Feature Channels: Psychology and Psychiatry

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The myriad ways in which we use social media can be grouped into four broad categories, each of which is associated with a cluster of specific personality and behavioral traits, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis. Study authors say: Social media is here to stay, so clarifying how people use social media and raising awareness of these findings are crucial first steps toward ultimately helping people understand how they can avoid the negative aspects of social networking and engage in healthier social media usage.

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Venturing out of one’s comfort zone to perform a task – and then performing poorly in that task, such as a baseball pitcher trying to hit – can lead to better performance when returning to one’s specialty, according to new research.

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Service members deployed to conflict zones may be at greater risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder if they were abused in childhood. This, along with other findings from a new study, help clarify how adverse experiences early in life can make people more vulnerable to trauma later on.

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University of Miami experts offer their views on the reasons for this social phenomenon and ways to combat it.

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Children and teenagers who volunteer tend to flourish mentally and physically, according to a new study from UTHealth Houston.

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Mental Health Experts available about Pride Month

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The pandemic and its aftermath have raised anxiety to new levels. But the roots of anxiety-related conditions, including obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder (OCSD), are still unclear. In a new study, University of Utah Health scientists discovered insights into the importance of a minor cell type in the brain—microglia—in controlling anxiety-related behaviors in laboratory mice. The findings could lead to new approaches for targeted therapies.

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Children who struggle with attention and behavior problems tend to end up earning less money, finish fewer years of school and have poorer mental and physical health as adults, compared with children who don’t show early attention and behavior problems, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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More than three in five children (63 percent) enrolled in Medicaid do not receive mental health services within six months after a firearm injury, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

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A new study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) showed people living with cancer with higher reported loneliness have an increased mortality risk. The findings were presented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, June 2-6.

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A brief roundup of news and story ideas from the experts at UCLA Health. For more information on these stories or for help on other stories, please contact us at [email protected].

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Experts available on the correlation between binge watching television and dementia later in life

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Social media study found a steady increase in expressions of loneliness and depression as the pandemic continued

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People who reported feeling more affective empathy on a given day than was typical for them were likely to drink more than usual, according to a study published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research. Notably, these daily shifts in affective empathy levels were associated with the number of drinks consumed even after controlling for daily shifts in positive and negative emotions. This means that the association between affective empathy and alcohol use was not explained by shifts in emotional states. Overall, the findings indicate that changes in an individual’s affective empathy on a day-to-day basis may be important to understand alcohol use.

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In the wake of rising global disasters and their impact on the population, the Uniformed Services University (USU), in conjunction with the American Psychiatric Association (APA), has created a first-of-its-kind course to ready understanding of and preparedness for such crises.

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With an urgent mission to address the alarming rise in drug overdose deaths, the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) has announced plans to open the new Kahlert Institute for Addiction Medicine.

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Sixty per cent of roughly 1,600 Canadians who took part in a new McGill University study say their lifestyle habits either stayed the same or improved during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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People who endure the daily hassles of big cities often romanticize life in the country. But rural living is not necessarily the carefree, idyllic experience that many people imagine, said Emily Willroth, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Willroth co-authored a study in the Journal of Personality suggesting that people in rural areas face unique challenges that may shape their personalities and psychological well-being.

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Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered alternative gene splicing, which occurs during gene expression, can impact a person's risk of alcohol use disorder (AUD). They recently published their findings in Molecular Psychiatry.

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Being obese significantly increases the chances of also developing mental disorders. This applies to all age groups, with women at higher risk than men for most diseases, as a recent study of the Complexity Science Hub and the Medical University of Vienna shows.

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A review of the evidence regarding iron deficiency, iron supplementation, and mental health symptoms.

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When a ‘victim-offender’ is sentenced in court, a University of South Australia researcher is recommending judges acknowledge the offender’s early trauma, in conjunction with the consequences for the crime, in their sentencing comments.

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Diagnosing Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex process that doesn't rely on a single test.

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Health is wealth as the saying goes and new research now shows that it is possible to have a healthy, less stressed society through familiar and inexpensive foods.

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Depression is considered the most common complication of childbirth, and new mothers shouldn’t feel ashamed or embarrassed about seeking mental health care and treatments including therapy and medication, advised experts at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

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Teen girls who have greater difficulty effectively solving interpersonal problems when they experience social stress, and who experience more interpersonal stress in their lives, are at greater risk of suicidal behavior, suggests research published by the American Psychological Association.

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Seaside residents and holidaymakers have felt it for centuries, but scientists have only recently started to investigate possible health benefits of the coast. Using data from 15 countries, new research led by Sandra Geiger from the Environmental Psychology Group at the University of Vienna confirms public intuition: Living near, but especially visiting, the seaside is associated with better health regardless of country or personal income.

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New research finds that keeping screens outside the bedroom, turning off notifications, and avoiding social media use in bed is associated with better sleep in adolescents.

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Taking a daily multivitamin may help slow age-related memory decline, a study has found.

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Stressors across the lifespan — including poverty, abuse and divorce — are associated with worsening health and functional outcomes for people with multiple sclerosis, a new study finds. Researchers say the findings can inform MS research as well as clinical care, including referrals to mental health or substance use support.

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The food contamination that followed the Fukushima nuclear plant incident in 2011 caused widespread fear, both within Japan and internationally.

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Powerful magnetic pulses applied to the scalp to stimulate the brain can bring fast relief to many severely depressed patients for whom standard treatments have failed. Yet it’s been a mystery exactly how transcranial magnetic stimulation, as the treatment is known, changes the brain to dissipate depression. Now, research led by Stanford Medicine scientists has found that the treatment works by reversing the direction of abnormal brain signals.

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Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, was fined a record 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and ordered to stop transferring data collected from Facebook users in Europe to the United States. Find the latest research and expert commentary on privacy issues and controversial business practices in the Business Ethics channel.

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We are quite good at spotting unexpected objects while focused on another activity if they are moving fast, reveals a new study by a team of New York University researchers.

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Monitoring of students' brain activity shows that brain-to-brain synchrony (or "getting on the same wavelength") is predictive of learning outcomes.