Mental Health News Feeds

Mar 28, 2025 - A new study found that over half of US adults experienced some form of discrimination, and individuals with high exposure to discrimination have more than five times the chances of screening positive for depression, and five times the chances of screening positive for anxiety. Compared to adults who do not experience discrimination, adults who do ...

Mar 28, 2025 - Scientists have confirmed a neurobiochemical link between dopamine and cognitive flexibility. PET imaging shows that the brain increases dopamine production when completing cognitively demanding tasks, and that the more dopamine released, the more efficiently the tasks are completed. Armed with this information, physicians may soon be able to ...

Mar 25, 2025 - Research has shown that a biological brain mechanism called the 'kynurenine pathway' is imbalanced in adolescents with depression, and this imbalance is more pronounced in teenage girls than boys.

Mar 25, 2025 - An adult brain affected by attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) presents modifications similar to those observed in individuals suffering from dementia. These are the findings of a study which shows that, compared with healthy individuals, patients with an ADHD diagnosis have more iron in certain regions of their brain ...

Mar 21, 2025 - Almost half of patients diagnosed with depression classify as being 'treatment- ' as new research suggests that many don't respond to multiple antidepressant options.

Mar 20, 2025 - An international team has identified associations between modifications in the placenta and the risk of developing schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression disorder.

Mar 19, 2025 - Mindfulness, total sleep quality, and alcohol consumption may help explain why people who stay up late have a greater risk of depression, according to a new study.

Mar 18, 2025 - Research has tracked depressive symptoms in 7100 young people from Tokyo and London and shown girls have more depressive symptoms than boys in both cities. The study found that this gap is around twice as large in London and the year-on-year rise in depressive symptoms is around four times steeper for teenage girls in London than for teenage girls in Tokyo.

Mar 18, 2025 - Climate change is not just an environmental issue -- it's a mental health crisis impacting on adolescent wellbeing right now in areas most affected by climate change, according to new research.

Mar 17, 2025 - Early-life adversity affects more than half of the world's children and is a significant risk factor for cognitive and mental health problems later in life. In an extensive and up-to-the-minute review of research in this domain, scholars illuminate the profound impacts of these adverse childhood experiences on brain development and introduce new paths for understanding and tackling them.

Mar 17, 2025 - A new analysis led by surgeons finds that psychological prehabilitation can significantly enhance recovery after surgery. The study found that psychological prehabilitation significantly reduces the length of hospital stay, pain, anxiety, and depression after surgery.

Mar 14, 2025 - The oxytocin system -- which helps release breast milk and strengthens the bond between mother and baby -- may be affected during breastfeeding in mothers experiencing postnatal depression.

Mar 13, 2025 - New research shows that people with eating disorders are more harshly judged than those suffering from depression, making it much harder for them to seek treatment.

Mar 10, 2025 - Researchers found new insights on the timing of prenatal stress and its effect on infant stress reactivity and temperament -- including differences between genders.

Mar 10, 2025 - A novel analysis of more than 375 published studies concluded that the association between chronic pain and rates of depression and anxiety is staggering. The study found that 40% of adults with chronic pain experienced 'clinically significant depression and anxiety.' Among those most at risk, the analysis showed, were women, younger adults and people with fibromyalgia.

Mar 10, 2025 - A recent study suggests that limiting screen time and promoting physical activity from childhood may help safeguard mental health in adolescence. The findings are particularly significant given that mental health problems affect up to 30% of young people and pose a growing societal challenge.

Mar 6, 2025 - Exposure to high ambient temperatures is associated with lower connectivity in three brain networks in preadolescents, suggesting that heat may impact brain function.

Mar 6, 2025 - Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a condition characterized by daily excessive worry lasting at least six months, have a high relapse rate even after receiving treatment. Artificial intelligence (AI) models may help clinicians identify factors to predict long-term recovery and better personalize patient treatment, according to researchers.

Mar 5, 2025 - A study of people who started ADHD stimulant treatment via telehealth vs in-person visits shows no difference in risk of new substance use disorders except for young adults age 26-34.

Mar 5, 2025 - Some people living with chronic stress have a higher risk of stroke, according to a new study. The study looked at younger adults and found an association between stress and stroke, with no known cause, in female participants, but not male participants. This study does not prove that stress causes stroke; it only shows an association.

Mar 5, 2025 - Group arts interventions, such as painting, dance, or music, significantly reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in older adults, offering a powerful alternative to traditional treatments. The benefits are universal, with consistent results across different art forms, intervention types, and countries. Group arts interventions were ...

Mar 3, 2025 - Having one traumatic experience is bad enough. If you've constantly experienced stress since before birth, you may be in for an especially tough time. Our emotions may be influenced by infections experienced in the mother's womb. This can result from two-hit stress, where an infection during pregnancy is followed by social stress during postpartum ...

Feb 27, 2025 - When faced with chronic stress, why do some people develop anxiety and depressive symptoms while others show resilience? A protein that acts as a cannabinoid receptor and is present in the structure controlling exchanges between the bloodstream and the brain could be part of the answer, according to a new study.

Feb 25, 2025 - Identifying and treating risk factors for depression, anxiety and other psychological health conditions during pregnancy and postpartum may improve short- and long-term health outcomes for both mother and child, according to a new scientific statement.

Feb 24, 2025 - Working memory is what allows humans to juggle different pieces of information in short-term scenarios, like making a mental grocery list and then going shopping or remembering and then dialing a phone number. While scientists agree that the capacity of working memory is limited, they offer competing theories about how and why this is true. But ...

Feb 21, 2025 - The combination of prescribed central nervous system stimulants, such as drugs that relieve ADHD symptoms, with prescribed opioid medications is associated with a pattern of escalating opioid intake, a new study has found.

Feb 20, 2025 - Seeking mental health help is a significant step, but that first intake session can often feel more like paperwork than progress, and a significant proportion of people 'drop out' or never return for a second visit, previous research has shown. In a new review investigators confirmed that single-session interventions (SSIs) can significantly ...

Feb 20, 2025 - Fetal acetaminophen exposure increases the likelihood that a child will develop attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a new study.

Feb 20, 2025 - Repurposing amlodipine, a commonly used blood pressure medicine, could help manage attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, according to an international study.

Feb 19, 2025 - A new study of more than 1400 adults who gamble and play online video games has found loot box buying is associated with real-world gambling, video gaming addiction, and other mental health issues. The international research brings new insights into the loot box phenomenon -- the virtual items offered in video games to give players random rewards including weapons, cosmetics or 'skins.'

Feb 13, 2025 - A new study led by researchers at UF Health has uncovered why males and females may experience stress differently.

Feb 13, 2025 - College students who spent a little bit of free time each week interacting with therapy dogs on campus during their first semester experienced fewer signs of stress and depression than those who did not. That's according to a new study that examined how regular, long-term access to an animal-assisted drop-in program influenced first- .

Feb 13, 2025 - New postpartum depression findings could lead to a blood test to identify women at risk and possibly even to a preventive treatment.

Feb 12, 2025 - There is a 'silent emergency' brewing under our noses as research finds that there is a clear wealth gap among adults over 50 who meet physical activity and dietary guidelines. The research also found that poorer adults are nearly three times more likely to be depressed than their wealthier counterparts.

Feb 11, 2025 - After a week of stress, mice show changes in how their brains process sound, reducing how well they perceive loud noises, according to a new study.

Feb 11, 2025 - Answer seven questions and get an indication of how your relationship is right now. Just in time for Valentine's Day, researchers are publishing a new study that introduces a scientifically validated scale, the 'Valentine's Scale'. The scale measures how satisfied you are in your love relationship.

Feb 7, 2025 - Embedded counseling services are becoming increasingly common in veterinary medical programs, but their effectiveness has not historically been measured. A new study revealed that these programs may not only enhance access to mental health care but also lead to significant reductions in psychological distress among veterinary trainees.

Feb 5, 2025 - New research has shown that diet could influence the risk of both depression and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Evidence suggests that depressive symptoms are both a risk factor for AD and a reaction to early memory problems.

Feb 5, 2025 - Depression affects 280 million people worldwide. The mental illness has been proven to lead to changes in eating behavior. Researchers have discovered that although patients with depression generally have less appetite, they prefer carbohydrate-rich foods.

Feb 5, 2025 - Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common digestive disorder with unclear causes, affecting about 10% of the global population. Researchers have now discovered that opioid delta-receptor agonists may alleviate IBS symptoms by acting directly on the central nervous system. Using a novel stress-induced mouse model, they found these drugs reduce ...

Feb 4, 2025 - A paradigm-shifting study shows an experimental drug, GL-II-73, has the potential to restore memory and cognitive function in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. The study demonstrates that the drug improves memory deficits and reverses brain cell damage, offering hope for improving cognitive functioning, delaying Alzheimer's progression, and ...

Feb 4, 2025 - Maternal stress could leave epigenetic imprints on genes in the placenta associated with cortisol -- a necessary hormone for fetal development -- and this would affect the baby's development from very early stages. The study suggests that a mother's emotional wellbeing during pregnancy is not only important for her, but could also influence the future health of her baby.

Feb 3, 2025 - A new study shows significant long-term reductions in the stress hormone cortisol in seniors taking part in the O'stress program.

Jan 30, 2025 - Women who go on to develop postpartum depression (PPD) may have characteristic levels of neuroactive steroids, molecules derived from the hormone progesterone, in their blood during the third trimester of pregnancy, according to a new study. These molecules influence the brain's stress response and emotional regulation.

Jan 28, 2025 - Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that affects around 1% of the world's population. Researchers have identified a deficit in contrast perception in people with schizophrenia. According to a review of more than 600 studies, these patients have an impaired ability to see differences in light intensity between adjacent areas, which allows us ...

Jan 23, 2025 - Adults who have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be living shorter lives than they should, finds a new study.

Jan 22, 2025 - A international research team developed a digital biomarker for predicting symptoms of depression based on data collected by smartwatches.

Jan 22, 2025 - Using computational models, the researchers studied how the brain's reward-learning system functions in those with depression, especially among individuals experiencing anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure. By analyzing dopamine-linked responses, they identified unique brain activity patterns that could help predict who is likely to recover.

Jan 21, 2025 - When children with obesity undergo weight-loss treatment, the effects have repercussions later in life and the risk of serious health problems and premature death is lower as they reach young adulthood. However, this is not the case for depression and anxiety, a study reports.

Jan 15, 2025 - Past studies have identified a loneliness-rumination-depression nexus. Rumination is defined as repetitive and intrusive negative thoughts and feelings, and loneliness as a gap between desired and actual social connections. Given a widely reported high co-occurrence between loneliness and depression, a research team sought to understand the underlying mechanisms.

Jan 15, 2025 - An international study has identified three psychological profiles associated with different patterns of cognitive and brain decline in aging. The study, which analyzed more than 1,000 middle-aged and older adults, shows that the specific psychological characteristics of each profile may influence the risk of developing dementia, as well as ...

Jan 14, 2025 - Waking up does not activate an increase in the release of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol does, however, increase in the hours prior to wakening as part of the body's preparation for the next day, new research has found.

Jan 14, 2025 - New genetic risk factors for depression have been identified across all major global populations for the first time, allowing scientists to predict risk of depression regardless of ethnicity. The world's largest and most diverse genetic study ever into major depression has revealed nearly 300 previously unknown genetic links to the condition, experts say.

Jan 13, 2025 - New research identifies differing trends in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses among adolescents and adults, including an increase among adults from 2020 to 2023. The study found a significant downward trends in ADHD incidence among adults from 2016 to 2020 and adolescents from 2016 to 2018. The ADHD incidence rate remained stable for adolescents in subsequent years.

Jan 10, 2025 - More than half of 23-year-olds in a European study show restrictive, emotional or uncontrolled eating behaviors, according to new research. Structural brain differences appear to play a role in the development of these eating habits.

Jan 8, 2025 - Even individuals whose symptoms do not yet meet the criteria for clinical depression benefit from therapeutic interventions. This conclusion comes from a new meta-study by researchers who analyzed data from 30 studies. Participants who received interventions were significantly less likely to develop clinical depression within the first year.

Jan 8, 2025 - Marked variation in the prevalence of depression was found in a multisite sample of community- in the United States.

Jan 7, 2025 - According to a new study, ketamine use has risen significantly since 2015. The results highlight the need for closer monitoring of recreational ketamine use.

Jan 2, 2025 - The link between poor sleep and mental health problems could be related to deficits in brain regions that keep unwanted thoughts out of mind.

Dec 23, 2024 - The standard medication levodopa does not always work against tremors in Parkinson's disease, especially in stressful situations. Propranolol, however, does work during stress, providing insight into the role of the stress system in tremors. MRI scans reveal that propranolol directly inhibits activity in the brain circuit that controls tremors. ...