise, personalized mental health care.

4-May-2026

Researchers uncover brain mechanism that may help slow Parkinson’s disease, curiously only in females

Texas A&M University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By boosting nicotine‑responsive receptors — without using nicotine itself — scientists protected brain cells from degeneration.

Journal: JNeurosci
Funder: American Parkinson Disease Association

4-May-2026

Cannabis microdosing more common than psychedelics among US adults, national survey finds

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from UC San Diego have found that microdosing — taking very small amounts of psychoactive substances — is more common among U.S. adults than previously recognized, with cannabis leading by a wide margin.

Journal: American Journal of Preventive Medicine

4-May-2026

Study finds major gaps in dementia care across Mississippi

University of Mississippi
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Some 80% of Mississippi counties have no adult day service centers, and even counties that do have centers cannot meet the needs of people with dementia and their caregivers, a new University of Mississippi-led study indicates.

Journal: Journal of Applied Gerontology