Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of Oct. 13, 2025

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Oct. 13, 2025–Oct. 17, 2025.

CNN (10/12, McPhillips) reports, “Humans are living 20 years longer than they were in 1950, according to new research with all 204 countries and territories studied reporting declines in their mortality rates since then.” However, “vast inequities remain, and there is an ‘emerging crisis’ of rising death rates among adolescents and young adults.” Analyses found that “in 2023, life expectancy was 76.3 years for women and 71.5 years for men...returning to pre-pandemic levels after falling during the height of [COVID-19].” COVID-19 “fell from the leading cause of death in 2021 to 20th place in 2023, with heart disease and stroke rising to again become the leading causes of death globally.” The findings were published in The Lancet.

HealthDay (10/10, Solomon) reported a study found that “heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) can reduce negative affect, craving, and substance use among individuals in early recovery from substance use disorder (SUD).” The researchers “examined the efficacy of HRVB in the treatment of SUD. The analysis included 115 adults seeking treatment for SUD who were randomly assigned to receive treatment as usual with or without HRVB as a wearable smart patch.” They observed that “HRVB was associated with significant reductions in negative affect and craving over eight weeks, while the control group experienced increases in both negative affect and craving. There were no differences for positive affect.” Furthermore, HRVB was “associated with a significantly lower proportion of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use days compared with control. The within-person relationship between craving and later AOD use was moderated by HRVB treatment, with those receiving HRVB less likely to use AOD following craving.” The study was published in JAMA Psychiatry.

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Healio (10/14, Rhoades) reports a study found that “alcohol-induced deaths nearly doubled in the United States from 1999 to 2024.” The researchers analyzed “yearly and monthly data, taken from the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System and the U.S. Census, to determine changes in alcohol-induced deaths from 1999 to 2024. They found that alcohol-induced deaths overall rose by 89% during the study period, with fatalities peaking at 54,258 in 2021. Deaths from alcohol in 2024 dropped to 13.2 fatalities per 100,000 but were still 11% higher vs. those in 2019.” They found that “most of these deaths were attributable to alcoholic liver disease, followed by alcohol-related mental and behavioral disorders.” While more men were impacted across all age and racial groups, researchers highlighted that the “greatest rise in alcohol-induced deaths overall between 1999 and 2024 was 255% among women aged 25 to 34 years, followed by 188% among men aged 25 to 34 years.” The study was published in PLOS Global Public Health.

The Washington Post (10/15, Bisset, Moon, Li) reports New York state health officials “confirmed the first locally acquired case of chikungunya in the United States in six years,” and the first-ever “locally acquired case of chikungunya in New York.” The Nassau County’s health department said an unnamed resident “had not reported any foreign travel before experiencing symptoms in early August.” County officials also “said on Tuesday they had not found chikungunya in local mosquitoes.”

The AP (10/15) reports that the “type of mosquito known to carry chikungunya is present in parts of the New York City metropolitan area, including suburban Long Island. The disease cannot be spread directly from one person to another.” State Health Commissioner James McDonald said that since mosquitoes are less active during the fall’s cooler temperatures, the current risk of transmission is “very low.”

HealthDay (10/16, Thompson) reports a study found that “a new definition of obesity could dramatically increase the number of Americans considered obese. Under the new definition, the prevalence of obesity rose from around 40% to nearly 70% among more than 300,000 people participating in a long-term health study.” Study authors noted the “new definition takes into account additional measures of excess body fat rather than just relying on body mass index (BMI).” The increase “was entirely driven by people who qualified as obese based on the newer measures of body fat, researchers said.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

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