Psychology & Psychiatry

Ketamine can effectively treat depression, but whether depressed patients with alcohol use disorder can safely use ketamine repeatedly remains unclear clinically.

Integrating cognitive tasks into physical warmups can significantly enhance sport, exercise, and cognitive performance, even under conditions of sleep deprivation, a new study has revealed.

Older adults have the highest rates of suicide in the U.S. population, but most well-known national suicide prevention organizations do not have easily accessible prevention resources targeting this population, according to a new study led by researchers at McLean Hospital a member of the Mass General Brigham health care system. Their findings, published this month in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, highlight the urgent need for suicide prevention efforts that address the unique health care needs of older adults.

Eating an orange a day may lower a person’s depression risk by 20%, according to a study published in Microbiome. That might be because citrus stimulates the growth of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (F. prausnitzii), a type of bacteria found in the human gut, to influence production of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine—two biological molecules known to elevate mood.

From Australia’s historic victory in the 1983 America’s Cup to Freeman’s gold-medal sprint at the Sydney Olympics, sport has the unique ability to captivate and inspire us all.

The brains of adolescents with depression process information about how others are feeling in a way that is different to those without depression.

Scientists have found that taking a playful approach to life doesn’t mean you don’t take your situation seriously, but it can mean you cope with it better. By surveying people about their experiences during a COVID-19 lockdown, they learned that more playful people were more positive about the future and coped more actively and creatively. Life gave them lemons, and they made lemonade.

The start of the school year means new classes, routines, after-school activities and sometimes even a new school.

Past psychology research suggests that some people are more prone than others to take risks in uncertain situations, such as investing money in risky business ventures, consuming addictive substances or leaving a secure job without any sure alternative prospects. Over the past decades, psychologists and behavioral scientists have been trying to understand the extent to which people’s willingness to take risks (i.e., risk preference) is stable and coherent, which means that it tends to remain consistent over time and across different contexts.

New evidence from a large population-based cohort analysis indicates an increased risk of both attempted and completed suicide among individuals diagnosed with headache disorders. Researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark found that individuals diagnosed with migraine, tension-type headache, posttraumatic headache, and trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia face an increased risk of suicide.