Psychiatry News and Research

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

Adolescent binge drinking causes lasting changes in brain function

New research from the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine provides insight into how binge alcohol exposure during adolescence may cause lasting changes in brain function that persist into adulthood, potentially identifying a new target for future treatment approaches.

1 Sep 2026

Aerobic exercise boosts executive function in postmenopausal women

Regular aerobic exercise – the kind that gets your heart pumping – can improve important thinking skills called executive functions, and the benefits appear especially strong for women after menopause, according to Rutgers researchers.

31 Aug 2026

Precision psychiatry aims to match schizophrenia patients with tailored medicines

Imagine watching a son or daughter begin college during a formative time in life, only to have schizophrenia suddenly alter their reality.

31 Aug 2026

UCSF scientists build largest molecular interaction map for autism

For more than two decades, researchers have identified hundreds of genes that increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

28 Aug 2026

Post-seizure psychotic episodes linked to future mental health risks

Some people with epilepsy experience delusions, hallucinations, paranoia and confusion after a seizure.

27 Aug 2026

Community-focused mental health care cuts hospital admissions

A new approach to care for people experiencing a mental health crisis, emphasising continuity and community, can reduce hospital admissions and improve satisfaction with care, finds a study led by a University College London (UCL) researcher.

27 Aug 2026

Stress gene switches on more easily in the brains of people with schizophrenia

Experts at the University of Sydney have found that a gene involved in regulating the body's response to stress switches on more easily in the brains of people who live with schizophrenia.

26 Aug 2026

New UCSF center aims to improve eating disorder care

People with eating disorders wait an average of more than two-and-a-half years between the onset of symptoms and the start of treatment.

25 Aug 2026

Study finds distinct patterns of innate immune activity in mental disorders

The immune system may also play a role in mental disorders. Scientists are investigating these links with brain function in greater detail, and new findings show that immune changes may differ by disorder type.

25 Aug 2026

Loneliness can reprogram the brain to increase alcohol use

Loneliness can reprogram the brain in ways that push alcohol consumption, reports a new preclinical study led by Northwestern University and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

25 Aug 2026

New review challenges the eight-hour ancestral sleep myth

Everyone knows the number. Eight hours. It sits on wellness dashboards, on pediatric handouts, on the label of the melatonin bottle in the medicine cabinet.

25 Aug 2026

A childhood shaped by sugar rationing was linked to mental health more than 50 years later

UK Biobank researchers examined whether sugar rationing during pregnancy and the first two years of life was associated with adult sweet-food preferences, sugar intake, brain structure, anxiety, and depression.

23 Aug 2026

Study provides a more nuanced picture of biological mechanisms linked to autism

How does autism manifest in the brain? Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and Odense University Hospital have investigated this question in a new study involving 60 adults.

21 Aug 2026

Neurogenesis stalls in the brains of adults with major depressive disorder, study shows

Most of our brain's 100 billion neurons are created before we're born, but the trickle of neurons created in the adult brain hippocampus could be instrumental in preventing depression, suggest findings from a new study by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

21 Aug 2026

New research uncovers unique genetic links to eating disorders

New research led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, in collaboration with an international partnership of researchers, has, for the first time, compared the genetics of people with binge eating versus those without any eating disorder.

19 Aug 2026

Early-onset epilepsy tied to lower academic achievement

Childhood epilepsy is linked to significantly poorer exam grades and long term educational attainment, with the lowest levels of academic prowess among those whose neurological disorder started when they were very young, finds a large, long term Danish study, published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

18 Aug 2026

Shifting expectations of unpredictability could help treat schizophrenia delusions

New research has found that improvements to the severity of delusions in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder recovering from an acute psychotic episode were significantly associated with reductions in volatility priors—someone's expectations about the unpredictability of their environment.

18 Aug 2026

Review examines mental health impact of prolonged collective trauma

A new systematic review published in Frontiers in Psychiatry brings together 68 studies from the first two years after the October 7 attacks, offering insights that extend far beyond Israel into how prolonged conflict, cumulative exposure and continuing threat can shape post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression and addiction-related outcomes.

17 Aug 2026

Digital program proves effective for treating childhood anxiety symptoms

The follow-up of a randomized controlled trial shows that the internet-based Master Your Worries intervention program for treating children's anxiety has a long-term effect on the participants.

17 Aug 2026

Brain scans reveal neurological roots of sensory overload in kids

Overreactions to ordinary sensory stimuli - a scratchy shirt tag, a roaring vacuum cleaner, an unfamiliar smell - are commonly associated with autism.

13 Aug 2026