A pilot study published in JCO Global Oncology, a journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, evaluated a peer support model among patients with breast and gynecological cancers in Vietnam and found that the program can help improve psychological outcomes, including depression, anxiety, stress, and overall physical and mental health quality of life. Cancer patients who did and did not participate in the Stronger Together program experienced these improvements, but the patients who received the peer support improved at a much faster rate than those who did not.

Substance use disorders are notoriously difficult to treat, as it is challenging to intervene in a drugs’ effect on the brain’s reward pathway without interfering with the pathway’s normal function. In a University of Arizona Health Sciences study, researchers identified a drug that reduced the desire for cocaine in a murine model while keeping the brain’s reward pathways for sugar intact.