Health
Freed American prisoners Gershkovich and Whelan may face ‘disruptive’ trauma, say mental health experts
While Thursday’s release of American prisoners from Russia was marked by celebration and relief, the former captives could face future health challenges, experts say.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and American veteran Paul Whelan were among those released from Russia on Thursday in a large prisoner swap.
A third U.S. citizen, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, was also released.
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A plane carrying the freed Americans landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland late Thursday night, where they were greeted by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The newly released prisoners were then flown to San Antonio, Texas, for evaluation and rehabilitation at Brooke Army Medical Center, a premier military medical facility, according to reports.
Former prisoners Paul Whelan, left, and Evan Gershkovich, right, were released by Russia on Aug. 2, 2024. (Getty Images)
Although the prisoners are safely back on U.S. soil and have been reunited with their families, they may experience mental health challenges stemming from the trauma of detainment, said experts.
“Besides the obvious threats to one’s safety and the horrifying prospect of confinement, a situation like this is fraught with uncertainty,” Dr. Norman Blumenthal, director of the Ohel Zachter Family National Trauma Center in New York, told Fox News Digital.
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“Ambiguity in and of itself induces stress — and that, coupled with their very predicament, can create a marked escalation of trauma.” (None of the experts cited here have treated the released Americans.)
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich greets colleagues at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, following his release as part of a 24-person prisoner swap between Russia and the United States, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. “It’s important that they have the space and privacy they need to process this on their own timeline,” said a mental health expert. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Dr. Karen DeCocker, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner director at Stella Centers in Chicago, noted that being held captive can lead to several types of trauma.
“This varies from person to person based on prior history and the experiences encountered during captivity,” she told Fox News Digital.
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While each person reacts differently to trauma, Blumenthal predicted that the freed prisoners would likely experience an “initial thrill and exhilaration” from their liberation.
“The celebrations and enthusiastic reunions with loved ones can temporarily overshadow the trauma,” he noted.
“Frightening flashbacks and intrusive recollections can become disruptive and destabilizing.”
“As life returns to normal and routines set in, that is often when the frightening flashbacks and intrusive recollections can become disruptive and destabilizing.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, said it is likely the prisoners experienced physical and mental abuse, sleep deprivation, dehydration, malnutrition and possibly infections.
Trauma disorders and symptoms
Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist and author based in New York City, said that Gershkovich, Whelan and Kurmasheva, along with the other released prisoners, may suffer from both acute stress disorder (ASD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
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ASD is a short-term mental health condition that typically occurs within a month after a traumatic experience, according to Cleveland Clinic’s website.
This image released by the White House shows Evan Gershkovich, left, Alsu Kurmasheva, right, and Paul Whelan, second from right, and others aboard a plane, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, following their release from Russian captivity. (White House via AP)
“Acute stress disorder may include flashbacks, nightmares, intense fear and high anxiety,” Alpert told Fox News Digital.
It can also include feelings of numbness or detachment.
PTSD occurs when such symptoms persist for a month or longer, and the anxiety becomes chronic, according to Alpert.
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PTSD may include many of the same symptoms as ASD, and can impair the person’s ability to function in daily activities.
The freed prisoners may also experience depression, anger and difficulty trusting others, said Alpert.
“The celebrations and enthusiastic reunions with loved ones can temporarily overshadow the trauma.”
“I’ve also seen people have trouble focusing and making decisions in light of a trauma,” he added.
It could also be challenging for the former prisoners to reintegrate into their normal environments and social groups, Alpert said.
Symptoms of trauma are “not universal,” Siegel told Fox News Digital.
One “tried-and-true method” of coping is to retell the events to supportive people who act as listeners, not solvers, according to one expert. (iStock)
“There are differences, and not everyone experiences PTSD,” he said.
“Common symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, depersonalization and derealization, anxiety and depression.”
DeCocker noted that symptoms can be both mental and physical — including the following five points.
1. Dissociation
“Individuals may experience dissociation, where they feel disconnected from their thoughts, feelings or sense of identity,” DeCocker told Fox News Digital.
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“This can manifest as feeling detached from oneself (depersonalization) or from the world around them (derealization).”
2. Survivor’s guilt
Some trauma survivors may feel a sense of guilt for having survived a traumatic experience when others did not, or for putting themselves or others in situations that led to captivity, DeCocker said.
They may also feel guilty about the stress and anxiety that family members and loved ones experienced during their imprisonment.
3. Interpersonal and relationship issues
“Issues with trust, intimacy and personal relationships often occur with survivors and their families,” DeCocker told Fox News Digital.
Former prisoners Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan were on the phone with President Biden on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. (The White House)
“The impact of their captivity often comes from their inability to relate the experience to others.”
4. Self-esteem and identity issues
Trauma survivors may experience feelings of shame, worthlessness or confusion about their identity, according to DeCocker.
“In this case, where there was an exchange of prisoners, there may be added complexity,” she said.
5. Cognitive distortions
It’s not uncommon for trauma survivors to have negative beliefs about themselves or the world, according to DeCocker.
“Generalizations about the world being unsafe or out of their control can occur,” she said. “Threats are often seen in everyday experiences.”
Tips for overcoming trauma
Given the high-profile release, Gershkovich and Whelan will likely receive a large amount of media attention, Alpert noted — “but it’s important that they have the space and privacy they need to process this on their own timeline.”
DeCocker agreed, stressing the importance of taking extensive time to heal and recover.
“There is no rush to reintegrate,” she told Fox News Digital. “Time is best devoted toward rest and restoring a sense of balance and normalcy.”
Embracing daily routines and structure can help with that, DeCocker said.
Former prisoner U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva runs to her daughters as she arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Aug. 1, 2024. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
The freed prisoners may also want to avoid spending too much time on social media and the news in the early days to avoid retriggering discussions and events, she advised.
One “tried-and-true method” of coping is to retell the events to supportive people who act as listeners, not solvers, according to Blumenthal.
“Putting the experience into words can help with healing and adjusting to the more mundane aspects of life and routine,” he said.
“In the case of a severe trauma, such as being held prisoner and wrongly convicted, symptoms may not surface right away.”
If symptoms are interfering with day-to-day functioning, Alpert recommends seeking professional help.
“In the case of a severe trauma, such as being held prisoner and wrongly convicted, symptoms may not surface right away,” he pointed out.
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“It can be helpful to get ahead of it and speak to a specialist.”
All forms of professional help are useful, DeCocker noted. Those include talk therapy, psychiatric support, interventional treatment modalities specific to treating trauma, and physical treatments and therapies to heal the body.
If symptoms are interfering with day-to-day functioning, mental health experts recommend seeking professional help. (iStock)
Other treatments may include cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation techniques, and medications such as beta blockers, antidepressants and potentially psychedelics, according to Siegel.
Support from loving family members and friends is also key, the doctor added.
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Most people do have an “inherent resilience and capacity to hope,” Blumental said.
“These and other freed hostages may, on their own, mobilize and harness strength and heroic reformulations of their recent incarceration to go on and resume normal functioning.”
Scott McDonald of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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A new injectable therapy is showing positive results in reducing melanoma throughout a five-year period.
The personalized mRNA cancer therapy, called intismeran autogene, combined with the cancer immunotherapy drug KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), is a collaboration between Merck and Moderna.
The results from the phase 2b KEYNOTE-942 study were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 27.
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After about a five-year follow-up, the combo drug was found to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared to pembrolizumab alone.
The researchers analyzed data from 157 patients with high-risk stage 3 and 4 melanoma whose cancer had been removed via surgery. The participants were split into two groups — one received the combo therapy and the other only received pembrolizumab, according to a press release.
The therapy was found to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared to pembrolizumab alone after a five-year follow-up. (iStock)
The findings revealed that the combination group saw benefits that were “sustained and durable over time.”
Intismeran autogene is designed using mutations identified in a patient’s own tumor, with the intention of teaching the immune system what the cancer looks like so that it can recognize and attack it.
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According to the researchers, intismeran is “well-tolerated” with a “manageable” safety profile.
The most commonly cited side effects of the personalized mRNA vaccine plus KEYTRUDA were fatigue, injection-site pain, chills, fever and headache. The researchers reported no new long-term safety concerns and no severe vaccine-related adverse events.
The combination therapy is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 study — the final confirmation stage.
Patients with late-stage melanoma have a “significant risk” of cancer recurrence, according to an expert. (iStock)
In a Merck press release from January, Kyle Holen, MD, Moderna’s senior vice president and head of development, oncology and therapeutics, noted that this data highlights the “potential of a prolonged benefit … in patients with resected high-risk melanoma.”
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“We continue to invest in our platform in oncology because of encouraging outcomes like these, which illustrate mRNA’s potential in cancer care,” he said.
Dr. Marjorie Green, senior vice president and head of oncology, global clinical development at Merck Research Laboratories, also commented that for many patients with stage 3 or 4 melanoma, there is a “significant risk of recurrence following surgery.”
Researchers confirmed that the combination therapy is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 study. (iStock)
“As such, demonstrating the longer-term potential of intismeran autogene and KEYTRUDA to reduce the risk of recurrence for certain patients with melanoma is a meaningful milestone,” she said.
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The company cited encouraging five-year follow-up data and pointed to upcoming late-stage INTerpath trial results with Moderna in several hard-to-treat cancers.
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An accidental lab discovery has opened the door to entirely new ways of preventing the flu.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells, SWNS reported.
By targeting the specific molecules the viruses rely on, scientists found that they could block them from entering new cells and halt their replication altogether.
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Researchers say these “fundamental insights” into seasonal influenza highlight a clear path toward developing better preventive medications.
“The hope is that fundamental, curiosity-based research like this helps to pave the way for novel strategies to treat and prevent influenza infections,” principal investigator Dr. Emily Bruce, from the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, said in the SWNS report.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells. (iStock)
While several flu strains cause illness, H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A viruses are the most common. However, current flu tests cannot differentiate between them, and clinical treatments are identical for both.
Although vaccines and antivirals are available, Bruce noted a “dire” need for better medications to stop the virus from spreading cell to xxcell.
“You don’t get sick when a virus is in one cell,” he noted. “You get sick because a virus replicates itself and goes into many more cells.”
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The study, which was published in The Journal of Virology, originally aimed to map how viral RNA segments are transported within cells to create new viral particles.
The team used H1N1 and H3N2 viruses isolated from the nasal passages of positive patients in 2022.
Clinical treatments remain identical for both primary strains of the flu virus. (iStock)
During the investigation, the team unexpectedly stumbled upon a cellular pathway that blocked the virus from entering lung cells, SWNS reported.
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The data revealed that when a specific human protein called Rab11B was depleted, H3N2 viruses failed to enter human lung cells. H1N1 viruses were completely unaffected.
Using reverse genetics, the team mapped this defect and uncovered a brand-new, H3N2-specific role for Rab11B during viral entry.
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This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way.
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“Viruses are like pirates from different countries hijacking someone’s ship,” Bruce said. “Different viruses, like different types of pirates, use different methods to get onboard.”
This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way. (iStock)
“We had previously thought that all flu viruses used the same way to get into a cell, but we discovered that this is not true,” she went on. “H1N1 and H3N2 need different proteins to get in, and if you get rid of the right protein, a specific virus can’t get in.”
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While these findings identify a critical cellular pathway for viral entry, the study was conducted using isolated cells, the researchers acknowledged.
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Further research is needed to determine whether blocking the protein is safe and effective within a live, complex human respiratory system.
Bruce and the team hope to conduct further research to determine whether this Rab11B-dependency is a fundamental property of H3N2, or if it’s a trait unique to currently circulating flu strains.
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Eating processed meat like ham, sausage and bacon may be linked to a higher risk of certain types of cancer, according to new research.
While health organizations have already confirmed that processed meat can contribute to colon cancer, this study looked closer at cancers in the upper digestive tract, where the link has historically been less clear.
To understand these connections, researchers from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), one of the world’s largest long-term nutrition and cancer cohorts, tracked the health and diets of 450,112 people across Europe for an average of 14 years.
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The study group included 131,426 men and 318,686 women, according to the study’s press release.
During the follow-up period, 876 people developed stomach cancer and 215 people developed esophageal adenocarcinoma, which is cancer of the tube connecting the mouth to the stomach.
For female participants, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk of developing the disease. (iStock)
Researchers tracked where the stomach cancers grew, separating them into the upper part of the stomach near the throat and the lower part of the stomach.
The researchers also sorted the tumors into two categories based on how the cancer cells appeared under a microscope: intestinal, which forms more organized structures, and diffuse, in which the cells are more scattered throughout the tissue.
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After adjusting for other lifestyle factors, the researchers found that for every extra 30 grams of processed meat a person ate per day, their overall risk of stomach cancer went up by 9%. Eating that same extra 30 grams a day was also linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma.
A standard single slice of regular deli-sliced ham or lunch meat averages around 28 grams, according to USDA data and nutritional tracking databases.
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken and turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach. (iStock)
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken or turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach, the researchers noted.
The study also revealed differences between men and women. For male participants, only processed meat showed a clear, statistically significant link to a higher risk of stomach cancer. For female participants, however, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk.
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These findings align with global health benchmarks, particularly those established by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The agency has long classified processed meat as a known human carcinogen, primarily due to its strong, well-documented links to colorectal cancer.
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However, health organizations have also consistently pointed to a potential, yet less definitive, relationship between these meats and cancers of the stomach.
Eating 30 grams of processed meat a day, or the equivalent to one slice of ham, was linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma. (iStock)
Further scientific investigation is needed to confirm the findings and to account for other underlying risk factors, such as certain stomach infections, which could interact with dietary habits.
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A key limitation of the study is its reliance on self-reported diets, which can sometimes lead to inaccuracies in how participants recall their meat consumption over time, the researchers noted.
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The findings were published in the International Journal of Cancer.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers requesting comment.
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