Psychotherapy News and Research

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Psychotherapy is “talk” therapy. It involves talking with a mental health professional to treat a mental illness. Psychotherapy can occur one-on-one or in a group. Research shows that support from family and friends can be an important part of therapy.

Experts call for eating-disorder screening before GLP-1 treatment

An international multidisciplinary panel developed consensus-based recommendations for GLP-1 receptor agonist use in people with eating disorders, calling for screening, individualized monitoring, patient education, and further research into safety and potential therapeutic effects. The experts cautioned that current evidence remains limited and inconsistent, particularly outside binge eating disorder, and identified major gaps in understanding the risk of new or recurrent eating disorders during treatment.

16 Sep 2026

The music in psychedelic therapy may be more than background sound

A narrative review examines how music interacts with psychedelics, psychological support, and treatment context in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, arguing that its role cannot be understood as an isolated component. The authors highlight limited evidence on music-specific effects and propose studying PAP as a complex intervention, with music described according to its therapeutic function rather than fixed playlists or genres.

16 Sep 2026

Early studies hint that ketones may affect pathways linked to PTSD

An integrative review found that ketogenic therapy may influence metabolic, inflammatory, oxidative stress, and neurotransmitter pathways implicated in PTSD, with animal studies and small human studies reporting early signs of symptom improvement. Human evidence remains limited to very small cohorts, case reports, and pilot studies, and controlled trials have yet to establish clinical efficacy.

11 Sep 2026

Psilocybin microdosing sounds promising, but the strongest studies tell a different story

A systematic review of 11 studies involving 3,262 adults found that psilocybin mushroom and truffle microdosing was associated with reported improvements across areas including mental health, well-being, cognition, creativity, and social functioning. However, the evidence was methodologically weak and highly heterogeneous, the two placebo-controlled trials found no significant improvements, and inadequate adverse-event reporting means efficacy and safety remain uncertain.

7 Sep 2026

Psilocybin study explores new treatment for cocaine use disorder

Albert Arias, MD, chief of addiction psychiatry at Carilion Clinic, has received an award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to research how psilocybin, a psychedelic compound being studied for several psychiatric and substance use disorders, can offer a new approach for people with cocaine use disorder.

4 Sep 2026

PCORI funding awarded to study symptom management for rare cholestatic liver diseases

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has announced a $13 million funding award to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over five years to study innovative symptom management interventions for patients with rare cholestatic liver diseases.

1 Sep 2026

IOC urges routine mental health screening for elite athletes

Sports bodies should prioritize routine screening and regular monitoring of elite athletes' mental health to tackle the high prevalence of mental health issues among this group, concludes an International Olympic Committee (IOC) consensus statement, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

11 Aug 2026

Single-dose psilocybin shows promise for treatment-resistant depression in NHS trial

A single 25-mg dose of psilocybin with psychological support was feasible to deliver within an NHS setting and produced large preliminary reductions in depressive symptoms among adults with treatment-resistant depression. The Phase 2 feasibility trial also found the treatment was generally well tolerated, although functional unblinding and expectancy effects mean larger, longer efficacy studies are needed.

10 Aug 2026

Five large corporations dominate Medicaid mental health care for adolescents

The United States is in the middle of a well-documented adolescent mental health crisis. Because Medicaid provides medical coverage for roughly half of all children in the country, the program has an essential role in responding to that crisis.

3 Aug 2026

Psilocybin trial shows striking remission rates for veterans with PTSD

The first U.S. clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy in veterans with PTSD who got no relief from conventional treatments has established that the protocol is safe, causing no serious adverse events or increases in suicidal thinking or behavior.

30 Jul 2026

Pediatric mental health treatment surged after the pandemic

When schools closed in the spring of 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of children and adolescents receiving mental health treatment in the United States fell by more than half.

9 Jul 2026

Researchers identify brain circuits responsible for triggering OCD symptoms

Most of the time, the origin of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is unknown, but in some rare cases, it starts after a brain injury, such as a stroke or a tumor.

7 Jul 2026

New conceptual model links sacred moments to clinician well-being

In health care, it is often the smallest moments that carry the greatest meaning - a quiet conversation with a patient, a shared reflection with colleagues, or a hand held in silence.

6 Jul 2026

Psychiatry may be moving closer to precision medicine

For decades, treating depression has largely involved a difficult form of medical guesswork: prescribing one antidepressant after another in hopes that one will eventually help.

6 Jul 2026

Scientists urge caution over psychedelics as ADHD treatment

In recent years, there has been growing interest among adults with ADHD in the practice of microdosing classic psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD.

1 Jul 2026

Trial evaluates interdisciplinary care for veterans with brain trauma and PTSD

The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) is leading a new multi-center clinical trial to evaluate an interdisciplinary rehabilitation model for military veterans and first responders with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and co-occurring disorders such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

30 Jun 2026

Higher daytime light exposure linked to lower dementia risk

New research in General Psychiatry has uncovered a link between higher levels of daytime light exposure and a lower risk of dementia.

24 Jun 2026

Trauma-focused therapy safely improves PTSD symptoms in psychosis patients

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London and published in The Lancet Psychiatry has found that people with psychosis experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can benefit from a Trauma-Focused therapy integrated with Cognitive Behavior Therapy for psychosis (CBTp).

17 Jun 2026

Scientists merge massive databases to map early warning signs of depression

The Wellcome Trust is funding the FUTURE-D research consortium with nearly €6 million. The consortium is coordinated by Universitätsmedizin Frankfurt.

4 Jun 2026

Deep brain stimulation rewires brain circuits linked to depression

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have uncovered the first direct evidence that deep brain stimulation (DBS) can remodel white matter pathways in the brain and alter communication across large-scale neural networks, revealing a previously unrecognized mechanism that may explain how the therapy helps patients recover from severe depression.

1 Jun 2026