The researchers from McLean Hospital, a psychiatric teaching hospital, found that high doses of the prescription amphetamine were linked to a five-fold elevated risk of new-onset psychosis or mania.

The psychosis and mania risk was highest in those taking 30 mg or more of dextroamphetamine, which corresponds to 40 mg of Adderall.

“Stimulant medications don’t have an upper dose limit on their labels, and our results show that it is clear that dose is a factor in psychosis risk and should be a chief consideration when prescribing stimulants,” said lead study author Lauren Moran, a pharmacoepidemiology researcher at McLean Hospital.

Moran said the study was motivated by her past clinical observations as an inpatient psychiatrist. She and her McLean colleagues regularly saw patients experiencing first episodes of psychosis, and their medical records revealed they were prescribed high doses of stimulants by their doctors.

The researchers looked at nearly 15 years of emergency department admissions across Mass General Brigham hospitals.

Among people who take prescription amphetamine, 81% of cases of psychosis or mania could have been eliminated if they were not on the high dose, the scientists found.

“This is a rare but serious side effect that should be monitored by both patients and their doctors whenever these medications are prescribed,” Moran said.

While a significant dose-related risk increase was seen in patients taking high doses of amphetamine, no significant increase was seen with methylphenidate (Ritalin) use.

Moran said the findings shouldn’t create alarm, but should lead to extra caution when these medications are prescribed — especially for those who have risk factors for psychosis and mania.

“There’s limited evidence that prescription amphetamines are more effective in high doses,” Moran said. “Physicians should consider other medications our study found to be less risky, especially if a patient is at high risk for psychosis or mania.”

Researchers reviewed electronic health records of Mass General Brigham patient encounters between 2005 and 2019, focusing on adults aged 16 to 35, the typical age of onset for psychosis and schizophrenia.

All patients were admitted to McLean Hospital following referrals from other hospitals in the Mass General Brigham healthcare system.

The researchers identified 1,374 cases of individuals presenting with first-episode psychosis or mania, compared to 2,748 control patients with a psychiatric hospitalization for other conditions like depression or anxiety.

They conducted a comparison analysis of stimulant use over the preceding month, and accounted for other factors, including substance use, in order to isolate the effects of stimulants.

The scientists found that among people who take prescription amphetamine, 81% of cases of psychosis or mania could have been eliminated if they were not on the high dose.

Prescribing rates for stimulants that treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have increased significantly over the past decade, with some of the largest increases reported during the COVID pandemic.

That’s according to Boston researchers, who found that people with irregular sleep patterns had a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those who got more consistent sleep.

The study led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers looked at sleep patterns over the course of seven nights, and then followed participants for more than seven years.

The Brigham scientists discovered that irregular sleep durations were associated with an increased risk of diabetes. Those with the greatest irregular patterns had a 34% higher diabetes risk than their counterparts, the researchers found.

“Our study identified a modifiable lifestyle factor that can help lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” said Sina Kianersi, a research fellow in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at the Brigham.

“Our findings underscore the importance of consistent sleep patterns as a strategy to reduce type 2 diabetes,” Kianersi added.

Type 2 diabetes affects close to half a billion people worldwide, and it’s one of the top 10 leading causes of death and disability. The number of people with type 2 diabetes is expected to more than double to 1.3 billion by 2050.

The new study analyzed accelerometry data from more than 84,000 participants in the UK Biobank Study to investigate any possible association between sleep and type 2 diabetes. Participants were an average age of 62 years, and were initially free of diabetes.

They wore accelerometers — devices like watches that monitor movement — for seven nights. The participants were followed for about 7.5 years, tracking diabetes development mostly through medical records.

The researchers found that more irregular sleep duration was associated with higher diabetes risk after adjusting for a wide range of risk factors. Irregular sleep was defined as day-to-day sleep duration varying by more than 60 minutes on average.

The data revealed that compared to participants with regular sleep patterns, those with irregular sleep had a 34% higher risk of developing diabetes. The risk decreased, yet persisted, even after accounting for lifestyle, comorbidities, family history of diabetes, and obesity indicators.

“Our findings have the potential to improve diabetes prevention on multiple levels,” Kianersi said. “Clinically, they might inform better patient care and treatment plans.

“Public health guidelines could promote regular sleep patterns,” the scientist added. “However, more research is needed to fully understand the mechanism and confirm the results in other populations.”

The Boston University researchers on Tuesday announced that they designed the new artificial intelligence computer program — which identifies those with mild cognitive impairment who are likely to develop Alzheimer’s within six years.

The AI model predicts whether a patient will develop Alzheimer’s just by analyzing the person’s speech.

“Our motivation for this study was to catch Alzheimer’s disease early — opening the door for interventions, which is particularly important now that there are new drug treatments available,” said Ioannis Paschalidis, director of the Hariri Institute for Computing at Boston University.

“If you think about many other chronic diseases including diabetes, hypertension, even cancer, there are early diagnostic procedures and even predictive models that can do prognosis,” he added. “This has not been the case for Alzheimer’s disease, and that’s why we think our study makes an important step in that direction.”

Mild cognitive impairment is a high-risk factor for Alzheimer’s. The condition can be caused by many health factors, but about 3% to 15% of individuals with the condition will progress to Alzheimer’s each year.

While past studies tried to predict the conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s using expensive methods, the BU scientists created the AI-driven inexpensive method with speech-to-text modeling and basic demographic data.

According to the researchers, this AI predictive method achieved an accuracy of 78.5% in a study with 166 Framingham Heart Study participants.

“Speech is a ubiquitous modality, and it reveals quite a bit about a person’s cognitive status, from sentence completion to the way they structure their thoughts and dialogue,” Paschalidis said.

The researchers used several AI models to process voice recordings of patients captured during neuropsychological exams from the Framingham Heart Study.

The study results suggest that older women with lower education levels and those carrying one or two copies of the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) E4 allele are more likely to progress to Alzheimer’s disease.

This is consistent with earlier research suggesting that people who inherit one copy of ApoE E4 genotype have a high risk of developing the disease, while those who inherit two copies have an even higher risk.

Women who progressed to Alzheimer’s averaged 1.4 years older than men, suggesting that women may be more prone to progression due to their longer life span.

The National Institutes of Health reports that about 6.7 million Americans aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s today, and that this number could grow to 13.8 million by 2060 barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent, slow, or cure the disease.

Paschalidis said, “With continued development and refinement, our predictive model may contribute to early intervention and selection in clinical trials for novel AD treatments, ultimately improving patient outcomes.”

The airline, facing lawsuits after a flight attendant allegedly recorded girls in airplane bathrooms, in a recent defense filing had argued the young girl should have known the toilet contained a recording device.

Following “intense media and public backlash” for that defense on Tuesday, American Airlines a day later said it was amending the court filing.

“Our outside legal counsel retained with our insurance company made an error in this filing,” the airline said in a statement. “The included defense is not representative of our airline and we have directed it be amended this morning.

“We do not believe this child is at fault and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously,” American Airlines added. “Our core mission is to care for people — and the foundation of that is the safety and security of our customers and team.”

The lawsuits against American Airlines started after a former flight attendant was arrested in connection with allegedly recording a 14-year-old girl in a plane’s bathroom on a Boston-bound flight.

Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, of Charlotte, N.C., also allegedly had recordings of four other girl passengers using airplane lavatories — including the 9-year-old girl, who’s from Texas and was flying with her family to go to Disneyland.

During the flight last year, she was secretly filmed while using the airplane toilet, according to the family’s lawsuit against American Airlines. The family is arguing that the airline knew or should have known that Thompson “was a danger.”

The amended defense on Wednesday no longer has the following section from earlier this week: “Defendant would show that any injuries or illnesses alleged to have been sustained by Plaintiff, Mary Doe, were proximately caused by Plaintiff’s own fault and negligence.”

American Airlines’ lawyers had also previously written about the 9-year-old girl using “the compromised lavatory” on the plane: “She knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”

The girl’s family and their attorneys were shocked by the previous court filing from the airline.

“American Airlines has clearly faced intense media and public backlash over their blaming of a 9-year-old for being filmed,” said attorney Paul Llewellyn, a partner at Lewis & Llewellyn LLP. “To claim that they filed the ‘wrong’ answer is simply not credible. But the bell cannot be unrung.

“They should never have taken such a position in the first place,” the lawyer added. “American Airlines claims to care for people. If that is true, why have they not even bothered to reach out to either family since the incident came to light? Actions speak louder than words.”

Thompson was arraigned on the federal charges connection to the Boston-bound flight during a U.S. District Court of Massachusetts hearing on Monday.

Thompson, who’s in federal custody, pleaded not guilty to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children, and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.

A Phase 1 clinical trial out of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston recently used a new cell therapy in patients with recurring glioblastoma.

Just days after a single treatment, the tumors dramatically reduced in size, according to the Mass General Cancer Center researchers. One patient even saw near-complete tumor regression.

“These results are exciting, but they are also just the beginning — they tell us that we are on the right track in pursuing a therapy that has the potential to change the outlook for this intractable disease,” said Marcela Maus, director of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program at Mass General Cancer Center.

“We haven’t cured patients yet, but that is our audacious goal,” Maus added.

MRI scans for the three patients with recurrent glioblastoma, conducted before and after the treatment, showed major shrinkage in the tumor size.

The trial tested a new type of CAR-T cell therapy, which arms the body’s own cells to fight the cancer. A patient’s cells are extracted, modified to produce proteins on their surface called chimeric antigen receptors, and then injected back into the body to target the tumor directly.

In the trial, a 57-year-old woman was treated with CAR-TEAM cells. An MRI five days after a single infusion of CAR-TEAM cells showed near-complete tumor regression.

Also, a 72-year-old man was treated with a single infusion of CAR-TEAM cells. Two days after receiving CAR-TEAM cells, an MRI showed a decrease in the tumor’s size by 18.5%. By day 69, the tumor had decreased by 60.7%, and the response was sustained for more than 6 months.

Despite the remarkable responses among the first three patients, the tumors eventually recurred within 6 months in two of the study’s patients — so the researchers are now working to find new ways to extend the durability of the treatment.

“We report a dramatic and rapid response in these three patients,” said co-author Elizabeth Gerstner, a neuro-oncologist in the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Our work to date shows signs that we are making progress, but there is more to do,” Gerstner added.

The new approach is a result of years of collaboration and innovation springing from Maus’ lab.

“This is a story of bench-to-bedside therapy, with a novel cell therapy designed in the laboratories of Massachusetts General Hospital and translated for patient use within five years, to meet an urgent need,” said Bryan Choi, neurosurgeon and associate director of the Center for Brain Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy, Cellular Immunotherapy Program, Mass General Cancer Center and Department of Neurosurgery.

“The CAR-T platform has revolutionized how we think about treating patients with cancer, but solid tumors like glioblastoma have remained challenging to treat because not all cancer cells are exactly alike and cells within the tumor vary,” Choi added. “Our approach combines two forms of therapy, allowing us to treat glioblastoma in a broader, potentially more effective way.”

The brain tumor killed John McCain and Beau Biden, among others who have so few treatment options.

Heather Walker, a longtime Celtics executive and the team’s vice president of public relations, died last year following a nearly two-year battle with glioblastoma. She had been working relentlessly to raise awareness and money to research the rare and aggressive form of cancer. She started the Heather Walker Fund for Glioblastoma Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she was being treated.

Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of U.S. cancer deaths in men under 50 and the number two cause among women of the same age, according to the American Cancer Society. The early-onset colorectal cancer rates are increasing by 1% to 2% each year, but the rise remains a mystery.

Now, a Mass General researcher is leading a team to investigate the rapid jump in young adult cases of colorectal cancer, a disease in which cells in the colon or rectum grow out of control.

Andrew Chan, the director of epidemiology for the Mass General Cancer Center, is co-leading the global team known as PROSPECT — which received a grant of up to $25 million over five years to study early-onset colorectal cancer. The research team is looking to understand the pathways, risk factors and molecules involved in the cancer’s development.

“Research suggests that this risk is increasing with each new generation,” said Chan, a gastroenterologist focused on cancer prevention among families at high risk of gastrointestinal cancer, “And is likely linked to exposures in early life and throughout an individual’s lifetime that are specific to their birth cohort.”

The research team has uncovered contributing causes to this rise in early-onset cases, including: overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, poor diet, and alterations in the gut microbiome.

“Despite this progress, these factors do not completely explain the rapid rise in cases, and many unanswered questions remain about the mechanisms responsible for the rise in cases,” Chan said.

The team will try to identify the risk factors associated with early-onset colorectal cancer, as well as develop prevention strategies.

“Uncovering the causes of the rising incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer around the globe is a one of the highest priorities in the field,” Chan said.

“This work will offer opportunities for preventive interventions that can benefit younger generations,” Chan added. “In addition to colorectal cancer, there is a rising incidence of multiple cancer types in young adults. The research can serve as a model for the study of other early-onset cancers.”

The research team includes 11 investigators from nine institutions in five countries, including: Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, MIT, Broad Institute, and King’s College London.

Meanwhile, the widow of the late actor Chadwick Boseman — who died from colorectal cancer when he was 43 — recently visited Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as part of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

Simone Ledward-Boseman was the keynote speaker at the 5th Annual Patient and Family Forum at the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center.

“Colorectal cancer is killing young people across the country, and most are vastly underestimating their risk,” Ledward-Boseman said. “I’ve seen how this disease moves, and I know now how treatable it is when it’s detected early… Spreading awareness will save lives.”

The American Cancer Society recommends that people at average risk of colorectal cancer start regular screening at age 45.

People at increased or high risk of colorectal cancer might need to start colorectal cancer screening before age 45. This includes people with: a family history of colorectal cancer or certain types of polyps; a personal history of inflammatory bowel disease; or a genetic syndrome, such as familial adenomatous polyposis or hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer.

Middleboro student Liam Morrison, now in 8th grade, last year was barred by school officials from wearing a shirt to school that read, “There are only two genders.” The 7th grader then wore a shirt that stated, “There are censored genders,” and again, he was ordered to take off the shirt.

Liam, with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom and Massachusetts Family Institute, filed a federal free speech lawsuit in the wake of the shirt controversy last year.

After the U.S. district judge ruled in favor of the Middleboro school officials, Liam’s case is now heading to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston on Thursday.

The Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys are asking the appeals court to rule that Nichols Middle School violated the First Amendment when school officials stopped Liam from wearing his shirts to school. They’re arguing that the school’s dress code policy is unconstitutional and discriminates against students based on the viewpoint they express.

“Students don’t lose their free speech rights the moment they walk into a school building,” said ADF Senior Counsel and VP of U.S. Litigation David Cortman, who will be arguing before the court on Thursday.

“This case isn’t about T-shirts; it’s about a public school telling a middle-schooler that he isn’t allowed to express a view that differs from their own,” Cortman added.

When the Middleboro principal pulled Liam out of class last year and told him he had to take off his shirt, the principal said they had received complaints about the words on his shirt — and that the words might make some students feel unsafe.

Schools are allowed to impose limitations on student speech, according to the U.S. district court ruling from Judge Indira Talwani.

“Defendants do not dispute that the Shirt may be constitutionally protected speech, however, they assert that their restriction of the Shirt was justified where (i) the administration received complaints from students and staff, and (ii) the Shirt invaded on the rights of trans and gender non-conforming students, who are a protected class under Massachusetts law,” the judge’s ruling reads.

“School administrators were well within their discretion to conclude that the statement ‘THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS’ may communicate that only two gender identities–male and female–are valid, and any others are invalid or nonexistent, and to conclude that students who identify differently, whether they do so openly or not, have a right to attend school without being confronted by messages attacking their identities,” the judge added.

Middleboro school officials did not immediately respond to comment on Wednesday.

The source of the fraudulent Biden robocalls — which urged thousands of Granite State residents to not vote in the presidential primary — has been identified as Texas-based Life Corporation and an individual named Walter Monk.

The robocalls played a message with what appeared to be an AI-generated voice clone of Biden’s voice. The message said, “It’s important that you save your vote for the November election,” and “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.”

Biden ended up winning the Democratic primary in a landslide, even with his name off the ballot in a write-in campaign.

After the fake robocalls went out, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office Election Law Unit opened an investigation into these calls in coordination with state and federal partners. Officials were able to trace the calls back to Life Corporation and Monk.

“Ensuring public confidence in the electoral process is vital,” said Attorney General John Formella. “AI-generated recordings used to deceive voters have the potential to have devastating effects on the democratic election process.”

“The partnership and fast action in this matter sends a clear message that law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and industry are staying vigilant and are working closely together to monitor and investigate any signs of AI being used maliciously to threaten our democratic process,” Formella later added.

The robocalls also illegally spoofed their caller ID information to appear to come from a number belonging to a former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair. The message instructed recipients to call the number belonging to that person to be removed from future calls.

After identifying specific calls, the Election Law Unit requested “tracebacks” via an entity known as Industry Traceback Group. These tracebacks identified the source of the calls to be Life Corporation and Monk.

The tracebacks further identified the originating voice service provider for many of these calls to be Texas-based Lingo Telecom. After Lingo Telecom was informed that these calls were being investigated, Lingo Telecom suspended services to Life Corporation.

On Tuesday, the Election Law Unit issued a cease-and-desist order to Life Corporation for violating RSA 659:40, III — which prohibits any person from engaging in voter suppression by knowingly attempting to prevent or deter another person from voting or registering to vote based on fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, or spurious grounds or information.

The Attorney General’s Office is continuing to investigate potential election law violations, consumer protection act violations, and telephone consumer protection act violations, while still determining the total number of robocalls made.

“The Election Law Unit is also aware of media reports that the recorded message was likely made using software from ElevenLabs. At this time, the Unit is continuing to investigate and cannot confirm whether that reporting is accurate,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement. “Finally, the Attorney General is continuing to investigate whether Life Corporation worked with or at the direction of any other persons or entities and at this time cannot comment on whether other persons or entities were involved.”

The researchers tested the effects of a daily multivitamin on cognitive changes in older adults, as part of the COSMOS trial (COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study).

COSMOS is a large-scale trial testing cocoa extract and multivitamin supplements, run by researchers at Mass General Brigham. Two previous studies in COSMOS suggested that a daily multivitamin has a positive effect on cognition.

COSMOS researchers are now reporting the results of a third study in COSMOS — which focused on participants who took in-person assessments. The results showed a statistically significant benefit for memory and cognition among participants taking a daily multivitamin compared to the placebo.

The study suggests that taking a daily multivitamin may help prevent memory loss and slow cognitive aging in older adults.

“Cognitive decline is among the top health concerns for most older adults, and a daily supplement of multivitamins has the potential as an appealing and accessible approach to slow cognitive aging,” said first author Chirag Vyas, instructor in investigation at the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“The meta-analysis of three separate cognition studies provides strong and consistent evidence that taking a daily multivitamin, containing more than 20 essential micronutrients, helps prevent memory loss and slow down cognitive aging,” Vyas said.

The researchers for the study conducted in-person cognitive assessments among 573 participants in the subset of COSMOS known as COSMOS-Clinic.

The scientists found that there was a modest benefit from the multivitamin on global cognition over two years. There was a statistically significant benefit from the multivitamin for change in episodic memory, but not in executive function/attention.

The researchers estimated that the daily multivitamin slowed global cognitive aging by the equivalent of two years compared to the placebo.

“These findings will garner attention among many older adults who are, understandably, very interested in ways to preserve brain health, as they provide evidence for the role of a daily multivitamin in supporting better cognitive aging,” said Olivia Okereke, senior author of the report and director of Geriatric Psychiatry at MGH.

In 2020, an estimated 5.8 million Americans aged 65 years or older had Alzheimer’s disease. This number is projected to nearly triple to 14 million people by 2060, according to the CDC.

JoAnn Manson, co-author of the research report and chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said, “The finding that a daily multivitamin improved memory and slowed cognitive aging in three separate placebo-controlled studies in COSMOS is exciting and further supports the promise of multivitamins as a safe, accessible and affordable approach to protecting cognitive health in older adults.”

The students filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, alleging that Harvard is violating the civil rights of its Jewish students.

Harvard has been at the epicenter of the student campus clashes over the Hamas-Israel war since Oct. 7. In the days after the Hamas terrorist attacks, dozens of student groups wrote a letter that blamed Israel for the attacks.

Antisemitic incidents have been reported across the Cambridge campus. One notable incident involved pro-Palestinian protesters surrounding a Jewish student, which led to reports being filed with the FBI and Harvard Police. The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into Harvard University, and other schools, for possible civil rights violations since the war started.

“Harvard, America’s leading university, has become a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment,” the students’ lawsuit states. “Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and slaughtered, tortured, raped, burned, and mutilated 1,200 people — including infants, children, and the elderly — antisemitism at Harvard has been particularly severe and pervasive.

“Mobs of pro-Hamas students and faculty have marched by the hundreds through Harvard’s campus, shouting vile antisemitic slogans and calling for death to Jews and Israel,” the lawsuit reads. “Those mobs have occupied buildings, classrooms, libraries, student lounges, plazas, and study halls, often for days or weeks at a time, promoting violence against Jews and harassing and assaulting them on campus.”

The university has failed to “lift a finger to stop and deter this outrageous antisemitic conduct and penalize the students and faculty who perpetrate it,” according to the students suing Harvard.

The plaintiffs are an individual Jewish student enrolled at Harvard Divinity School — Alexander Kestenbaum — and Students Against Antisemitism, Inc., whose Jewish members include students at Harvard Law School.

When the Herald reached out to Harvard in response to the lawsuit on Thursday, a spokesperson for the university said in a statement, “We do not have comment on the pending litigation.”

Claudine Gay recently resigned as Harvard’s president following her controversial comments in front of Congress about antisemitism on campus, and in the wake of plagiarism allegations. Gay testified that protesters’ calls for the genocide of the Jewish people do not necessarily violate Harvard’s policies.

“Harvard’s antisemitism cancer — as a past Harvard president termed it — manifests itself in a double standard invidious to Jews,” the lawsuit states. “Harvard selectively enforces its policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment, hires professors who support anti-Jewish violence and spread antisemitic propaganda, and ignores Jewish students’ pleas for protection.”

“The severe and pervasive hostile environment for Jews on campus leaves Harvard’s remaining Jewish population even more isolated and unsafe against their abusers,” the suit adds.

The students are claiming that Harvard has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They’re calling for Harvard to hand down discipline against students and professors “responsible for antisemitic discrimination and abuse, whether because they engage in it or permit it.”

The students are also pushing for the university to add required antisemitism training, and for students to get paid “appropriate damages for lost or diminished educational opportunities.”