Alicia Ault

Lutherville-Timonium

Editor and Writer at Freelance

Freelance Writer at Medscape

Freelance Writer at Smithsonian Magazine

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Articles

Landmark 20-Year Study Reshapes Understanding of PTSD

4 days ago | mdedge.com | Alicia Ault

FROM NATURE MENTAL HEALTHA large 20-year study — the longest and most detailed of its kind — shows that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms can endure for decades, challenging conventional timelines for recovery and offering new insights to guide future treatment.
Landmark 20-Year Study Reshapes Understanding of PTSD

1 week ago | medscape.com | Alicia Ault

A large 20-year study — the longest and most detailed of its kind — shows that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms can endure for decades, challenging conventional timelines for recovery and offering new insights to guide future treatment.
Health Professionals Condemn HHS Firing of ACIP Members

1 week ago | medscape.com | Alicia Ault

Health organizations and professional societies are expressing outrage over the firing of all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced on June 9 in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that he was “totally reconstituting” the ACIP, saying that all the current members had conflicts of interest and that they were beholden to vaccine makers.
Colonoscopy Screening Effective in 45- to 49-Year-Olds

1 week ago | medscape.com | Alicia Ault

Screening colonoscopies in 45- to 49-year-olds yield similar rates of cancer and lesions as in 50- to 54-year-olds, according to a new analysis. Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Northern California sought to compare yields between the two age groups to assess how a change in guidance in 2021 urging screening in the younger cohort was borne out in a real-world setting.
CDC Drops Guidance for COVID Vaccines for Pregnancy

3 weeks ago | medscape.com | Alicia Ault

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just updated its child and adolescent immunization schedule in a way that states that parents who want to vaccinate healthy children could do so, based on shared decision making with a clinician. The agency also updated the adult immunization schedule to say there is “no guidance” on use in pregnancy.
FDA Advisers Recommend No Changes to COVID Vaccine for Fall

3 weeks ago | medscape.com | Alicia Ault

US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisers recommended that manufacturers make no changes to the COVID-19 vaccine that will be available for boosters later this summer. The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBAC) voted 9-0 that the 2025-26 vaccines should stay the same, containing a single JN.1 strain, which has been dominant globally since 2024. “There is efficacy,” said Panel Member Eric J.
Severe Itch May Occur After Stopping Antihistamines

1 month ago | medscape.com | Alicia Ault

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning that patients who stop taking cetirizine (Zyrtec) or levocetirizine (Xyzal) after long-term use may experience rare but severe itching. The agency said in a drug safety communication that between 2017 and 2023, it had received reports of 209 cases worldwide (197 in the United States) of pruritus developing within a few days of stopping cetirizine (n = 180), levocetirizine (n = 27), or both (n = 2).
Is the FDA Poised to Ban Talc?

1 month ago | medscape.com | Alicia Ault

The FDA may be poised to ban talc as an ingredient in the products it regulates, including foods, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. The agency convened what it called an expert panel on talc on May 20, led by FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, MD, MPH, and Principal Deputy Commissioner Sara Brenner, MD, MPH. The 2-hour meeting was livestreamed.
FDA Prioritizes COVID Vaccine for 65+ and High Risk

1 month ago | medscape.com | Alicia Ault

The FDA will prioritize approval of COVID-19 vaccines which can be proven to generate antibody titers in people over age 65 or people who are 6 months or older and at high risk for severe disease, the agency announced on Tuesday.
Oração pelos pacientes? Leitores e especialistas em ética opinam

1 month ago | portugues.medscape.com | Alicia Ault

Se você nunca perguntou se pode orar por um paciente, talvez faça parte da minoria. Em uma coluna recente no Medscape, o Dr. Andrew N. Wilner relatou a história de uma médica que se ofereceu para orar pela esposa dele ao final de uma consulta de rotina. A paciente não tinha nenhuma relação anterior com a profissional e apresentava apenas uma queixa leve. O médico considerou a atitude perturbadora e escreveu que, embora existam situações em que a oração possa ser apropriada, aquele não era o caso.