Low Levels of a Blood Pressure Protein May Flag Treatment-Resistant Psychosis
Johns Hopkins researchers measured angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) in blood and spinal fluid from 200 people, including 78 healthy controls and 122 with early-stage psychosis — 31 of whom were classified as treatment-resistant. In this preliminary study, ACE protein levels were significantly lower in the blood of people with treatment-resistant psychosis than in those whose psychosis responded to standard treatments, and blood levels correlated with levels in cerebrospinal fluid, suggesting a simple blood test could reflect what is happening in the brain. The findings were published online September 9 in JAMA Psychiatry; the researchers stress they need confirmation in larger studies and note that ACE's role in psychosis may be unrelated to its usual blood-pressure function.
Source: Medical Xpress
Brain Scans Show Why Long-Term Back Pain Can Feel Deeply Personal
University of California San Diego researchers used brain blood-flow imaging on 114 people with lower back pain lasting more than 12 weeks. When participants performed a leg-raise test that provoked their familiar pain, the brain's default mode network (regions involved in self-reflection) became more active; a brief, controlled heat stimulus to the calf, in contrast, reduced activity in that same network — suggesting familiar chronic pain engages the brain differently than a new, short-lived painful event. More severe ongoing pain was also linked to stronger connections between this network and areas processing bodily sensations. The observational study, published in October 2026 in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, cannot establish whether this brain pattern causes pain to persist and tested no treatment.
Source: Knowridge
The Neighborhood Around Teens May Shape Their Mental Health, New Zealand Study Suggests
A University of Canterbury-led study followed 957,381 young people aged 10 to 24 in New Zealand from 2013 to 2018, linking mental health outcomes to the neighborhoods they lived in using a 10-feature Healthy Location Index (including green and blue spaces, places for physical activity, plus fast-food, alcohol, and gaming outlets). Greater exposure to health-constraining environments was associated with poorer mental health, particularly emotional disorders, while access to a mix of natural spaces was associated with better outcomes. The longitudinal observational study, published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, adjusted for deprivation, health-care access, age, gender, and ethnicity but cannot prove causation.
Source: Phys.org