Mind & body, in brief

A program in Flint, Michigan, gives cash to pregnant women and new babies. [1] In 2025, newborn deaths in the city fell by half. [1]

Deaths in a baby's first four weeks fell from 10 to 5 for every 1,000 born alive. [1] A study in JAMA Pediatrics reported it on 2 November. [1]

Deaths in the first week of life fell from 8 to 2 per 1,000. [1] In the rest of Michigan, the rates stayed steady. [1]

Mothers and babies in the US fare worse than in other rich countries, the program's 2025 study notes. [3] The US is 1 of only 7 countries without paid maternity leave. [3]

Income falls and costs rise in the months around a birth. [1] Losing a home is linked to babies born early and small. [1]

In public health, a family's income counts as one of the strongest forces on health. [2] Hanna calls poverty something doctors can treat and prevent. [2]

The cash arrives during pregnancy, when income drops, and goes on housing, transport and nappies. [1] Mothers then start check-ups in pregnancy earlier and keep going. [2]

A pupil who skips breakfast struggles in class, and a meal fixes what extra lessons cannot.

The halving compares one city's 2025 with its own earlier years. [1] Hanna calls these early findings. [1]

A separate US trial paid mothers $333 a month for four years. [4] It found no change in the children's main brain-activity measure at age 4. [4]

In Flint, Michigan, newborn deaths halved after the city began paying cash to families before and after birth. [1]

The monthly $500 arrives just as income drops after a birth, and the program's studies find steadier housing and better food. [1][2]

Whether Flint's halving of newborn deaths will hold.

The result compares one city's 2025 with its own earlier years, and its founder calls it an early finding. [1]

Which part of the cash did the work.

Families spent it on nappies, transport, housing and safe places for babies to sleep, and no source says which mattered most. [1]

In Flint, Michigan, newborn deaths fell from 10 to 5 for every 1,000 babies born alive in 2025, after the city began paying cash to pregnant women and new families.

Even a ministroke is linked to a higher risk of dementia, a study in the journal Neurology finds. [7]

A ministroke, or TIA, is a stroke that lasts only a few minutes. [8] Blood to part of the brain is briefly blocked. [8]

The study followed 113,081 people, with an average age of 70, after a first ministroke. [7]

They were compared with similar people with no stroke, and with people who had a full stroke. [7]

Over about 7 years, 19% of the ministroke group got dementia. [7] So did 20% after a stroke, and 15% with neither. [7]

After a ministroke, people were 2.5 times as likely to get dementia as to have a stroke. [7]

Ministroke symptoms pass in minutes, usually with no damage a scan can see. [7] Yet the dementia risk rose almost as much as after a stroke. [7]

The US brain-disease institute, NINDS, calls ministrokes warning signs of stroke. [8] About 1 in 3 people who have one later have a severe stroke. [8]

A ministroke shares its causes with stroke, such as high blood pressure and smoking. [8] So when the symptoms pass, those causes are still there. [8]

A smoke alarm that beeps once and stops still means something set it off.

The groups were matched on age, sex and health, so the study shows a link, not proof of cause. [7]

Whether a ministroke itself causes dementia.

The study found a link in matched groups. [7] A ministroke's own causes, such as high blood pressure, could also be at work. [8]

NHS England lists 29 hospital trusts as gaining from its Palantir data system. [9] Asked directly, those trusts said it was not live or that they used none of its apps. [9]

Palantir is a US data company. [9] Its £330m contract runs the NHS platform meant to link scattered patient records. [9]

The answers came from more than 100 freedom of information requests by Medact, a medical charity that wants Palantir out. [9]

This summer NHS England admitted it could not prove the system caused 117,539 extra operations it had claimed. [9]

The Office for Statistics Regulation, the UK's statistics watchdog, says it will now look into the claim. [9]

Chi Onwurah, who chairs a Commons science committee, wants the contract's 2027 break clause used to end it. [9]

NHS England counts a trust as 'live' when its data flows through the platform, even with no app in use. [9]

Torbay's trust says it is not using the platform day to day. [9] NHS England still records it as live. [9]

A club that counts everyone who once bought a ticket as a member looks bigger than the crowd at games.

NHS England says nearly 140 trusts now report benefits, including back-office data work. [9] Palantir says users cut long-stay discharge delays by 14.3%. [9]

A precise number, like 117,539 extra operations or a smaller wrinkle, feels like proof even when nobody has shown the cause. [9][25]

Its NHS contract is defended partly with a benefits list that includes trusts not using its system. [9]

How many NHS trusts really use Palantir's platform for patient care.

NHS England says nearly 140 report benefits, counting back-office data work, and 29 on its list say they use none of its apps. The statistics watchdog is now looking at it. [9]

A Newcastle hospital trust has admitted a baby would have survived had her mother not been sent home. [10]

Danielle Brown, 31, was seven months pregnant with pre-eclampsia when she was discharged in February 2023. [10]

Pre-eclampsia is a pregnancy illness that can threaten the mother's life. [10]

One consultant said she should stay in hospital until the birth. [10] A different consultant sent her home 24 hours later. [10]

When she insisted on being seen, staff could not find a heartbeat. [10] Her daughter, Maisie, had died. [10]

She was then given a booklet for bereaved parents and told to book a slot to give birth. [10]

The trust paid an undisclosed settlement and apologised. [10] It says it improved urgent checks for pregnant women after a 2023 review. [10]

Irwin Mitchell, her law firm, says it acts for hundreds of families hurt by maternity failings in England. [10]

Her lawyer says pre-eclampsia is serious and needs close monitoring. [10] Sending her home took away the checks that could catch it getting worse. [10]

A pan left on the stove needs someone watching, because it can boil over in a minute.

The trust says it was recently judged to be performing well against national standards. [10]

Their daughter Maisie died, and the trust's admission came with a settlement more than two years later. [10]

Spain will give paid sick leave for disabling menopause symptoms from 1 December. [11] Spain's government approved it on 20 October. [11]

Elma Saiz, Spain's minister for social security, defended the change. [11] She said more than 10.5 million women pay into the system. [11]

Going through the menopause is not enough. [11] A doctor must find a menopause-linked condition that stops the woman doing her job. [11]

The state benefit starts on day 2 of leave, not day 4 as with ordinary sick leave. [11] The employer pays the first day. [11]

The benefit is 60% of the usual pay measure for 20 days, then 75%. [11] Women need no minimum record of contributions. [11]

In 2023, Spain gave paid leave for disabling period pain. [11]

Germany, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Turkey have no special menopause leave. [11] In Germany and Portugal, women use ordinary sick leave instead. [11]

Spain calls this a new labour right: a legal claim to paid time off for a health condition. [11]

With a benefit from day 2, a short spell of symptoms costs a woman less than ordinary leave. [11]

A school that excuses a pupil with a doctor's note still keeps their place in class.

Only symptoms a doctor judges disabling count, so milder ones bring no new right. [11]

Money around birth keeps more newborns alive

Income falls just as a birth makes costs rise

Families fall behind on rent, food and travel to check-ups

Stress, poor food and losing a home raise the risk of early, small births

Early and small babies are the most likely to die in their first weeks

Cash paid before the shortfall keeps those bills covered

A newborn's death can start months earlier with a bill a family could not pay. Paying the family before the birth can stop that chain.

Newborn deaths in Flint, in the first four weeks of life, before and after Rx Kids began paying families.

The care exists, but 3.8 million adults on Medicaid could not afford a reliable way to reach it, so the gap was money for transport, not medicine.

A benefit from day 2 removes the lost income that pushes women with disabling symptoms to keep working while ill.

Health cover will depend on proving 80 hours of work a month, so a job, a website and a form decide who keeps seeing a doctor.

Cash helps where shortage is the cause; it cannot fix an illness money did not cause, and one city's early result may shrink as other places try it.

The doctor in Flint sees the baby, the landlord sees the rent, and the city sees its budget.

They can stop work for symptoms with less income lost than under ordinary sick leave. [11]

A Brighton hospital has opened a pilot clinic for breast cancer patients pushed into sudden menopause by treatment. [12]

Doctors call it complex menopause: symptoms that start abruptly and hit harder. [12]

Rachel Bowman, from Hove, was 46 when her cancer treatment began four years ago. [12]

After one injection to shut down her ovaries, she had 20 to 30 hot flushes a day. [12]

Dr Renske McFarlane leads the clinic. [12] Surgeons, breast nurses, cancer teams or GPs can refer patients to it. [12]

University Hospitals Sussex plans to spread the service across Sussex. [12]

McFarlane says the effects of treatment can last for years after cancer care ends. [12]

Natural menopause happens as hormone levels fall slowly over several years. [12]

Cancer treatments such as ovarian suppression cut those hormones at once. [12] For Rachel Bowman, symptoms came overnight, with no time to adjust. [12]

Walking slowly into a cold sea feels very different from being thrown in.

A new clinic in Brighton now treats women thrown into sudden menopause by breast cancer treatment.

Northern Ireland's health minister, Robbie Butler, was expected on Monday to announce £1.95m for endometriosis care. [13]

Endometriosis is when tissue like the womb's lining grows elsewhere, often around the ovaries. [13]

The money includes £700,000 for two specialist centres, at Belfast City and Altnagelvin hospitals. [13]

A £2.4m surgical robot at Belfast City Hospital has done 130 operations since May. [13] Of those, 105 were for complex endometriosis. [13]

Women in Northern Ireland wait about 7 years, on average, for complex gynae surgery. [13]

Colleen Crothers had period pain from 14 and waited 22 more years for a referral. [13]

Delays mean some women need their womb removed, as Crothers did at 41, and cannot have children. [13]

Surgeons use the robot because its wrists turn in tight spaces in the pelvis. [13] It is also steadier than a human hand. [13]

Complex cases need several specialists at once. [13] They are now treated as a priority and no longer bumped by other operations. [13]

A bus lane keeps buses moving even when the rest of the road is jammed.

The £2.4m robot was paid for by charity donations. [13]

A surgical robot at Belfast City Hospital has done 130 operations since May, 105 of them for women with complex endometriosis.

A woman in Wales says a GP told her a growing breast lump might be 'medical anxiety'. [14]

Beth Jenkins was 40 and says she was told she was 'too young' for breast cancer. [14]

It was lobular breast cancer, a 5cm tumour that had spread to three lymph nodes. [14]

A second GP at the practice said she should have been referred straight away. [14]

She is now classed as having no evidence of disease and will be checked for 15 years. [14]

UK breast screening starts at 50, so younger women depend on a GP to refer them. [14]

NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, writes care guidelines. [14] Its guidance says people aged 40 and under with an unexplained breast lump should be referred. [14]

Cancer Research Wales found some GPs follow the guidance closely and others go by instinct. [14] Age should not decide a referral, its expert says. [14]

A referee who ignores the rulebook gives two teams two different games.

The practice would not discuss her case. [14] In 2025 it said a serious diagnosis was missed at first. [14]

Beth Jenkins, whose breast cancer was first put down to anxiety, is now classed as having no evidence of disease.

From 1 January, many adults on Medicaid must work, volunteer or study 80 hours a month to keep it. [16]

Medicaid is the US public health insurance for people on low incomes and with disabilities. [16] The rule covers 43 states and Washington, DC. [16]

Georgia's Pathways program, a model for the rule, has tied cover to work since 2023. [15]

After three years it covers 20,606 people. [15] The state expected more than 25,000 after one year. [15]

Pathways ends this year unless renewed. [15] Georgia says the federal exemptions would cost it an extra $1.4bn by mid-2028. [15]

The law lets states excuse counties where joblessness reaches 8%, or 1.5 times the US rate if lower. [16]

Using July figures, 95 counties would qualify. [16] Using a 12-month average, 120 would. [16]

Researchers estimate 60,000 more people in one California district could lose cover by 2034, partly because of the law. [16]

A work requirement ties health cover to hours of work that people must prove. [15] In Georgia, the sign-up has been hard for many to get through. [15]

Georgia's benefits website has a record of glitches, errors and slow processing. [15] Critics of the state say people are turned away over forms, not work. [15]

A pupil who did the homework but lost the sheet still gets marked as not handing it in.

CMS, the US agency running the rule, has not said which jobless figures count or how long exemptions last. [16]

Health cover will depend on proving 80 hours of work a month, so a job, a website and a form decide who keeps seeing a doctor.

If the program ends in December, they lose cover; it saves Wright more than $1,700 a year on allergy shots. [15]

They must log 80 hours a month while people a county away may be excused. [16]

Which US counties will be excused from Medicaid's work rule.

CMS has not said which jobless figures count, and that choice moves the total between 95 and 120 counties. [16]

Whether Georgia's Pathways program survives past December.

It ends unless renewed, and the state wants extra federal money that CMS will not comment on. [15]

More than 3.8 million US adults on Medicaid missed care, work or daily needs for lack of reliable transport. [17]

The count is from KFF, a US health research group, using a 2024 national health survey. [17]

Medicaid must pay for rides to care, by van, bus, taxi or ride share, for people with no other way. [17]

The rides cost less than 1% of Medicaid spending. [17]

In September, a US House committee report named the rides among services with 'high rates of fraud'. [17]

A bill would make every ride logged electronically, as home care visits already are. [17]

People who use the rides are more likely to be older, disabled or living with long-term illness. [17]

Health policy researchers weigh fraud checks against access. [17] KFF warns more paperwork could leave fewer ride firms. [17]

Fewer ride firms means fewer trips for people who cannot drive themselves. [17]

When a school cuts a bus route, pupils who live farthest away miss the most lessons.

KFF says some people who qualify for the rides may not know the benefit exists. [17]

The care exists, but 3.8 million adults on Medicaid could not afford a reliable way to reach it, so the gap was money for transport, not medicine.

Across the rest of the day, money and paperwork decided who reached care. [17][16] In the US, 3.8 million adults on Medicaid missed care for lack of a ride. [17]

They use the rides most, so fewer ride firms reach them first. [17]

The next edition of psychiatry's main diagnosis manual, the DSM-6, plans to add biological factors. [18]

The DSM is the book clinicians use to diagnose mental disorders such as depression and PTSD. [18]

The current edition, the DSM-5, came out in 2013. [19] It lists nearly 300 conditions. [20]

Its publisher, the American Psychiatric Association, set out the plan in January. [20]

Anand Kumar, a Chicago psychiatrist who sat on the planning committee, explained it in an interview this week. [18]

Today diagnoses rest on symptoms found by interview, case history, questionnaire or observation. [18]

Apart from Alzheimer's, no blood test or scan can diagnose a mental disorder, Kumar says. [18] Alzheimer's now has an approved blood test. [18]

Diagnosis will stay based on symptoms, Kumar says, with biology added as background. [18]

Psychiatric genetics finds hundreds of genes, each raising the risk of depression or anxiety by a small amount. [18]

Many disorders share genes. [18] So about 45% of people with a major mood disorder also have an anxiety disorder. [18]

Height runs in families through hundreds of genes, with no single tall gene.

Kumar has left the committee, and calls his own example of clinic use 'reaching a bit'. [18]

What biology the DSM-6 will include, and when it comes out.

Outside Alzheimer's no test can diagnose a mental disorder, and Kumar says agreeing what goes in is still tricky. [18]

A Dutch MP has proposed a law banning the most harmful addictive design in apps and websites. [21]

Barbara Kathmann, of the opposition party PRO, filed it on 2 November. [21]

It names endless scrolling, autoplay videos, push notifications and manipulative algorithms. [21]

Platforms would have to prove their services are not addictive. [21] Kathmann says the ban protects adults as well as children. [21]

In July, the European Commission charged Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, over addictive design. [22]

The Commission is due to propose an EU-wide ban on addictive design this November. [21]

Lawmakers in 7 other countries, including Germany and France, are working with Kathmann. [21]

The Commission says autoplay and endless scrolling put the brain into 'autopilot mode'. [22]

Autoplay starts the next video before the viewer chooses. [22] Endless scrolling never reaches an end, so there is no natural place to stop. [22]

A bowl of crisps that refills itself gets eaten long after hunger has gone.

No country has such a ban yet; Kathmann wants the Netherlands to be the first. [21]

Whether the EU proposes its addictive-design ban this month.

The Commission is due to table it in November, and a Dutch member of the European Parliament says the tech industry is lobbying to weaken the rules. [21]

Stanford University is launching a project to build an AI copy of the human brain, a 'digital twin'. [23]

It plans about 14,000 hours of brain scans from around 100 people over five years. [23]

Billionaire Mark Stevens and his wife, Mary, are paying for it; Stanford will not say how much. [23]

In August, Meta gave $15m to a similar project aiming for 15,000 hours of scans. [23]

Data collection starts early next year, says Russell Poldrack, a Stanford psychologist. [23]

The goal is a model that predicts how a person responds to treatments such as magnetic brain stimulation. [23]