The team of Bruno Giros, a researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and professor of psychiatry at McGill University, reports the first-ever connection between noradrenergic neurons and vulnerability to depression. Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, this breakthrough paves the way for new depression treatments that target the adrenergic system.

Stressful life events--job loss, accident, death of a loved one--can trigger major depression in one person, but not in another. A deciding factor is resilience, a biological mechanism that determines an individual's capacity to rebound from stressful or traumatic events. Researchers are still learning how resilience works.

U.S. Marshals, acting on a request from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seized yet another ridiculous "dietary supplement," and this one's a doozy. About 90,000 bottles of a bunch of garbage with the brand name RelaKzpro, which is sold by Dordoniz Natural Products of South Beloit, Illinois, were confiscated.

Nine weekly sessions of acupuncture lessen perceived pain intensity, and improve functional capacity and quality of life, in people diagnosed with the blanket pain condition called fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia diagnoses are based on claims of chronic widespread pain, along with fatigue, disordered sleep patterns, and/or depression.  Surveys show that 90% of people who have fibromyalgia try some form of alternative medicine, including massage, hydrotherapy, and acupuncture. Clinical trials have shown acupuncture doesn't work but the authors of the new paper say the lack of efficacy is because those were clinical trials of standard, rather than individually tailored, treatment.

Wide and stubborn variations in longevity have persisted across Europe over the past 20 years, indicates research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

People can expect to live to a ripe old age in northern Spain, north eastern Italy, and in southern and western France, but not so much in parts of The Netherlands, Scandinavia, and the UK, the figures show.

And the UK has one of the highest proportions of the population living in areas of low old age survival.

An increase in old age survival contributes to overall life expectancy, and is particularly important, give the rising proportion of older people in the populations of high income countries, say the study authors.

The cover of Time magazine 3/2/15 features an Anglo baby (so remarkably cute one wonders whether he isn't a computer generated composite of everything we like about babies) with the statement (not question, statement) THIS BABY COULD LIVE TO BE 142 YEARS OLD.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Final results for the Sunbelt Melanoma Trial, published online this month in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, show that thanks to current diagnostic techniques, most stage III melanoma patients do not benefit from treatment with interferon. Kelly McMasters, M.D., Ph.D., the Ben A. Reid, Sr., M.D. Professor and Chair of the Hiram C. Polk, Jr., M.D. Department of Surgery at the University of Louisville, was the principal investigator and initiated the trial.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Feb. 15, 2016 - Using a sophisticated, custom-designed 3D printer, regenerative medicine scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have proved that it is feasible to print living tissue structures to replace injured or diseased tissue in patients.

Reporting in Nature Biotechnology, the scientists said they printed ear, bone and muscle structures. When implanted in animals, the structures matured into functional tissue and developed a system of blood vessels. Most importantly, these early results indicate that the structures have the right size, strength and function for use in humans.

Eating fish more than three times a week during pregnancy was associated with mothers giving birth to babies at increased risk of rapid growth in infancy and of childhood obesity, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

There appears to have been no change in the incidence of epilepsy in patients younger than 65 over the past 40 years in Finland but an increased incidence among older patients, which a new study suggests means no progress in preventing new cases of epilepsy, according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology.

Prevention of new-onset epilepsy is an important public health issue. Antiepileptic drugs can block seizures in most patients but they do not prevent epilepsy in people at risk. The current primary prevention of epilepsy happens by reducing the risk for traumatic brain injury, stroke and dementia.