News & Updates

Nearly 24 percent of U.S. women are affected with one or more pelvic floor disorders, report researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Their analysis is the first to document in a nationally representative sample the extent of pelvic floor disorders, a cluster of health problems that causes physical discomfort and limits activity.

The drug acyclovir has long been used to suppress outbreaks of oral and genital herpes. Herpes viruses change acyclovir to a form that prevents them from reproducing. Now, it appears that after acyclovir is altered by herpes viruses, it also interferes with the AIDS virus's ability to reproduce, report researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

Preterm infants born to mothers receiving intravenous magnesium sulfate--a common treatment to delay labor--are less likely to develop cerebral palsy than are preterm infants whose mothers do not receive it, report researchers in a large National Institutes of Health research network.

A brain chemical that plays a role in long term memory also appears to be involved in regulating how much people eat and their likelihood of becoming obese, according to a National Institutes of Health study of a rare genetic condition.

People with schizophrenia have an alteration in a pattern of brain electrical activity associated with learning and memory. Now, researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Sweden's Karolinska Institute have identified in mouse brain tissue a molecular switch that, when thrown, increases the strength of this electrical pattern.

the late 1980s and early 1990s, changes in the workforce—specifically more women working outside the home—led many families to place their children in non-maternal child care. Policy and social debates were many—some claimed that children were harmed by such care, while others touted its benefits. While the battles raged, it became startlingly clear that little to no scientific research had been conducted on non-maternal child care. Without such data, there could be no real answers to the many questions related to non-maternal child care

The activity level of a large group of American children dropped sharply between age 9 and age 15, when most failed to reach the daily recommended activity level, according to the latest findings from a long-term study by the National Institutes of Health.

The nation's fourth and eighth graders scored higher in reading and mathematics than they did during their last national assessment, according to the federal government's latest annual statistical report on the well-being of the nation's children. Not all the report's findings were positive; there also were increases in the adolescent birth rate and the proportion of infants born at low birthweight.

Experts convened by the National Institutes of Health for the Office of the Surgeon General released an agenda today for activities in the public and private sectors to reduce the nation's rate of preterm birth. The agenda calls for a national system to better understand the occurrence of preterm birth and a national education program to help women reduce their chances of giving birth prematurely.

Each day, approximately 1,000 children—the majority of whom are newborns—become infected with HIV, according to the World Health Organization. HIV can be passed on during pregnancy or delivery, or even after the infant is born, through breastfeeding.

In many poor countries, mothers with HIV face a stark choice: to nurse their infants, and risk passing on HIV through their breast milk--or to formula feed, and deprive their infants of much of the natural immunity needed to protect against fatal diseases of early infancy. Now, two studies supported by the National Institutes of Health offer insights into preventing early death and HIV infection among breastfeeding infants of mothers with HIV in these countries.

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has transformed scientists' understanding of Rett syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes autistic behavior and other disabling symptoms. Until now, scientists thought that the gene behind Rett syndrome was an "off" switch, or repressor, for other genes. But the new study, published today in Science1, shows that it is an "on" switch for a startlingly large number of genes.

During Women’s Health Month, attention turns to the many advances in knowledge about women’s health as well as the gaps that remain in understanding many conditions. The NICHD was founded with a specific focus on women’s health as a way of understanding “the unsolved health problems of children and of mother-infant relationships.”

Pregnant women with blood sugar levels in the higher range of normal--but not high enough to be considered diabetes--are more likely than women with lower blood sugar levels to give birth to babies at risk for many of the same problems seen in babies born to women with diabetes during pregnancy, according to a study funded in large part by the National Institutes of Health.

An intensive educational program for physicians and midwives involving 19 hospitals in Argentina and Uruguay dramatically reduced the rate of postpartum hemorrhage, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

Based on observations of more than 4,000 infants, researchers in an NIH newborn research network have identified several factors that influence an extremely low birth weight infant's chances for survival and disability. The findings offer new information to physicians and families considering the most appropriate treatment options for this category of infants.

Preterm birth remains one of the most complicated and difficult research and public health issues in obstetrics and pediatrics. Nearly 12 percent of all babies born in the United States are born preterm, and this rate continues to rise. To underscore the importance of this problem, the U.S. Congress passed the Prematurity Research Expansion and Education for Mothers who Deliver Infants Early (PREEMIE) Act (P.L. 109-450), which was signed by the President in December 2006.

Women who carry excess fat around their waists were at greater risk of dying early from cancer or heart disease than were women with smaller waistlines, even if they were of normal weight, reported researchers from Harvard and the National Institutes of Health.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced on April 1, 2008, the latest recipients of the Autism Centers of Excellence (ACE) program. These grants will support studies covering a broad range of autism research areas, including early brain development and functioning, social interactions in infants, rare genetic variants and mutations, associations between autism-related genes and physical traits, possible environmental risk factors and biomarkers, and a potential new medication treatment.

Treating children as early as age six or seven with stimulants for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is not likely to increase risk of substance abuse as adults, according to two studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). However, the studies also showed treatment with stimulants did not prevent substance abuse later in adulthood.