Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have “reverse engineered” ketamine’s antidepressant effects to identify potential new strategies for treating depression.

While there are many effective treatments available for depression, not all patients respond to them. About one-third of patients must try multiple medications before eventually finding relief, and another third have treatment-resistant depression. An anesthetic called ketamine can provide immediate relief to some patients with treatment-resistant depression, but the effects are often short-lived. Ketamine also has serious side effects for some patients, including changes in heart rate or blood pressure, feelings of being disconnected from one’s thoughts or self and addiction.

A new study led by researchers at NYU School of Global Public Health finds that sickle cell disease care is unevenly distributed across regions in New York State. New York City has the largest proportion of hospitalizations and Long Island has the highest charges for care, but hospital stays are longer in other areas with less access to specialized care, according to the study published in JAMA Network Open.

About The Study: In this cohort study of community-living older U.S. persons, poor housing affordability was associated with higher risks of frailty, disability, dementia, and mortality, and poor housing quality was associated with higher risks of frailty, disability, and mortality. These findings highlight housing insecurity as a clinically relevant social determinant of health among older persons.

About The Study: Despite rapid expansion of ultraexpensive drugs in Medicare Part D, this cohort study found that availability in comparable economies remains limited, and internationally unavailable products often have higher per-beneficiary spending, underscoring their fiscal significance.

About The Study: This single-center study demonstrates that uterus transplant can result in a live birth for women with absolute uterine factor infertility. These data support the feasibility of uterus transplant in specialized, multidisciplinary centers capable of integrating transplant surgery, reproductive medicine, and maternal fetal care. Ongoing reporting and data sharing will be essential to refine risk estimates and optimize patient counseling as the uterus transplant field continues to mature.

Attractiveness of the nose affects how people view the face – with attractive noses actually drawing less attention than unattractive noses, reports a study in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

While recreational cannabis laws have significantly reduced arrests for cannabis possession and sales, racial disparities in arrests still exist, according to a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and The University of Texas at Austin. The authors suggest that recreational cannabis laws do not fully resolve underlying systemic inequities.