Medical Treatments

Some Massachusetts opioid users are so desperate to quit the drug habit that they are asking judges to lock them up and require treatment. Critics question whether courts should play this role.

The federal government spends more than $30 billion a year to fund the National Institutes of Health. How will a new administration affect academic research? What about pharmaceutical research?

Cancer cells, it turns out, reflect light in a particular, polarized way that mantis shrimp can see. A tiny camera based on the shrimp's eye might help doctors better visualize tumors during surgery.

A large study alleviates concerns that Celebrex boosts the risk for heart attacks and strokes as much as Vioxx. But the findings raise some concerns about prescription doses of ibuprofen and naproxen.

Each lab-grown cluster of human cells fits on a pin's head, but contains some of the cell types and circuitry of a real brain. The structures already are offering insights into how Zika attacks.

People with unlucky genes but good health habits were half as likely to develop heart disease as those who had an unhealthful lifestyle and genes that increased their heart risk, a study found.

Members of the military are more than twice as likely to have hepatitis C as the general public. For many, including Jim McGough, the virus takes its final toll decades after they are first infected.

Women lit up social media with warnings that birth control may become harder to get under a Trump administration. Gynecologists and Planned Parenthood centers say they're getting more calls.

Giving infants peanut puree as one of their first solid foods can help prevent peanut allergies, research has shown. To do that safely, start early — and only after checking with your doctor.

Donald Trump's presidency could have a profound impact on abortion. He has said he'll nominate Supreme Court justices who would overturn the 1973 ruling that legalized the procedure.