School of Medicine

New research may help explain why drug treatments for addiction and depression don’t work for some patients. The conditions are linked to reward and aversion responses in the brain. And the research suggests that some treatments simultaneously stimulate reward and aversion responses, resulting in a net zero effect.

The largest study to date of sustained calorie reduction in adults shows that it does not produce all of the metabolic effects associated with longevity that have been found in animal studies. Severely cutting calorie intake, however, did appear to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and make people more sensitive to insulin, according to John O. Holloszy, MD, principal investigator at the study’s Washington University clinical site.

Following a weeklong orientation that focused on health disparities and public health, first-year students at the School of Medicine got their hands dirty working at urban gardens in St. Louis. The students volunteered with a nonprofit organization that works to establish and sustain green spaces in neighborhoods across the city.

Compared with routine medical care, probiotics administered to critically ill patients in intensive care units showed no benefit in preventing the colonization of drug-resistant microbes in the intestinal tract, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Ralph G. Dacey Jr., MD, the Henry G. and Edith R. Schwartz Professor and head of the Department of Neurological Surgery, has received the Walter Reed Distinguished Service Award from his alma mater.

For patients with an often-deadly form of leukemia, new research by Timothy J. Ley, MD, and colleagues suggests that lingering cancer-related mutations – detected after initial treatment with chemotherapy – are associated with an increased risk of relapse and poor survival.

Marilyn Siegel, MD, a professor of radiology and of pediatrics, loves solving the puzzles her field presents and the opportunities it has given her. But most of all, she loves helping patients.

A new study shows that quitting smoking after a heart attack has immediate benefits, including less chest pain, better quality of daily life and improved mental health. Many of these improvements became apparent as little as one month after quitting and are more pronounced after one year, according to the research led by Sharon Cresci, MD, at the School of Medicine.

​As the use of e-cigarettes has risen dramatically in the United States in recent years, so have calls to poison centers about them. Yet many parents who use e-cigarettes – or “vape” – aren’t aware of the dangers to children, according to a study at the School of Medicine.

The Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital Pulmonary Hypertension Center, under the direction of Murali Chakinala, MD, associate professor of medicine, has received accreditation from the Pulmonary Hypertension Association as a Center for Comprehensive Care, the association’s highest level achievable.