Among people with dialysis-dependent kidney failure, a form of psychological therapy called pain coping skills training reduced how much pain got in the way of their daily lives, also known as pain interference. The clinical trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that training people on how to manage pain reduced the extent to which pain affected their work and social activities, mood, and relationships. The pain coping skills training, which was adapted for people undergoing long-term dialysis, also improved other effects of pain, including the intensity of pain, depression, anxiety, and quality of life. Pain coping skills training is an approach widely used for chronic pain, but it had not previously been tested for people treated with dialysis.

A study of nearly 10,000 adolescents funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has identified distinct differences in the brain structures of those who used substances before age 15 compared to those who did not. Many of these structural brain differences appeared to exist in childhood before any substance use, suggesting they may play a role in the risk of substance use initiation later in life, in tandem with genetic, environmental, and other neurological factors.

After declining significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, substance use among adolescents has continued to hold steady at lowered levels for the fourth year in a row, according to the latest results from the Monitoring the Future Survey, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These recent data continue to document stable and declining trends in the use of most drugs among young people.