Depression

Depression is a serious medical illness that involves the brain. It's more than just a feeling of being "down in the dumps" or "blue" for a few days. If you are one of the more than 20 million people in the United States who have depression, the feelings do not go away. They persist and interfere with your everyday life.

Clinical Depression: Diagnosis, Causes & Treatment

Depression is a clinical condition that, contrary to popular opinion, cannot simply be overcome with time and it needs to be treated.

Depression and Sleep Length

Prisoner Depression and Low Mood

Supporting Children with Mental Health Disorders

Can Depression and Anxiety Occur Together?

Contributing Factors to Post-Adoption Depression

How Does Your Diet Affect Depression?

Ghrelin and Depression

Intrusive Thoughts and Depression

5 Facts You May Not Know About Depression

Food Insecurity and Depression

Depression Diagnosis

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How is Depression in Children Diagnosed?

The Science Behind the Winter Blues: Understanding Seasonal Affective Disorder

Situational Depression: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments

How Can I Tell if My Child is Depressed?

Causes of Depression

Treatment Options for Children with Depression

Link Between Chronic Illness and Depression

Symptoms of Depression

Treatment of Depression

Genes and Depression

Depression in children

Antidepressants and Weight Changes

Latest Depression News and Research

Blood tests improve Alzheimer's detection in Down syndrome patients

New blood tests that detect early changes associated with Alzheimer's disease are making diagnosis easier and accessible to more patients, since they are less invasive than the brain scans or spinal taps typically used for a definitive diagnosis.

27 Jul 2026

Trial successfully lowers alcohol use in humanitarian setting

The first known randomized trial of an alcohol-reduction intervention in a humanitarian setting found a significant, sustained effect in lowering alcohol use.

27 Jul 2026

UC Davis researcher receives grant to study perceived cognitive aging

University of California, Davis Professor of Neurology Sarah Tomaszewski Farias has been awarded a $3.3 million five-year grant from The National Institute on Aging to study if cultural differences affect how people perceive cognitive changes as they age.

27 Jul 2026

Different cyclone definitions reveal uneven diarrheal disease risks across Asia

Tropical cyclone links to diarrheal disease varied widely across ten Asian regions, depending on how cyclone exposure was defined and whether mortality or morbidity was measured. Mortality associations were mostly uncertain, while morbidity patterns differed by region, with Taiwan showing the largest attributable burden.

27 Jul 2026

AI mental health chatbots feel empathetic, but safety evidence still lags

Immune dysregulation may contribute to depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and anxiety through chronic inflammation, altered neuroimmune signaling, genetic susceptibility, and stress-related epigenetic changes. Evidence also suggests that biologically defined patient subgroups may benefit from more precise, immune-informed approaches to diagnosis and treatment.

27 Jul 2026

YouTube’s health content rewards attention-grabbing videos over reliable medical information

Researchers analyzed 3,958 Korean-language medical YouTube videos and found that clickbait-heavy content attracted more views, likes, and comments. Higher-quality videos from medical professionals and public institutions often received less attention, highlighting a visibility gap in online health information.

27 Jul 2026

Longer activity bouts link to lower future dementia and mental health risks

A UK Biobank analysis of 66,483 adults found that longer daily moderate-to-vigorous activity bouts and less fragmented activity were associated with lower subsequent risks of inpatient diagnoses of dementia, depression, and anxiety, independent of total activity time. In neuroimaging data from 13,108 participants, these activity patterns were also associated with more favorable brain measures, although the observational analyses cannot establish cause and effect.

23 Jul 2026

Study reveals high prevalence of post-pandemic fatigue and sleep disturbances

Disrupted sleep and anxiety may be an ongoing issue for many people after the pandemic, whether due to COVID-19 directly or to the stress and anxiety caused by the global pandemic, and may contribute to the fatigue commonly reported by people with Post-COVID-19 Syndrome (PCS, or 'long COVID').

23 Jul 2026

Motor abnormalities may predict multiple mental health disorders

Motor issues-such as coordination problems, motor slowing, or sudden, uncontrolled movements-have been recognized as signs of psychological disorders since the 1800s. How they map to mental health conditions, however, remains unknown.

22 Jul 2026

Parenting quality at age 3 predicts adolescent reward responsiveness

In 465 young people followed from late childhood to late adolescence, EEG reward responses increased until mid-adolescence before declining by age 18. Higher positive parenting and lower negative parenting at age 3 predicted stronger developmental changes in neural responses to monetary rewards, while early stress exposure showed no significant association.

22 Jul 2026

Health insurance keeps many Americans trapped in unwanted jobs

Nearly one in four U.S. workers (24%) say they are currently in a job they want to quit but stay with their employer for the health insurance, according to new research from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America.

22 Jul 2026

Low-dose lithium may protect brain networks in early Alzheimer’s disease

This perspective examines whether restoring physiological lithium levels could help protect cognition in early Alzheimer’s disease. It proposes that lithium may support cholinergic signaling and brain connectivity, but emphasizes that rigorous, safety-monitored clinical trials are needed.

21 Jul 2026

Global study reveals widening gap between lifespan and healthspan

People around the world are living longer than ever before but spending more of those additional years in poor health, according to a new Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study published in The Lancet Public Health.

21 Jul 2026

Childhood unpredictability linked to higher mental health risks

Children who grow up in unpredictable environments may face elevated risks for depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and other mental health challenges, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, Chapman University and Rady Children's Hospital Orange County, formerly called Children's Hospital of Orange County.

21 Jul 2026

Distributed neural networks make decoding cognition vastly harder than movement

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have made remarkable progress restoring movement and speech in people with paralysis.

21 Jul 2026

Researchers uncover brain target to counter fentanyl-induced slow breathing

Fentanyl causes symptoms that can lead to death from overdose. One of these symptoms is slow breathing, which deprives drug users of oxygen.

20 Jul 2026

Hippocampal damage linked to memory loss and apathy

People with autoimmune limbic encephalitis experience memory loss associated with damage to their hippocampus.

20 Jul 2026

Study links severe floods to higher opioid overdose deaths in rural Appalachia

Severe flooding may contribute to higher mortality rates from opioid use in rural Appalachia, according to a study by researchers at Penn State.

20 Jul 2026

Gut microbial metabolites may shape vulnerability to stress-related mental disorders

Gut microbiome-derived metabolites may influence stress-related mental disorders through neural, immune, endocrine, and epigenetic pathways. Evidence is strongest for depression and preclinical models, while larger longitudinal human studies are needed to establish causality and clinical value.

20 Jul 2026

Study reveals how adolescent brain remodeling reshapes memory retrieval

Scientists have long known that the human brain continues developing well beyond the teenage years, with important changes involving decision-making and emotional regulation extending into the mid-to-late 20s.

17 Jul 2026