A new University of Cincinnati study finds vision loss fears may deter some patients from cataract surgery, despite it being the only effective treatment. The research underscores the role of doctor-patient relationships in medical decisions.

Published in JAMA Network Open, the study reveals promising progress toward predicting how patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) will respond to antidepressant medications using brain imaging and clinical data. The research demonstrated that brain connectivity patterns — specifically in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex — could significantly improve predictions of treatment response across two large, independent clinical trials.Using machine learning models trained on clinical and neuroimaging data from more than 350 participants in two international trials — EMBARC in the U.S. and CANBIND-1 in Canada — the researchers evaluated whether their algorithms could reliably predict who would respond to common antidepressants like sertraline and escitalopram. They found that adding a brain connectivity marker to traditional clinical data (such as age, sex and baseline depression severity) significantly improved prediction performance across both studies.

Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft have deeply embedded themselves into every aspect of our lives – our healthcare, education, and even politics. As these tech giants consistently stay one step ahead of regulation, the question arises: who holds these powerful players to account? Alexandra Schwinges examined the role of news media in this regard and concludes that in today’s digital age, journalism must renew its watchdog role. Schwinges will defend her PhD thesis on Friday 9 May at the University of Amsterdam.