Mental Health News

May 9, 2025

Top Headlines

Cannabis Study: Legalization Reduces Problematic Consumption, Particularly Among Certain Individuals

May 7, 2025 — Researchers are investigating how the legal supply of cannabis affects consumption and mental health among participants. In a first academic publication, the study team has now reported on the direct ...

Lab-on-a-Chip Devices Take Public Health Into Home

May 8, 2025 — Engineers created a new point-of-care test that measures cortisol in saliva to help doctors diagnose depression and ...

Discovery of Dopamine Receptors in a Previously Overlooked Part of the Brain Sheds Light on the Complex Circuitry for Anxiety and Depression

May 7, 2025 — Researchers have discovered distinct roles for two dopamine receptors located on nerve cells within the portion of the brain that controls approach vs. avoidance ...

Neighborhood Stress May Impact Kids' Brains -- And Increase Depression Risk

May 5, 2025 — Children who grow up in disadvantaged neighborhoods -- areas with higher levels of crime and deprivation, and lower access to community resources -- are at risk of developing depression, and new research may help to explain ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:46pm EDT

How Is Handedness Linked to Neurological Disorders?

May 5, 2025 — The fact that left-handedness resp. mixed-handedness are strikingly common in patients with certain neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorders is a frequently reported observation in ...

Teens With Mental Health Conditions Use Social Media Differently Than Their Peers, Study Suggests

May 5, 2025 — One of the first studies in this area to use clinical-level diagnoses reveals a range of differences between young people with and without mental ...

New Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Technique Shows Significant Reduction in Depression, Anxiety and PTSD Symptoms

Apr. 28, 2025 — New research shows non-invasive sound wave therapy can directly target deep brain regions, significantly reducing depression, anxiety, and PTSD ...

Depression and Other Mental Health Conditions Linked With Immune Response, Study Finds

Apr. 30, 2025 — Depression, schizophrenia and other mental health conditions affect 1 in 4 people in their lifetime, but mechanisms underlying these conditions are ...

How a Smartphone App Could Transform Mental Health Care

Apr. 23, 2025 — Smartphones may often feel like a source of stress, feeding us an endless stream of bad news and social comparison. But what if they could also be the solution? A team of researchers believes they ...

Reasons Why Anxiety and Depression Promote Low Self-Belief

Apr. 29, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered why individuals who experience anxiety and depression often struggle with persistent low ...

Teenage Years Crucial for Depression Intervention

Apr. 29, 2025 — Depression in young teens could be easier to treat than in adulthood due to the symptoms being more flexible and not yet ingrained, a study ...

The Effects of Smoking, Drinking and Lack of Exercise Are Felt by the Age of 36, New Research Indicates

May 1, 2025 — Bad habits such as smoking, heavy drinking and lack of exercise must be tackled as early as possible to boost the odds of a happy and healthy old ...

New Precision Mental Health Care Approach for Depression Addresses Unique Patient Needs

Apr. 23, 2025 — Psychologists have developed a precision treatment approach for depression that gives patients individualized recommendations based on multiple ...

Psychedelics Can Reverse Neuroimmune Interactions That Boost Fear

Apr. 23, 2025 — A new study suggests that fear and the immune system are connected in previously unknown ways. Researchers found that the immune system can influence stress and fear behaviors by changing how brain ...

More Americans Are Using Psilocybin -- Especially Those With Mental Health Conditions, Study Shows

Apr. 21, 2025 — Use of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic chemical found in what is known as 'magic mushrooms,' has increased significantly nationwide since 2019, according to a new ...

Father's Mental Health Can Impact Children for Years

Apr. 19, 2025 — Five-year-olds exposed to paternal depression are more likely to have behavioral issues in grade school, researchers ...

Apr. 16, 2025 — A new study suggests that climate trauma -- such as experiencing a devastating wildfire -- can have lasting effects on cognitive ...

Stress, Depression Factor Into Link Between Insomnia, Heavy Drinking

Apr. 14, 2025 — A new study suggests that perceived stress and depression factor into the relationship between insomnia and hazardous drinking -- perhaps not a surprise. But because the relationship between insomnia ...

Gestational Diabetes Linked to ADHD in Children

Apr. 14, 2025 — A new study has found children born to mothers who experienced gestational diabetes (GDM) during pregnancy are more likely to develop attention-deficient hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and externalizing ...

What Links Cannabis Use and Psychosis? Researchers Point to Brain's Dopamine System

Apr. 9, 2025 — A new study found that people with cannabis use disorder (CUD) had elevated dopamine levels in a brain region associated with ...

Tech-Assisted Peer Therapy Effective for Perinatal Depression in Lower Income Countries

Apr. 8, 2025 — A study has demonstrated the effectiveness of a technology-assisted intervention for perinatal ...

Even Under Stress, Male-Female Pairs Had Each Other's Backs

Apr. 8, 2025 — When faced with a potential threat, mice often freeze in place. Moreover, when two animals are together, they typically freeze at the same time, matching each other's periods of immobility. In a ...

New Study Investigates Effects of ADHD Medications on the Heart

Apr. 7, 2025 — A new study has found that medications for ADHD have overall small effects on blood pressure and heart rate after weeks or a few months of use. There have been concerns about the side effects of ADHD ...

Exposure to Wildfire Smoke Linked With Worsening Mental Health Conditions

Apr. 4, 2025 — Exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) from wildfire smoke was associated with increased visits to emergency departments (ED) for mental health conditions, according to a new ...

17 Modifiable Risk Factors Shared by Stroke, Dementia, and Late-Life Depression

Apr. 3, 2025 — In a new extensive systematic review, researchers identified 17 modifiable risk factors that are shared by stroke, dementia, and late-life depression. Modifying any one of them can reduce your risk ...

Study Links Teen Girls' Screen Time to Sleep Disruptions and Depression

Apr. 2, 2025 — Excessive screen time among adolescents negatively impacts multiple aspects of sleep, which in turn increases the risk of depressive symptoms -- particularly among girls, concludes a new ...

My Robot Therapist: The Ethics of AI Mental Health Chatbots for Kids

Mar. 31, 2025 — AI mental health apps may offer a cheap and accessible way to fill the gaps in the overstretched U.S. mental health care system, but ethics experts warn that we need to be thoughtful about how we use ...

Discrimination-Related Depression, Anxiety Pronounced Among Multiracial, White, Asian Populations

Mar. 28, 2025 — A new study found that over half of US adults experienced some form of discrimination, and individuals with high exposure to discrimination have more than five times the chances of screening positive ...

PET Imaging Confirms Direct Involvement of Dopamine in Cognitive Flexibility

Mar. 28, 2025 — Scientists have confirmed a neurobiochemical link between dopamine and cognitive flexibility. PET imaging shows that the brain increases dopamine production when completing cognitively demanding ...

Biological Pathway in the Brain Could Help Explain Why Teenage Girls Are More Depressed Than Boys

Mar. 25, 2025 — Research has shown that a biological brain mechanism called the 'kynurenine pathway' is imbalanced in adolescents with depression, and this imbalance is more pronounced in teenage girls ...

ADHD May Be Associated With an Increased Risk of Dementia

Mar. 25, 2025 — An adult brain affected by attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) presents modifications similar to those observed in individuals suffering from dementia. These are the ...

Nearly Half of Depression Diagnoses Could Be Considered Treatment-Resistant

Mar. 21, 2025 — Almost half of patients diagnosed with depression classify as being 'treatment-resistant' as new research suggests that many don't respond to multiple antidepressant ...

Part of the Genetic Risk for Schizophrenia Acts Through the Placenta

Mar. 20, 2025 — An international team has identified associations between modifications in the placenta and the risk of developing schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression ...

Why Are Night Owls at Greater Risk of Depression?

Mar. 19, 2025 — Mindfulness, total sleep quality, and alcohol consumption may help explain why people who stay up late have a greater risk of depression, according to a new ...