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Cocaine addicts often suffer a downward emotional spiral that is a key to their craving and chronic relapse. While researchers have developed animal models of the reward of cocaine, they have not been able to model this emotional impact, until now.

New findings do not support the recommendation for universal screening on hospital admission for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to reduce the rate of hospital-acquired infections in surgical patients.

A team of scientists have found, for the first time, raised levels of magnetic iron oxides in the part of the brain affected by Alzheimer's Disease. Though the results are based on a small number of samples, they give an indication that iron accumulation associated with Alzheimer's appears to involve the formation of strongly magnetic iron compounds.

For the first time, a researchers have linked pain receptors found throughout the nervous system to learning and memory in the brain. The findings, published in Neuron, point up new drug targets for memory loss or epileptic seizures.

The first large scale national study of escalator-related injuries to older adults reports that the rate of these injuries has doubled from 1991 to 2005. Using U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission data, the researchers found nearly 40,000 older adults were injured on escalators between 1991 and 2005.

Scientists studying macrophages, the biological cells that spring from white blood cells to eat and destroy foreign or dying cells, have discovered how these "policemen" differentiate between friend and foe.

Researchers have definitively shown that the widely used bug repellent DEET acts like a chemical cloak, masking human odors that blood-feeding insects find attractive. The research now makes it possible not only to systematically improve upon the repellent properties of DEET but also to make it a safer chemical.

A detailed review of 5.47 million primary health-care records has revealed that prescribing costs rise dramatically when people reach 65. They are six-and-a-half times times higher than for people under 65 and 16 times higher than for children under four.

Research in mice lends credence to hospitals' aggressive tactics to prevent and respond to deep-vein thrombosis. A commonly used medication that prevents blood clots from forming may also prevent existing clots from damaging delicate vein walls -- and may accelerate healing in a clot-damaged area of vein wall. The findings, made in laboratory mice, add more evidence to support the aggressive anticlot efforts now under way at American hospitals and nursing homes.

A new five-year study confirms the suspected close link between the two most common diseases of young children: colds and ear infections. Ear infections are the driving force behind antibiotic resistance, a troubling medical issue, as physicians often administer antibiotics for the painful, persistent ailment.