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First drug to treat Alexander disease approved by the FDA after three decades of research

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-drug-alexander-disease-fda-decades.html

Published: September 21, 2026 23:20

The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the first drug to treat Alexander disease, a rare, progressive and often fatal neurological disorder that can affect motor, cognitive and autonomic functions like heart rate and breathing. The drug,…

Common drugs older adults might be overusing

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-common-drugs-older-adults-overusing.html

Published: September 21, 2026 18:40

The scenario often unfolds like this: Medical researchers investigate a frequently used drug and report that it's less effective for older patients than previously thought, or that its risks outweigh its benefits in older adults. More studies follow,…

Experimental drug raises energy expenditure but fails to activate brown fat in human study

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-experimental-drug-energy-expenditure-brown.html

Published: September 21, 2026 16:40

Brown fat burns energy to generate heat and is therefore considered a promising target for new obesity treatments. Researchers at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel have tested whether a drug can activate brown fat in humans. Their…

RNA therapy may help preserve muscle during GLP-1 weight loss

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-rna-therapy-muscle-glp-weight.html

Published: September 21, 2026 15:00

GLP-1 drugs have revolutionized obesity treatment, but they can lead people to lose muscle mass along with fat. And when patients stop treatment, they often regain their weight—primarily as fat.

Existing cancer drug may protect the heart during certain chemotherapy treatments

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-cancer-drug-heart-chemotherapy-treatments.html

Published: September 21, 2026 10:40

The chemotherapy agent doxorubicin is used successfully to treat a range of cancers but can, as a side effect, damage the heart muscle. Researchers at the Heidelberg Faculty of Medicine at Heidelberg University have now identified the molecular signaling…

Changes in oral anticoagulant and cardiovascular drug use with the progression of neurodegenerative disorders

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-oral-anticoagulant-cardiovascular-drug-neurodegenerative.html

Published: September 21, 2026 10:40

Cardiovascular diseases are common among people living with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Understanding drug utilization patterns in these populations is important for ensuring safe and effective treatment, supporting clinical…

Antidepressant withdrawal, not relapse, linked to mood changes

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-antidepressant-relapse-linked-mood.html

Published: September 21, 2026 07:00

When people stop taking antidepressants, they can feel terrible—their mood can plummet and anxiety can spike. But are these symptoms caused by withdrawal, or are they signs of a relapse?

Vitamin C linked to improved outcomes in people with precancerous blood disorders

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-vitamin-linked-outcomes-people-precancerous.html

Published: September 21, 2026 03:00

Vitamin C boosts the activity of cellular proteins called TET enzymes that help control which genes are turned on or off. Because decreased function of TET enzymes is a common driver of certain forms of blood cancer, researchers tested the effects of…

One-third of older adults with cognitive disorders are taking prescription drugs that could harm them

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-older-adults-cognitive-disorders-prescription.html

Published: September 20, 2026 08:00

Adults 65 and older with cognitive disorders such as dementia are more likely to suffer negative effects from drugs that treat central nervous system conditions, including anxiety, sleep problems and psychosis. This means more emergency department visits,…

AI reads doctors' notes at scale, revealing data absent from coded medical records

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-ai-doctors-scale-revealing-absent.html

Published: September 18, 2026 13:40

Every time a person sees a doctor, the visit produces two kinds of records. There are the tidy checkbox fields: the billing codes, the lab values, the prescription entries. And there is the note the clinician actually writes, describing what the patient…

At‑home drug disposal products can play an important role in keeping rural Coloradans safe

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-athome-drug-disposal-products-play.html

Published: September 18, 2026 10:40

Some Coloradans have a drug problem: old prescription medications clogging their medicine cabinets.

The body's warmth sensor is secretly a pain switch—blocking it may ease arthritis

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-body-warmth-sensor-secretly-pain.html

Published: September 17, 2026 12:20

Chronic pain, including arthritis pain, affects more than one-third of U.K. adults. Current painkillers such as methotrexate and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) work by damping down the immune system, which is overproducing inflammatory…

Peptides are spreading on social media. Here's how platforms can better protect public health

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-peptides-social-media-platforms-health.html

Published: September 17, 2026 09:40

Scroll through social media these days and you'll likely come across someone injecting themselves with a clear liquid, raving about how it's changed their body for the better, improved their recovery or maybe their skin.

Greater access to help needed for women with nausea during pregnancy

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-greater-access-women-nausea-pregnancy.html

Published: September 17, 2026 07:00

Medical assistance can help women suffering from severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, but insufficient recognition of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) means many are not getting the help they need to overcome this severe and debilitating form of morning…

Anti-seizure drug fights aggressive childhood brain tumors, study shows

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-anti-seizure-drug-aggressive-childhood.html

Published: September 17, 2026 05:00

An existing anti-seizure drug slows the growth of a devastating group of childhood cancers, new Stanford Medicine-led research has shown. The tumors, called diffuse midline gliomas, strike the brain and spinal cord. They affect 300 to 400 U.S. children per…

US officials sidelined warnings about flawed COVID vaccine safety algorithm, investigation finds

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-sidelined-flawed-covid-vaccine-safety.html

Published: September 16, 2026 18:30

U.S. health officials knowingly relied on a compromised algorithm to detect signals of harm from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and silenced efforts to fix it, finds an investigation published by The BMJ today.

How does the menopause drug Veoza work? And how is it different from hormone therapy?

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-menopause-drug-veoza-hormone-therapy.html

Published: September 16, 2026 14:40

Hot flashes and night sweats—collectively called vasomotor symptoms—are among the most common and disruptive symptoms of menopause. They affect almost 40% of women in the lead-up to menopause, known as perimenopause.

Three studies map how superbugs evade antibiotics and spread to vulnerable patients

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-superbugs-evade-antibiotics-vulnerable-patients.html

Published: September 16, 2026 13:00

To defeat multidrug-resistant superbugs, bacterial defenses must be confronted wherever they may emerge, from basic genetic mutations in a laboratory to complex real-world transmission in hospital rooms. A new trio of studies published in Antimicrobial…

Targeting Nav1.7: A new approach to long-lasting relief from nerve pain

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-nav17-approach-relief-nerve-pain.html

Published: September 16, 2026 11:20

Pain is a natural protective mechanism that alerts the body to actual or potential injury. But when nerves themselves are damaged, they can generate abnormal pain signals even in the absence of a new injury. This condition, known as neuropathic pain, can…

Can psychedelic clinical trials be better? Researchers say yes

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-psychedelic-clinical-trials.html

Published: September 16, 2026 11:00

UC San Francisco researchers are weighing in on one of the biggest challenges in psychedelic science, arguing that clinical trials need more convincing placebo treatments to better measure the drugs' true effects.

The compounding problem of peptides

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-compounding-problem-peptides.html

Published: September 16, 2026 09:40

What if you could heal like Wolverine?

From 7,000 drugs to one active against resistant strains: AI advances pneumonia drug repurposing

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-drugs-resistant-strains-ai-advances.html

Published: September 16, 2026 03:10

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a bacterial pathogen that causes life-threatening infections, including pneumonia and meningitis. These infections are commonly treated with antibiotics, but antibiotics are becoming less effective against S. pneumoniae over…

World-first psilocin binge eating disorder trial reveals improvement in all patients

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-world-psilocin-binge-disorder-trial.html

Published: September 15, 2026 17:20

Swinburne University of Technology and Entropy Neurodynamics' world's first IV-infused psilocin binge-eating disorder trial has led to improvements in all participants.

Drug improves sexual function for patients with depression, study finds

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-drug-sexual-function-patients-depression.html

Published: September 15, 2026 15:00

Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and an inadequate response to standard antidepressants who received add-on treatment with the drug lumateperone had significantly improved sexual function, according to a new study led by a University of…

Experimental drug shows potential for hard-to-treat heart disease

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-experimental-drug-potential-hard-heart.html

Published: September 15, 2026 14:20

An experimental drug has been shown to improve symptoms, exercise capacity and heart failure status in patients with an inherited heart disease, according to a pair of newly published studies.

Study reveals how a blood biomarker tracks response to lecanemab in early Alzheimer's disease

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-reveals-blood-biomarker-tracks-response.html

Published: September 14, 2026 18:00

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by changes involving amyloid-beta and tau proteins in the brain. Lecanemab is an anti-amyloid therapy approved for people with early AD that has been shown to slow disease…