Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Smart contact lens measures stress levels by analyzing human tears

A research team led by Dr. Yangzhi Zhu, Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI), has developed a soft, reusable smart contact lens as part of its broader Ocular Library for the Analysis of Tear Biomarkers (OCULAB), a tear bioelectronics platform for noninvasive, longitudinal biochemical monitoring through the ocular surface and tear film.

24 Sep 2026

Social media influencers shape memorable health messages for young adults

Emily Pfender, assistant professor in the department of communications at the University of Delaware, is a researcher on a new study in Health Communication.

24 Sep 2026

Cutting ultra-processed foods may improve symptoms of depression

A preliminary study led by UC San Francisco adds to growing evidence that reducing ultra-processed food may improve symptoms of depression.

23 Sep 2026

Feeling lonely at work? How often you see your colleagues may matter

In a nationally representative sample of 7,798 employees in Germany aged 25 to 65, about 26% reported lacking companionship from colleagues, 17% felt excluded, and 8% felt lonely at work at least sometimes. Less frequent direct contact with colleagues was consistently associated with all three facets of workplace loneliness, although the cross-sectional study cannot establish cause and effect.

23 Sep 2026

What links smoking, body fat, mental health, genes, and heart risk? Inflammation may be part of the answer

In a large UK Biobank study, higher levels of the chronic inflammation marker GlycA were associated with smaller heart chambers, thicker heart walls, impaired diastolic function, reduced stroke volume, and a 43% higher risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in the highest versus lowest GlycA group. Genetic susceptibility also modified the associations between environmental exposures, inflammation, and cardiovascular risk, while inflammatory proteins in the IL-1, TNF, and IL-6 pathways statistically mediated several of these associations.

23 Sep 2026

Higher BMI linked to brain differences in preschool children

Children as young as 4 with a higher body mass index (BMI) showed differences in several brain regions involved in reward, taste and hunger, according to a new study from Florida International University.

22 Sep 2026

Loneliness and social isolation cost people years of healthy life

The numbers paint a grim picture. Roughly half of all U.S. adults are lonely, according to a 2023 report, and nearly as many feel socially isolated.

22 Sep 2026

Childhood trauma linked to risky health behaviors in late adolescence

Experiencing childhood trauma appears to increase a young person's likelihood of smoking, substance use and developing unhealthy eating habits by contributing to behavioral problems during adolescence, such as impulsivity and poor self-control.

22 Sep 2026

Prenatal cannabis exposure linked to subtle brain and behavioral differences in children

A large ABCD study of 10,838 children found that prenatal cannabis exposure was associated with small differences in resting-state brain connectivity, higher behavioral and emotional problem scores, and lower performance on several cognitive measures in late childhood. PCE-related connectivity patterns partly overlapped with those linked to psychopathology and cognition, although the cross-sectional observational design cannot establish causality or mediation.

22 Sep 2026

High cognitive impairment rates among homeless people demand radical policy change

Cognitive impairment is a prevalent but often unaddressed factor in chronic homelessness, and it must be addressed to help reduce homelessness, argues the author of a commentary published in CMAJ

21 Sep 2026

Early life sugar exposure linked to higher adult anxiety risk

Exposure to sugar in the first 1,000 days of a child's life increases the risk of developing anxiety in adulthood, a new study from the University of Surrey reports.

21 Sep 2026

Psychological flexibility improves athlete performance and mental wellbeing

Psychological flexibility plays an important role in both performance and wellbeing. This is the conclusion of a doctoral thesis by Lis Johles, which examined the relationship between psychological flexibility, mindfulness, mental health and performance among competitive athletes.

21 Sep 2026

Machine learning predicts psychosocial resilience among healthcare workers

A team of researchers trained three machine learning models-Logistic Regression, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine (SVM)-to classify healthcare workers according to their level of psychosocial resilience, using information collected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

18 Sep 2026

Chile becomes first South American nation to eliminate dog-transmitted rabies

Chile has become the first country in South America to receive the World Health Organization (WHO) validation for eliminating dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem.

18 Sep 2026

Chronic stress and inflammation cause silent structural heart damage

Chronic stress from people's everyday lives may be causing lasting structural changes to the heart, harming health and reducing life expectancy.

18 Sep 2026

Study highlights drop in harmful medication use among adults with cognitive disorders

Adults 65 and older with cognitive disorders such as dementia, are more likely to suffer negative effects from drugs that treat central nervous system conditions including anxiety, sleep problems and psychosis.

17 Sep 2026

Maternal depressive symptoms linked to higher infant mortality risk

Infants born to mothers with depressive symptoms immediately after delivery had a substantially higher risk of dying before their first birthday, according to researchers involved in a Rutgers-led study of more than 414,000 births in New Jersey.

17 Sep 2026

Multilingual girls face delayed ADHD diagnosis and support

Girls from multilingual and immigrant families could be missing out on ADHD support - according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

17 Sep 2026

Women with hyperemesis gravidarum report major gaps in care

Medical assistance can help women suffering from severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, but insufficient recognition of Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) means that many are not getting the help they need to overcome this severe and debilitating form of morning sickness.

17 Sep 2026

Genetic risk for PTSD varies across different types of trauma

A groundbreaking study reveals that your genes may make you more vulnerable to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from certain types of trauma-particularly childhood neglect-than from others.

17 Sep 2026