The Lancet

📣 Upcoming webinar📣 Join The Lancet Planetary Health's editorial team as they share the journal’s aims and scope, what they are looking for in a research paper, and best practices to prepare your manuscript for publication in their journal. The webinar will conclude with a live Q&A, where the editors will be answering your questions. Register now: https://hubs.li/Q02yMZSP0 📆 Thurs, Jun 27, 2024 🕓 16:00 BST / 11:00 EDT

“In the far future...the last remaining sign of our civilisations might well be a distinct layer of plastics in the geological strata.” There is much good that comes from plastic. 21st century medicine would be unimaginable without it: from intravenous tubes to gowns, syringes to catheters. Plastics have become integral to modern life. This, however, comes at an increasingly recognised cost. 🔹Plastic manufacturing can be a dirty business, with chemicals and additives that can later leach into us or the environment 🔹Plastic production and burning plastic waste generate harmful emissions 🔹Microplastics—fragments less than 5 mm—have been found on mountaintops, throughout our oceans, and in the bloodstream of human beings According to the OECD, plastic pollution is set to double, from 22 million tons per year in 2016 to 44 million tons per year in 2040. Given the status quo presents a range of unsustainable harms to health, the environment, and the economy, the UN is developing a multinational treaty to end plastic pollution. Find out more in this Lancet Editorial ▶️ hubs.li/Q02ysvJQ0

Understanding the health consequences associated with exposure to risk factors is vital to inform public health policy and practice. Across 88 risk factors in 204 countries and territories plus 811 subnational areas, a new GBD Study provides: ✅ Comprehensive estimates of exposure levels ✅ Relative health risks ✅ Attributable burden of disease Explore the data and findings ⬇️ hubs.li/Q02yk4bY0

🆕 “The window of opportunity to ensure our ability to treat bacterial infections is shrinking.” Each year, an estimated 7.7 million deaths globally are caused by bacterial infections. Of these deaths, almost 5 million are associated with bacteria that have developed resistance to antibiotics. Babies, children, the elderly, and people with chronic illness are most vulnerable to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as they have a higher risk of contracting bacterial infections in general.   However, 750,000 lives could be saved every year through available vaccines, water and sanitation, and infection control methods, according to a new Lancet Series. “For too long, the problem of AMR has been seen as either not urgent or too difficult to solve. Neither is true”, says co-author Prof. Ramanan Laxminarayan. Find out more ▶️ bit.ly/3wWLh2f

“Removal of constitutional abortion rights has created complex ethical and legal challenges for patients and providers in the USA” Ahead of the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision, three expert Viewpoints in The Lancet and The Lancet Psychiatry explore the wide-ranging implications. We’ve outlined key quotes from the papers below: 🗨️ “Dobbs has consequences on almost every facet of the medical workforce, including on physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and others who work within the health-care system.” 🗨️ “Restrictions on abortion access extend beyond immediate reproductive care concerns, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of the ruling’s consequences across micro and macro levels.” 🗨️ “We predict that psychiatrists will be confronted with very difficult situations […] abortion bans will result in greater numbers of patients needing psychiatric care from a system that is ill-prepared for additional demands.” 🗨️ “The development of a research agenda will ultimately be needed to drive the creation of policies that support the freedom of practitioners to ethically care for their patients.” Collectively, authors call for rigorous research to build a better understanding of the rulings’ impacts and how to prioritise health and dignity. Explore all Viewpoints via the links in the comments section of this post ⬇️

Our new In focus Alerts bring together specialty focused content, events, and other offerings from across The Lancet Group into a monthly email. We’ve launched Alerts in neurology, psychiatry, oncology, and obstetrics & gynaecology, with more to come in 2025! Register at: https://hubs.li/Q02xxh-q0 Stay current with: ➡️ The latest, original research ➡️ Series and Commissions ➡️ Content presented at conferences ➡️ Helpful guides on publishing your research with us ➡️ Lancet Webinars, both upcoming and on-demand ➡️ Multimedia, including videos, podcasts, and infographics ➡️ Plus, so much more related to your field!

More than 1/3 of women experience lasting health problems after childbirth, including mental health conditions. Pregnancy and childbirth are not a single health event that occurs in isolation. They are experienced by women within the broad, rich context of their lives. “In our society, the joy of having a newborn is cherished by everyone, but the pain, physical exertion, psychological trauma, and other sequelae of pregnancy and labour are borne by the mother alone.” – Sayeba Akhter, MAMMS Institute of Fistula and Womens Health, Bangladesh. Explore a Series from The Lancet Global Health–eClinicalMedicine calling for a life-course approach to address women’s individual needs & concerns: https://hubs.li/Q02xxkdz0 #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek

“COVID-19 has been the largest setback in global health over the past 71 years” It is, perhaps, an unsurprising conclusion for the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021 to draw. New data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reports a significant global life expectancy decline of 1.6 years from 2019 to 2021, marking the pandemic as a historic setback. However, this is far from the full picture ⤵️ Across six new papers in The Lancet, authors highlight ongoing global health improvements over the past seven decades—such as reductions in mortality from infectious diseases—while also pointing out emerging challenges, including obesity, addiction, and climate change. Read all articles plus a Viewpoint for GBD Study lead, Christopher Murray, in our latest issue ▶️ hubs.li/Q02xxhS_0

What’s in 10 years? A decade—for researchers, clinicians, and people with lived experience of mental ill health—can represent a significant amount of time for exploring treatment options and new therapeutic avenues. In the grander picture of medical science, this is only a brief moment - a small step on a long path toward progress. But for The Lancet Psychiatry, 10 years marks a milestone. Since 2014, the journal and its editors have been building relationships, reputation, and reinforcing a commitment to “provide a platform from which multiple perspectives of this rich and dynamic field can be presented.” Explore highlights in a new anniversary Editorial 🔽 https://hubs.li/Q02xl_JD0

Among 20 leading risk factors for years of life lost in 2040, reference forecasts point to three metabolic risks—high blood pressure, high BMI, and high fasting plasma glucose—as top risk variables. Building on these and other risk factors, the concept of metabolic health is attracting a lot of attention among the scientific community. Find out more in a Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Review: hubs.li/Q02xhY8Q0 👇 Metabolic health and selected data-driven cluster approaches for cardiometabolic risk stratification