Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Weight training shields the brain from dementia in older adults

The benefits of weight training are many: it promotes gains in strength and muscle mass, reduces body fat, and contributes to well-being and mental health.

1 Apr 2025

AI-driven research aims to improve IVF success rates

The number of successful pregnancies through IVF treatment currently stands at 30 to 50 per cent globally. By analyzing the environmental conditions in the clinics' laboratories using AI, researchers at Malmö University believe they can improve the chances of a successful outcome.

1 Apr 2025

Study: Mental health providers often miss bulimia diagnosis

When presented with a vignette describing the behaviors and characteristics of a patient with disordered eating, only a quarter of mental health providers who participated in a new study were able to correctly diagnose bulimia nervosa.

1 Apr 2025

Long-term Transcendental Meditation shown to improve stress and aging markers

A collaborative study conducted by researchers at Maharishi International University (MIU), the University of Siegen, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences reveals that individuals practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM) technologies long-term show favorable biological markers of aging and stress.

31 Mar 2025

New AI voice screening method improves detection of anxiety and depression

Scientists at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP) were authors of a research paper published in the Journal of Acoustical Society of America Express Letters that demonstrates improved, automated screening methods for anxiety and major depressive disorders.

31 Mar 2025

New virtual reality system aims to revolutionize psychiatric diagnosis

Researchers have developed a virtual reality-based system that shows promise in improving the differentiation between common mental health conditions, potentially paving the way for earlier and more personalized treatment.

31 Mar 2025

Eating ultra-processed food daily increases depression risk in older adults

Eating four or more servings of ultra-processed food daily increases the risk of depression by 10% in older adults and modestly reduces their mental health-related quality of life.

30 Mar 2025

New research reveals factors influencing steroid hormone levels in healthy adults

Steroid hormone levels in healthy adults are influenced by oral contraceptives and smoking, as well as other lifestyle choices and factors such as biological sex and age, according to new research that has just been published in leading international journal Science Advances.

28 Mar 2025

New insights into how the immune system handles latent parasite infections

Most humans have long-lived infections in various tissues-including in the nervous system-that typically do not result in disease.

28 Mar 2025

Novel PET imaging method quantifies brain inflammation enzyme

A novel PET imaging approach can effectively quantify a key enzyme associated with brain inflammation, according to research published in the March issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

28 Mar 2025

Scientists confirm neurobiochemical link between dopamine and cognitive flexibility

For the first time, scientists have confirmed a neurobiochemical link between dopamine and cognitive flexibility, according to new research published in the March issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

28 Mar 2025

Discrimination exposure found to raise anxiety, depression risks among racial and ethnic groups

A new study found that more than half of US adults encounter some form of discrimination, and that this mistreatment may fuel higher chances of depression and/or anxiety among specific racial and ethnic groups due to cultural, social, and systemic factors.

28 Mar 2025

Machine learning identifies key comorbidities predicting premature death in IBD patients

Researchers use machine learning models to investigate patterns between multimorbidity and premature deaths among decedents with irritable bowel disease.

28 Mar 2025

Gender affirming hormone therapy reduces HIV risk for transgender people

Transgender people receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy have a 37% lower chance of acquiring HIV, and for people living with HIV, hormone therapy appears to offer a 44% lower chance of the virus remaining detectable in blood, according to a University of Michigan study.

27 Mar 2025

Banning smartphone and social media access fails to protect children from digital harm

Banning smartphone and social media access alone fails to equip children for healthy use of technology, argues a group of international experts in The BMJ today.

27 Mar 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': The ax falls at HHS

As had been rumored for weeks, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unveiled a plan to reorganize the department. It involves the downsizing of its workforce, which formerly was roughly 80,000 people, by a quarter and consolidating dozens of agencies that were created and authorized by Congress.

27 Mar 2025

AI-powered therapy chatbot shows significant mental health benefits

Dartmouth researchers conducted the first clinical trial of a therapy chatbot powered by generative AI and found that the software resulted in significant improvements in participants' symptoms, according to results published March 27 in the New England Journal of Medicine AI.

27 Mar 2025

Trump turns homelessness response away from housing, toward forced treatment

President Donald Trump is vowing a new approach to getting homeless people off the streets by forcibly moving those living outside into large camps while mandating mental health and addiction treatment — an aggressive departure from the nation's leading homelessness policy, which for decades has prioritized housing as the most effective way to combat the crisis.

27 Mar 2025

Wearable technologies may improve exercise adherence in people with Type 2 Diabetes

Wearable mobile health technology could help people with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) to stick to exercise regimes that help them to keep the condition under control, a new study reveals.

26 Mar 2025

Study reveals surge in anxiety and distress following the Iranian attack

A new study indicates high levels of emotional distress and anxiety in the days following the Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel on April 13, 2024.

26 Mar 2025