Feature Channels: Psychology and Psychiatry

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A new study has found that spending time outdoors and switching off our devices is associated with higher levels of happiness during a period of COVID-19 restrictions.

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New research out of Stanford Graduate School of Business indicates that when we’re encouraged to view the human body as a machine (a process called dehumanization) in an effort to promote health, we actually arrive at the opposite effect.

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Health experts are concerned the more common effects of the pandemic—stress, anxiety, social isolation—will make seasonal affective disorder (a form of depression typically brought on by the shorter daylight hours and gray skies of winter) worse this winter. Oversleeping (hypersomnia), overeating, social withdrawal and decreased energy are some of the main symptoms of this depression.

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McLean Hospital, the largest psychiatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, received the 2020 Virtual All-Inclusive Award in the category of Public Health Champion from Color Magazine.

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Lithium is considered the gold standard for treating bipolar disorder (BD), but nearly 70 percent of people with BD don't respond to it.

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Practicing gratitude and looking to the future will help safeguard our mental wellbeing during Covid-19 lockdowns, a new study in the Journal of Positive Psychology reports.

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The AED announces the appointment of eight (8) new Fellows in the Class of 2021.

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Study offers a key finding in the development of a promising treatment

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Wear a mask. Wash your hands frequently. Don't get together with people outside your own household. After more than 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, these messages are starting to sound like background noise.

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A new study out of the University of Chicago Medicine following young adult drinkers for 10 years has found that individuals who reported the highest sensitivity to alcohol’s pleasurable and rewarding effects at the start of the trial were more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder (AUD) over the course of the study.

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Treatment of depression faces two main challenges. The first is that almost 50% of patients do not respond well to existing antidepressants.

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People dreaming of travel post-COVID-19 now have some scientific data to support their wanderlust.

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Integrating public health efforts and clinical care will address emerging global health challenges and ever-growing health disparities, according to a new Rutgers article.

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Even as vaccinations against COVID-19 are under way, the virus continues to kill thousands of Americans every day, making it more important than ever to stay safe and be ready in case it strikes you or your family. Here's what you need to do to prevent and prepare for the novel coronavirus.

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The introduction of computer simulation to the identification of symptoms in children with ADHD could provide an additional objective tool to gauge the presence and severity of behavioral problems, researchers suggest in a new publication.

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Scientists have suspected mutations in a cellular cholesterol transport protein are associated with psychiatric disorders, but have found it difficult to prove this and to pinpoint how it happens.

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Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complex psychiatric disorder brought on by physical and/or psychological trauma.

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ACSM's annual fitness trend forecast, now in its 15th year, predicts what you'll see in fitness in the next year and helps the health and fitness industry make critical programming and business decisions that ultimately affect consumers.

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Even people who consider themselves to be casual cigarette smokers may be addicted, according to current diagnostic criteria.

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A single positive experience on a psychedelic drug may help reduce stress, depression and anxiety symptoms in Black, Indigenous and people of color whose encounters with racism have had lasting harm, a new study suggests.

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The proliferation of face coverings to keep COVID-19 in check isn’t keeping kids from understanding facial expressions, according to a new study by University of Wisconsin–Madison psychologists.

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While acknowledging that many aspects of daily life were dramatically altered in 2020, a mental health expert with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) shares that reminiscing on the moments that brought joy in this last year can help with both mental and physical wellbeing.

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Is there, as some have suggested, a developmental period early in life when the brain is especially receptive to musical training? The answer, according to new research published in the journal Psychological Science, is probably not.

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Highlights from February 2021 Issue of AJPH

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Military members who receive gun locks and lethal means counseling, which focuses on ways to limit a person’s access to specific methods for suicide, are more likely to use a gun safe and unload firearms before they are stored, according to the Gun Violence Research Center based at Rutgers

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In the midst of the raging coronavirus pandemic, we’re faced with agonizing decisions about whether to forgo treasured holiday rituals.

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Cutting-edge technology is normally associated with youth, but a group of aged care residents in Adelaide are learning how useful (and how much fun) virtual reality can be.

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In a new study, University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Health researchers report that the rate of firearm use by female nurses who die by suicide increased between 2014 to 2017. Published December 21, 2020 in the journal Nursing Forum, the study examined more than 2,000 nurse suicides that occurred in the United States from 2003 to 2017 and found a distinct shift from using pharmacological poisoning to firearms, beginning in 2014.

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The identification of people wearing masks has often presented a unique challenge during the pandemic. A new study by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel and York University in Canada reveals the impact of this predicament and its potentially significant repercussions.

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In the latest issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of researchers recommends ways that psychological and behavioral sciences can help decrease the negative consequences of Internet use. These recommendations emphasize helping people gain greater control over their digital environments.

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Using human-induced pluripotent stem cells engineered from a single family’s blood samples, a gene signaling pathway linked to a higher risk for developing schizophrenia was discovered by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The research was published in a recent issue of Neuropsychopharmacology.

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A new national poll gives a glimpse into parents’ greatest concerns about their kids in the pandemic-era. High on the top 10 list: overuse of social media and screen time, internet safety, unhealthy eating, depression and suicide and lack of physical activity.

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For so many, 2020 has posed some of the greatest challenges of our lifetime. Turning the calendar page to 2021 is a time to remind yourself to take good care of YOU in the New Year. The faculty at Palo Alto University, which is dedicated to psychology and counseling, curated this list of 21 meaningful ways to make 2021 a more balanced year for you and other people in your life.

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Social holidays improve holiday makers' overall satisfaction with life, as well as satisfaction with the quantity and quality of their leisure time, and social life, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland.

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Individuals with high ADHD-traits that do not meet the criteria for a diagnosis are less able to perform tasks involving attentional regulation or emotional control after a sleepless night than individuals with low ADHD-traits, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging reports.

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What does it take to get some people to go outside and experience nature? For some urban dwellers, it took the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers say. The new study finds that 26% of people visiting parks during early months of the COVID-19 pandemic had rarely – or never – visited nature in the previous year. The study is one of the first to explore how COVID-19 has changed Americans’ relationship with nature. The research will appear in PLOS ONE journal.

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Human error is a causal factor in up to 80 percent of workplace accidents. A new study measuring the eye movements and cognitive processes for at-risk workers, sheds new light on the potential to avert accidents and possibly prevent workplace injuries. The study “Measuring attention, working memory, and visual perception to reduce risk of injuries in the construction industry,” by Behzad Esmaeili, Ph.D., George Mason University challenges the conventional, reactionary paradigm of safety-risk management.

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A pattern in how the brain breaks down tryptophan, a common amino acid consumed through food, was discovered by researchers at UTHealth.

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By: Mark Blackwell Thomas | Published: December 16, 2020 | 3:03 pm | SHARE: After months in pandemic quarantine you might think you’ve gained weight or put on the ‘quarantine 15′ but a study by a Florida State University researcher shows that your perception might not match reality. In a study published by the International Journal of Eating Disorders, Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology Pamela Keel gathered information on changes in weight and weight perceptions from a sample of college students from January to April 2020.

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Although schizophrenia is increasingly understood as a neurodevelopmental disorder, environmental factors are known to play an important role in the disease onset and progression.

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Having hope for the future could protect people from risky behaviours such as drinking and gambling - according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

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Stress related to the coronavirus pandemic and the uncertainty of what the future holds is motivating people to purchase firearms, a trend that may be more prevalent in those who already own firearms, according to a Rutgers study.

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ALCEDIAG, one of 3 finalists for the “Disruptive Technology Award” at the annual AACC meeting 2020, will be holding a press conference to announce a game-changing technology and diagnostic tool for precision medicine in psychiatry: EDIT-BTM, the very first blood test for a high-performance differential diagnosis of unipolar depression and bipolar disorder.