ST. LOUIS - Opioids may cause short-term improvement in mood, but long-term use imposes risk of new-onset depression, a Saint Louis University study shows.

For half a century, cancer researchers have struggled with a confusing paradox: If cancer is caused by the occurrence and accumulation of cancer-causing (oncogenic) mutations over time, young children should get less cancer since they have fewer mutations.

So why do young children have a higher incidence of leukemia than teenagers and young adults? 

NEW YORK, NY (Jan. 6, 2016) -- A new study conducted at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) has revealed some of the underlying mechanisms that may increase the risk of heart disease in people with sleep apnea. The study also found that statins -- the cholesterol-lowering medications commonly prescribed to combat heart disease -- may help reverse this process.

The study was published in the Jan. 6, 2016 online edition of Science Translational Medicine.

The compound CGP3466B, already proven nontoxic for people, may effectively and rapidly treat depression, according to results of a study in mice.

The Johns Hopkins Medicine neuroscientists who conducted the research say that the compound -- previously shown to block cocaine craving in the brains of rodents -- delivers antidepressant effects to mice within hours instead of weeks or months, like currently available antidepressants. The results of the study will be summarized Jan. 12 online in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Psychiatrists investigating depression have been energized in recent years by reports of rapid, successful treatment with drugs that interfere with the brain chemical glutamate, such as the anesthetic ketamine.

New research from Emory University School of Medicine is providing hints as to which forms of depression may respond best to drugs that target glutamate.

The findings are scheduled for publication online on January 12 in Molecular Psychiatry.

Depressed patients with signs of systemic inflammation have elevated levels of glutamate in regions of the brain that are important for motivation, the researchers have found.

The Romans created a clear line between Iron Age and modern sanitation and hygiene. They built public multi-seat latrines with washing facilities and sewerage systems, they piped drinking water from aqueducts and heated public baths for washing.

To augment that, they developed laws designed to keep their towns free of excrement and rubbish.

But it may not have helped when it came to putting a stop to intestinal parasites such as whipworm, roundworm and Entamoeba histolytica dysentery, according to a journal in the journal Parasitology.