Mind & body, in brief

A study published on Monday found that ending the hepatitis B shot for all US newborns would raise lifelong infections by as much as 83%. [1] The researchers say the change would also put more than half of Americans at risk of hepatitis B by the age of 20. [1]

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver and spreads through blood and body fluids. [2] A lasting infection can lead to scarring of the liver, liver failure and liver cancer. [1]

A baby who catches it is far more likely to keep it for life: about 90% of infected newborns do, against about 5% of infected adults. [7] About 1 in 4 US children with a lasting infection die early of liver disease or liver cancer. [2]

In December 2025, modellers at several US universities estimated that a two-month delay would leave more than 1,400 babies infected for life in the first year alone. [5] They expected 482 of those children to die of the infection as they grew older; that study had not yet been checked by other scientists. [5]

In December 2025, advisers picked by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the US health secretary, voted 8-3 to stop recommending the shot at birth for babies whose mothers test negative. [3]

Those parents were told to decide with a doctor, and to wait until at least two months old if they skip the birth dose. [3][4]

In January, US health officials went further and recommended the shot routinely only for babies at high risk. [7]

In March a federal judge paused both changes, so the shot at birth is again the official advice of the CDC, the US public health agency. [1] The court case is still going on. [1]

Before 1991 the US gave the birth shot only to babies judged at risk, and tens of thousands of babies were still infected every year. [2] About 18,000 children a year caught the virus before turning 10. [2]

Babies were missed when a mother was never tested, caught the virus late in pregnancy, or got a wrong test result. [2] Children can also catch it at home or in child care, from a shared toothbrush or a bite. [2]

Before every baby got the shot, only half of the children later infected had caught it from their mother, says Michaela Jackson of the Hepatitis B Foundation, a US charity. [4] Fathers and carers can carry the virus without knowing it, she says, and many carriers are never tested. [4][2]

Denmark gives the birth shot only to babies at risk. [2] That works there because few people carry the virus and pregnant women are widely tested. [2]

Why it matters. The next step is the court: its final ruling could still move the first dose to two months or later, which is the change the new study warns about. [1]

A review in JAMA Network Open, a medical journal, brought together 19 studies covering more than 15.9 million people in seven countries. [9] People with ADHD had a 70% higher risk of dying from any cause than people without it. [9] Their risk of death by suicide was 90% higher, and by injury 50% higher. [9] ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, makes focus and planning hard and affects about 5% of children. [9] People taking ADHD medicine had a lower risk of dying, but the review cannot show the medicine caused it. [9]

Why it matters. The authors say the results show why people with ADHD need support to manage their health risks. [9] They also point to wider causes of poor health that fall more often on people with ADHD. [9]

STAT, a US health news site, reported on Monday that a payment referee system set up by the No Surprises Act has cost 22 billion dollars, far more than expected. [10] The 2020 law protects patients from huge bills when they are treated by doctors outside their insurer's network, and mostly does. [10] When a doctor and an insurer disagree on the price, an arbitration firm decides. [10] Those firms side with doctors and hospitals in more than 80% of cases and work largely in secret. [10]

Why it matters. Doctors and hospitals file most of the disputes, and STAT says ruling their way may partly be how the firms win more work. [10] Patients are mostly spared the bills; the fight over the 22 billion dollars is between doctors and insurers. [10]

A Pennsylvania law took effect on 19 October that bans selling any vape not listed on a state register. [14] Only products from six makers are listed, including Juul and NJoy, because the FDA, the US medicines regulator, has looked at them. [14] Many popular disposable vapes are now banned. [14] Shops face fines of up to 500 dollars per product for a first offence and can lose their licence to sell tobacco. [14] Buyers are not punished. [14]

Why it matters. The law aims at young people vaping, which the US surgeon general called an epidemic in 2018. [14] But New Jersey and Delaware are a short trip from Philadelphia and still sell many of the banned brands. [14]

Kaleidoscope, a drugs charity, says referrals to its rehab centre in Wales rose from 2 in 2021 to 112 so far this year. [15] Most are aged 18 to 24, and half its clients are being treated for ketamine. [15] Ketamine is an anaesthetic that, used heavily, can damage the bladder and kidneys. [15] Across the UK, the number of people seeking treatment for ketamine rose twelvefold in a decade. [15] Staff say the drug is very cheap and easy to get. [15]

Why it matters. Rehab services were built for older adults, and a researcher says nobody yet knows what treatment works best for this younger group. [15] The charity says fewer people now arrive having only just started, which it credits to lessons in schools and colleges. [15]

Larry Bucshon and Michael Burgess, two former Republican members of the US Congress who are both doctors, wrote in STAT on Monday that their party's mixed messages on vaccines are costing it votes. [11] They say the US has recorded more than 4,000 measles cases this year, the most since 1991, and six deaths. [11] They cite a KFF poll in which more than 60% of voters disapprove of the Trump administration's handling of vaccine policy. [11]

Why it matters. It is an argument made from inside the governing party, weeks before November's midterm elections. [11] Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, and the authors say that status is about to be lost. [11]

KFF Health News, a US health newsroom, reported that Republican candidates are making fraud in government health programmes a main theme before November's midterm elections. [13] In a KFF poll in September, 44% of voters said fraud is extremely important for candidates to talk about. [13] The Trump administration has held back billions of dollars of Medicaid money, the US public health cover for people on low incomes, from states it accuses of weak checks. [13] In New York, officials claimed 5 million people got one home-care service, then admitted the real number was nearer 450,000. [13]

Why it matters. A KFF expert said fraud gives Republicans a health message when they would otherwise be defending cuts to Medicaid. [13] Voters trusted Democrats more on health costs, by 42% to 22%, in a KFF poll published this month. [12]

Researchers at Maastricht University presented a study on 12 October in which women given tiny doses of LSD focused for longer than people given a dummy pill. [18] On a 10-minute attention test, women on the drug reacted 8% faster and had fewer lapses. [18] Men showed little change. [18] The team re-examined an earlier trial of 48 healthy people, half of whom took 15 micrograms four times over two weeks. [18] A microdose is about a tenth of the amount that causes a full trip. [18]

Why it matters. Earlier controlled studies of microdosing gave mixed results. [18] A neuroscientist not involved called the finding a notable addition, and said some people may be more sensitive than others to small doses. [18]

A study in the Journal of Neuroscience scanned the brains of 24 people as they watched and heard actors showing feelings such as happiness, disgust and fear. [19] Clips with sound only still lit up brain areas known for handling faces. [19] Clips with pictures only lit up areas known for handling voices. [19] Stefania Mattioni of Ghent University, who led the study, says these areas seem to be organised by the feeling, not by the sense. [19]

Why it matters. It may help explain how people read feelings on a phone call, with no face to see. [19] Scientists hope it could one day help people who struggle to read social cues. [19]

A study of 3,093 US adults used Fitbit step records from as long as 14 years to compare activity with test scores. [20] People who averaged about 8,900 or 14,200 steps a day did better on attention tests than people who averaged about 5,100. [20] The differences were small. [20] The data came from All of Us, a US government health research programme, and the study was published in Scientific Reports. [20]

Why it matters. Olaoluwa Okusaga of Baylor College of Medicine, who worked on the study, says it does not prove that walking causes better thinking. [20] People who already think more clearly may simply stay more active. [20]

James McClean, a 37-year-old Derry City footballer who played 103 times for the Republic of Ireland, told a newspaper that seeing a psychologist would be a sign of weakness. [16] His wife Erin said on Monday that he has been struggling for some time and that she is urging him to get therapy. [16] Men's Action Network, a men's mental health charity, offered to meet him. [16] Fans at a Derry match that night held up a banner saying it is not weak to speak. [16]

Why it matters. The charity says many men still feel they cannot say they are not OK. [16] It wants to meet McClean because many young men in Derry look up to him. [16]

Lichen sclerosus is a lifelong skin condition that causes itching, soreness and tears on the genitals, and it is not catching. [17] Monica Thomas, 34, told the BBC she was examined 28 times in six months before a biopsy, while doctors kept calling it thrush. [17] Doctors also told her she was too young; it is more common in women over 50. [17] A University of Bristol study estimated it affects about 1% of women. [17]

Why it matters. A researcher says that figure is almost certainly too low, because shame and a lack of awareness, even among health workers, delay diagnosis. [17] The condition carries a small risk of vulval cancer, and one woman says hers was found at stage three. [17]

Scientists at the University of Iowa found a pathway in the front of the rat brain that controls how narrowly a frightening memory is stored. [21] When they switched it off with light after training, rats feared a safe place as well as the dangerous one. [21] Switching it on made them better at telling the two apart. [21] Stress hormones were thought to drive this, but the effect held in rats that could not make them. [21]

Why it matters. The work was done only in male rats. [21] The authors say it may help explain stress-related conditions in which fear spreads to safe places. [21]

Norway's government said on Monday that it is finishing a law to keep children under 16 off social media, to go to parliament by the end of the year. [22] The ban will now also cover online games and messaging apps judged risky for children. [22] TikTok, Snapchat and Roblox, a game where players make games and play them with others, would likely be covered. [22] Technology firms would have to check users' ages, and messaging apps used by schools could stay open. [22]

Why it matters. Norway's minister for children, Lene Vagslid, said children's safety must come first. [22] Denmark has passed similar limits and Spain is working on one, while France's ban for under-15s was struck down by its top court in September. [22]

Health workers in eastern Congo are warning of a mental health crisis growing alongside the Ebola outbreak there, Africanews reported on Monday. [23] At a treatment centre in Bunia, a woman who lost five relatives to the disease said her neighbours were too afraid to come near her family. [23] Workers say the stigma hits patients, survivors and medical staff alike. [23] The outbreak is spreading in a region already torn by fighting, where many people have fled their homes. [23]

Why it matters. Mirella Riccardi of MSF, the medical charity, said the war had already left people fragile, and Ebola adds one more blow. [23] Aid workers say grieving and frightened families need psychological help as well as medical care. [23]