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LSD may offer viable treatment for certain mental disorders
McGill study a step in understanding the mechanism of psychedelics’ impact on brain and potential for therapeutic use
Researchers from McGill University have discovered, for the first time, one of the possible mechanisms that contributes to the ability of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to increase social interaction. The findings, which could help unlock potential therapeutic applications in treating certain psychiatric diseases, including anxiety and alcohol use disorders, are published in the journal PNAS.
Psychedelic drugs, including LSD, were popular in the 1970s and have been gaining popularity over the past decade, with reports of young professionals claiming to regularly take small non-hallucinogenic micro-doses of LSD to boost their productivity and creativity and to increase their empathy. The mechanism of action of LSD on the brain, however, has remained a mystery.
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Child marriage is legal and persists across Canada
Over 3,600 marriage certificates were issued to children under the age of 18 between 2000 and 2018
Canada is at the forefront of global efforts to end child marriage abroad. Yet this practice remains legal and persists across the country. In Canada, more than 3,600 marriage certificates were issued to children, usually girls, under the age of 18 between 2000 and 2018, according to a new study from researchers at McGill University. In recent years, an increasing number of child marriages have been common-law unions.
Child marriage, defined as formal or informal (common-law) marriage before the age of 18, is a globally-recognized indicator of gender inequality because the negative consequences for health and personal development disproportionately affect girls. While much research has focused on developing countries, in wealthier nations like Canada, child marriage practices are overlooked and understudied.
Nurse practitioners bring big savings to long-term care facilities in Quebec
Countries worldwide face challenges meeting the growing needs for long-term care services because of high costs. A study led by researchers from McGill University and Université du Québec en Outaouais shows that introducing nurse practitioners can significantly reduce costs and improve patient safety.
According to the study, published in
Nursing Outlook, cost savings for on-site nurse practitioner care for adverse events were between 1.9 and 3.2 million dollars across the six sites, including the reduction of nursing administration time for medications. Once introduced, nurse practitioners managed patients medications and adverse events including falls, pressure ulcers, and short-term transfers to the hospital.
Rainfall patterns remained largely unaffected despite dramatic climate changes
It’s known that the primary cause of the mass extinction of dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago, was a meteorite impact. But the exact mechanisms that linked the meteorite impact to mass extinction remain unclear, though climactic changes are thought to have played a part.
To understand how the mass extinction and associated climate changes affected specific ecosystems, a team of McGill scientists has analyzed the microscopic remains of plants from this period, found in the sediment of rivers in southern Saskatchewan. In a recent article in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecologythey show that in this area, local plant communities and ecosystems experienced a long-term shift towards fewer aquatic plants and an increase in terrestrial plants, including trees such as birches and elms. They researchers speculate that this increase was due to the extinction of large plant-eating dinosaurs. The