Psychiatry News and Research

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Psychiatry is the treatment, study and prevention of mental disorders.

Brain waste clearance dysfunction may predict the onset of psychosis

How can we explain the onset of psychotic symptoms characteristic of schizophrenia? Despite their major and often irreversible impact on intellectual abilities and autonomy, the biological mechanisms that precede their emergence remain poorly understood.

16 Mar 2026

Study links excessive smartphone use with poor body image and disordered eating

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London has found that excessive smartphone use is closely associated with disordered eating, including uncontrolled eating and emotional overeating, as well greater symptoms of food addiction in young people with no diagnosis of an eating disorder.

13 Mar 2026

Lifelong tracking of fish reveals early behavioral signals of aging

Scientists tracking the entire life of the African turquoise killifish have discovered that behavior alone can predict whether an animal will live a long or short life.

12 Mar 2026

Study finds treatment gap for young ADHD patients with substance use disorders

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder, affecting 12%–13% of adolescents in the United States, according to some studies.

12 Mar 2026

Japanese study evaluates sleep architecture and safety of common insomnia drugs

OSA is a common sleep disorder characterized by oxygen desaturation due to repeated airway collapse during sleep.

12 Mar 2026

New digital shield against metabolic disease in youth psychosis

A new clinic-ready web-based risk prediction tool called PsyMetRiC is now available to forecast the risk of young people with psychosis developing cardiometabolic disorders such as obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

12 Mar 2026

ADHD prescriptions surged during the COVID-19 pandemic

A study reveals COVID-19 reshaped stimulant prescribing patterns in Ontario, highlighting increased ADHD diagnoses and concerns over treatment appropriateness.

11 Mar 2026

New review reveals complex polygenic architecture underlying common epilepsies

An insightful mini-review published in Genomic Psychiatry synthesizes the rapidly expanding landscape of molecular genetic research on common epilepsies, assembling evidence from genome-wide association studies, whole-exome sequencing projects, and advanced statistical modeling to illuminate the polygenic architecture that underpins these heterogeneous neurological disorders.

10 Mar 2026

New review calls for biologically grounded approach to psychiatric diagnosis

A comprehensive invited review published today in Brain Medicine confronts one of the most persistent paradoxes in modern medicine: psychiatry remains the only major clinical discipline that diagnoses complex illness primarily through conversation and symptom checklists, while fields such as oncology and cardiology long ago embraced laboratory markers, imaging, and molecular profiling.

10 Mar 2026

Cellular energy changes may help detect early-stage major depression

Researchers may have discovered a new way to diagnose and treat major depression at the earliest stage of the condition, giving patients the best opportunity for recovery.

10 Mar 2026

Kids with autism and ADHD show different cognition–behavior patterns than single diagnoses

Research on children with autism and ADHD shows distinct cognitive and behavioral patterns, suggesting comorbidity may require unique intervention approaches.

10 Mar 2026

Long-read whole genome sequencing uncovers new genetic variants linked to autism

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have identified new genetic variants associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by using long-read whole genome sequencing (LR-WGS), an emerging approach that reads large sections of the genome at once, making it easier for scientists to find new genetic variants and understand how genetic variants affect the function of a gene.

9 Mar 2026

Unmasking the hyperactive circuitry of early Alzheimer’s

Neuroscientists at King's College London have pinpointed a mechanism behind the increased neural connectivity observed in the very early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

9 Mar 2026

Yale study identifies parent stress as an obesity risk factor

In recent years, rates of childhood obesity have been rising, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimating in 2024 that approximately one in five children and adolescents met the clinical definition of obese.

9 Mar 2026

NIH grant supports research on immune-related receptor in neurons

Florida Atlantic University has received a $2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate how an immune-related receptor in neurons plays a fundamental role in brain function, behavior and psychiatric health.

6 Mar 2026

PET imaging reveals molecular mechanism behind ketamine's antidepressant effects

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, and approximately 30% of patients develop treatment-resistant depression (TRD), a condition that does not respond adequately to conventional antidepressant therapies.

6 Mar 2026

Scientists call for integration of physical activity into psychiatric care

People with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder die on average ten to 20 years earlier than the general population.

5 Mar 2026

Tailoring digital safety to the child’s developmental stage

The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI), able to produce text, images and video on demand, has grown exponentially in recent years. While its applications for personal and professional use continue to expand, many have questions about how children might be interacting with this technology.

5 Mar 2026

Brain imaging study reveals distinct subtypes of ADHD in children

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often talked about as if it were a single condition. But anyone who works with children with ADHD-or raises one-knows that symptoms can look very different from one child to another.

4 Mar 2026

Enhancing myelination may help sustain therapeutic effects of psychedelic-assisted PTSD treatment

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not only characterized by strongly encoded traumatic memories, but also by disrupted coordination across brain networks.

4 Mar 2026