College News

Recently published research from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa shows that a new therapy for children with chronic nightmares reduced the number of nightmares and the distress they caused and increased the number of nights a child slept without waking. The study, published in Frontiers in Sleep, is thought to be the first randomized clinical trial to test a nightmare therapy in children, and it marks a step toward treating nightmares as a distinct disorder and not solely a symptom of another mental health issue.

Six-year-old Bentley’s diagnosis of precursor B cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL) in 2019 sent his family into a tailspin of worry about what the future would hold for the sweet boy who loved to make everyone laugh.

It didn’t take long for the family’s anxiety to turn cautiously toward hope. Bentley was enrolled in a University of Oklahoma Health Sciences clinical trial studying whether a drug called blinatumomab, when given in conjunction with chemotherapy, would improve patients’ survival without the cancer returning. Within a month, Bentley’s leukemia was in remission, and he remains disease-free today.

Physicians at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences in Oklahoma City are leading a national clinical trial to help women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)-related infertility who want to become pregnant.

Research published Nov. 21 in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine demonstrates a three-fold reduction in a risky repeat surgery for patients with subdural hematoma, a pooling of blood between the skull and the surface of the brain. The reduced risk was shown in patients whose hematoma was removed through traditional neurosurgery and who also underwent a less invasive procedure known as embolization to block the artery supplying blood to the hematoma. The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine was one of 39 academic health institutions across the United States that enrolled patients in the EMBOLISE clinical trial.

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to engage with the descendants of American Indian individuals who were incarcerated at Fort Marion in Florida during the 1870s. Formerly known as Castillo de San Marcos, Fort Marion served as a government internment site for American Indians at least four times.