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Psychiatry

Uncovering predictors for post-surgical chronic opioid use

Uncovering predictors for post-surgical chronic opioid use

Penn Nursing researchers have identified several key predictors of whether patient will continue using opioids long after the typical recovery period from surgical procedures.

1 min. read

Pink noise reduces REM sleep and may harm sleep quality
A person in bed taking earplugs out of a case.

Image: lisanna881 via Getty Images

Pink noise reduces REM sleep and may harm sleep quality

Penn Medicine researchers find that earplugs work better in protecting sleep from traffic noise, challenging the widespread use of ambient sound machines and apps marketed as sleep aids.

Eric Horvath

2 min. read

Measuring the impact of loneliness and social isolation on the brain
An Antarctic penguin watching a ship at sea.

A penguin watching a vessel at sea.

(Image: Michael Beaulieu—French Polar Institute) 

Measuring the impact of loneliness and social isolation on the brain

New research from Penn Medicine shows the negative, yet reversible, impact of spending time in isolated, confined, extreme environments—such as an Antarctic research station.

Eric Horvath

5 min. read

Penn’s Psychiatry chair is helping to reenvision how mental illness is diagnosed
Maria Oquendo.

Maria Oquendo is the Ruth Meltzer Professor of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Medicine News)

Penn’s Psychiatry chair is helping to reenvision how mental illness is diagnosed

Maria Oquendo is leading a task force to reimagine the future of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

From Penn Medicine News

2 min. read

A hard reset on electroconvulsive therapy
Medical brain scans on  multiple computer screens.

Image: gorodenkoff via Getty Images

A hard reset on electroconvulsive therapy

New research from Penn Medicine finds that ECT sets in motion a brain event that resets its neurons, and has the potential to guide personalized ECT dosing to target specific outcomes in the brain.

From Penn Medicine News

2 min. read

Laughing gas: An old drug’s new trick to fight depression
A laughing gas mask hovering over a patient’s perspective.

Image: vzmaze via Getty Images

Laughing gas: An old drug’s new trick to fight depression

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine have uncovered how nitrous oxide, an anesthetic used worldwide since the 19th century, could help lift mood fast in people with depression that resists other treatments.

From Penn Medicine News

1 min. read