Archive
All Research
Every study covered so far — 75 summaries, newest first. Each one links back to the original paper so you can verify it yourself.
Start with a question
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Personality
ICD-11 makes clinicians rate personality traits as present or absent. Can they?
133 Danish clinicians rated 238 patients' ICD-11 personality trait domains both as present/absent and on a 0-4 scale. The yes/no ratings tracked a validated measure moderately well (r = .51 to .57) -- except for Negative Affectivity, where the correlation fell to .27.
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Diagnosis
Does semaglutide protect thinking in psychiatric patients? 13,007 records say maybe
In a retrospective study of 13,007 US patients with psychiatric diagnoses, those starting semaglutide had fewer recorded cognitive problems at 12 months than those on no diabetes drug (mean score 11.1 vs 14.9). But semaglutide was no better than sitagliptin, which undercuts the drug-specific explanation.
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Trauma
ICU diaries are meant to prevent PTSD. Correcting for publication bias, they didn't.
A meta-analysis of 21 studies and 2,180 ICU survivors found that once results were adjusted for publication bias, ICU diaries had no statistically significant effect on PTSD incidence (RR 0.73, CI 0.47-1.12) or severity. Modest benefits for anxiety and depression survived.
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Addiction
In addiction treatment, shame predicted suicidal thinking. Depression was the link.
Among 265 people in treatment for substance use disorder in Turkiye, self-stigma predicted suicide-related thinking, and of depression, anxiety and stress, only depression carried the effect. Perceived social support weakened the link at every level tested.
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Treatment
Finland put 7-session internet CBT for social anxiety into routine care. Did it work?
Across 1,654 physician-referred patients nationwide, a free 7-session therapist-guided internet CBT programme produced a large improvement in social anxiety (d = 1.09), with 41.1% improving reliably and 1.7% getting reliably worse -- but there was no control group.
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Personality
Borderline personality disorder and the body: what 4 weeks of DBT changed
Patients with BPD paid markedly less attention to internal body signals than controls (MAIA-2 2.10 vs 2.87), and that gap tracked their interpersonal problems. After four weeks of residential DBT, only their self-reported attention improved -- the brain and heartbeat measures did not budge.
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Myth Check
Germany prescribes mental-health apps. The evidence behind them is rated "very low."
A meta-analysis of the eight prescription-eligible depression and anxiety apps in Germany found a moderate benefit for depression (SMD = -0.49) but graded that evidence "very low" quality, and for generalized anxiety the pooled result came from just two trials and was not statistically significant.
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Psychosis
How common is treatment-resistant schizophrenia? Japan's largest study says 28.6%
Across 205 Japanese hospitals and 18,914 discharged patients, 28.6% of those formally assessed for treatment resistance met criteria -- but only 52.2% were ever assessed, and fewer than half of those identified were prescribed clozapine.
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Trauma
Two PTSD therapies work. Which works better depends on which studies you keep.
A meta-analysis of 163 studies and 48,841 people found both Prolonged Exposure and Cognitive Processing Therapy produced large PTSD symptom reductions (Hedges' g = 1.67), but no patient characteristic predicted which therapy worked better until ten unusual studies were removed.
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Neuroscience
Bipolar Disorder May Rewire the Brain's Communication Network
Scans of 449 people with bipolar disorder and 510 controls across 16 sites found less efficient, more roundabout brain wiring in emotion and reward circuits, with the disruption tracking illness duration and severity.
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Genetics
Do more risk genes mean more severe schizophrenia?
Researchers compared 346 people hospitalized continuously for at least five years with treatment-resistant schizophrenia against more than 18,000 others. Each standard-deviation rise in schizophrenia polygenic score raised the odds of being in that most severe group by 40% to 80%.
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Assessment
A Polish Version of the 'Dark Tetrad' Test Mostly Holds Up, With One Weak Spot
A 931-person validation of the Polish Short Dark Tetrad found the sadism and psychopathy scales performed well, but the Machiavellianism subscale showed weak internal reliability (alpha = .67).
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Treatment
Can a self-paced online program treat PTSD from childhood trauma?
181 adults with PTSD linked to childhood interpersonal trauma tried an online program combining self-guided modules with optional virtual group sessions. It beat standard care on symptom reduction, with benefits still holding four months later.
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Neurodevelopmental
Pesticides in pregnancy and autism traits: a big study finds no link
Researchers measured organophosphate pesticide breakdown products in the urine of 3,339 pregnant women across 20 US sites and later scored their children's autism-related traits. After full adjustment, prenatal exposure showed no association with those traits.
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Myth Check
Does a parent's depression drag down a kid's grades?
Researchers tracked about 9,000 families in the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Study and compared cousins to strip out shared family background. Small links between parents' psychiatric symptoms and children's 5th-grade test scores disappeared once cousins were compared.
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Psychopharmacology
Do antidepressants in pregnancy raise a child's risk of autism or ADHD?
A meta-analysis pooled 37 studies covering 648,626 antidepressant-exposed pregnancies and 24,967,806 unexposed ones. Raw estimates showed 35% higher ADHD risk and 69% higher autism risk in exposed children, but the associations shrank or disappeared once confounding was accounted for, and fathers' antidepressant use during pregnancy showed a similar pattern.
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Psychedelics
Can one day of an inhaled psychedelic lift treatment-resistant depression?
In a phase 2b trial across 16 European sites, 81 adults with treatment-resistant depression received up to three escalating inhaled doses of mebufotenin (GH001) or placebo on a single day. One week later, 57.5% of the drug group (23 of 40) were in remission, compared with 0% of the 41 placebo patients.
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Addiction
Does cannabis actually calm you down?
In a double-blind trial, 120 regular cannabis users vaped placebo, 20 mg THC, or 40 mg THC. Self-reported stress dropped about equally in all three groups, while heart rate rose significantly more on the high dose than on placebo.
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Stigma
Do anti-stigma trainings for doctors and nurses actually work?
Pooling 21 randomized controlled trials, educational anti-stigma programs modestly reduced healthcare workers' negative attitudes toward people with mental illness right after training (SMD = -0.38). Knowledge and willingness to be near patients did not improve, and the attitude gains were not maintained at follow-up.
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Public Health
Anxiety among US young adults kept climbing after 2020
Using nationally representative National Health Interview Survey data on 10,953 US adults aged 18 to 25, researchers compared 2024 with 2020. The odds of reporting an anxiety diagnosis were 31 percent higher, anxiety medication use 32 percent higher, and frequent anxiety 28 percent higher.
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Digital Health
Does a mental health app still work without a coach checking in?
In a three-arm trial recruiting across 13 countries, 825 adults living with chronic medical conditions used a digital wellbeing program either on their own or with weekly phone check-ins. Both versions cut combined anxiety and depression scores by roughly 3 points versus a waitlist, and the two versions were statistically indistinguishable from each other.
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Forensic
Peer Support After Prison Cut Reconvictions — But a Side Effect Complicates the Picture
In a Georgia study of 150 people on probation or parole, those who received forensic peer support were reconvicted at a lower rate than matched peers (60.0% vs. 81.3%), though they also tested positive for drugs far more often.
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Diagnosis
How Often Do Psychiatrists Actually Agree on a Diagnosis?
Across 19 countries, doctors given the same written patient cases agreed on an ICD-10 diagnosis only about 55% of the time, with schizophrenia cases showing the shakiest agreement of all.
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Personality
Can Sleep Apnea Actually Change Your Personality?
A study of 233 adults found obstructive sleep apnea was linked to lower neuroticism and psychoticism scores, and genetic analysis suggested the sleep disorder may causally lower neuroticism.
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Assessment
A New Six-Day Diary Tool Catches Impulsivity in the Moment
A new 274-person study introduces the SPUR scale, a brief in-the-moment measure of impulsivity that outpredicted an existing tool for alcohol use, drug use, and self-control lapses.
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Psychosis
A non-dopamine drug target for schizophrenia finally clears a trial
A four-week phase 2 trial randomly assigned 189 hospitalized adults with acute schizophrenia to one of two doses of the PDE10A inhibitor alofropodect or to placebo. 42.3% of those on the higher dose met the response threshold, compared with 3.8% on placebo.
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Genetics
The first solid genetic map of borderline personality disorder
The largest genetic study of borderline personality disorder so far compared 12,339 people with BPD to 1,041,717 people without it. It found 11 regions of the genome linked to the disorder, with common variants accounting for about 17.3% of underlying risk.
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Neuroscience
A Massive Brain-Scan Study Finds Depression's Fingerprint in Unexpected Places
A brain-scan analysis of 23,417 people found depression linked to reduced gray matter in mood-related regions, but also turned up unexpected differences in motor and visual areas rarely studied before.
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Trauma
Why does trauma therapy actually work? It may come down to changing beliefs
A meta-analysis pooling 44 studies and over 5,000 participants found that the more a person's trauma-related beliefs shifted during therapy, the more their PTSD symptoms improved (r = .45).
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Treatment
Does trauma-focused therapy help when someone is also living with psychosis?
305 people with psychosis and PTSD symptoms were randomly assigned to trauma-focused therapy plus usual care or usual care alone. Half of the therapy group saw their PTSD go into remission, compared to just 22% in usual care.
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Addiction
Younger substance users show more psychosis and violence
264 patients followed for six months in Spain, comparing those whose use began early to longer-term older users.
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Psychedelics
Do psychedelics harm memory?
An exploratory study of working memory after a single dose. Reassuring — but it had no control group.
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Personality
There are two kinds of narcissism
Not every narcissist brags about being the best. Some brag about being the kindest.
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Myth Check
Does EMDR really work?
A meta-analysis of 11 randomized trials: EMDR clearly beats no treatment, but roughly ties other active therapies.
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Psychopharmacology
The first non-dopamine schizophrenia drug in 70 years
Nearly every antipsychotic since the 1950s has blocked dopamine. A muscarinic drug works a completely different way.
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Digital Health
Lifestyle medicine for depression, without a therapist
A three-arm trial of an 8-week program delivered by app, by booklet, or not at all.
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Personality
The real link between childhood maltreatment and narcissism
Across 2,157 people, early harm didn't simply 'create narcissists' — it shaped which narcissistic traits emerged.
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Trauma
Treating trauma and addiction at the same time in young people
Clinicians have long debated treating them one at a time. This trial treated both at once, in ages 12–25.
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Personality
Mentalization therapy for antisocial personality disorder
A UK randomized trial offers cautious hope for a condition widely assumed to be untreatable.
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Treatment
Does seeing clients more often help them finish PTSD treatment?
A meta-regression across 84 study arms asked whether session frequency drives treatment completion.
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Public Health
25 years of US adolescent mental-health deaths
CDC records for ages 15–24 from 1999 to 2023, tracking how mental illness figured into young Americans' deaths.
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Treatment
Group therapy measurably lowered cortisol
60 adults randomized to an 8-week integrative group program — with the body's stress chemistry as the outcome.
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Stigma
Can a short video reduce suicide-loss stigma?
A large randomized trial tested whether brief video content could shift the judgment suicide-loss survivors face.
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Digital Health
An app for depression after breast cancer
313 women were enrolled in a trial of a fully automated, publicly available program — because there aren't enough therapists.
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Trauma
Treating moral injury in veterans
A pilot trial compared two therapies designed for the lasting pain of violating one's own deepest values.
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Myth Check
Does vitamin D help depression?
108 young people with both major depression and low vitamin D were given supplements. The effect was real but modest.
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Myth Check
Does low self-esteem cause behavior problems?
A longitudinal meta-analysis of 27 studies found no robust evidence that low self-esteem causes later behavior problems.
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Assessment
Changing the wording changes your depression score
A randomized trial altered only the instructions on the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 — and the same people scored differently.
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Assessment
Does the PTSD checklist catch symptom exaggeration across cultures?
115 contractors were evaluated to test whether a common PTSD measure works outside Western populations.
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Treatment
Does cognitive training reduce substance use in mandated treatment?
A 10-session group program combining cognitive and goal-management training, tested with 35 participants before and after.
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Treatment
Crying in therapy predicts better outcomes
Across 58 patients, those who cried more intensely and longer in early sessions reported better results later.
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Neuroscience
Finding the brain basis of BPD identity disturbance
Researchers studied identity disturbance as early as possible — before medication or comorbidity could muddy the picture.
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Genetics
Schizophrenia genetics beyond European ancestry
Most schizophrenia genetics has studied European populations. This study set out to close a major gap in the science.
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Psychosis
Why some people hear voices: testing the inner-speech theory
A long-standing but hard-to-prove idea about how the brain fails to recognize its own inner speech, finally put to the test.
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Neuroscience
Brain chemistry differences across anxiety disorders
25 brain-imaging studies pooled to compare choline and other chemical levels across social, generalized, and panic anxiety.
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Neuroscience
How early-life stress rewires the gut
A mouse model of maternal separation traced the actual mechanism linking early stress to long-term digestive problems.
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Psychopharmacology
What GLP-1 drugs do to depression and anxiety
Swedish records for ~100,000 people compared periods when the same individuals were and weren't taking GLP-1 medications.
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Psychedelics
Can a single dose of psilocybin help people quit cocaine?
A randomized controlled trial tested psilocybin plus structured psychotherapy for a disorder with no approved medications.
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Treatment
Virtual reality art therapy for borderline personality disorder
Eight participants completed four weekly VR-based art sessions, with wellbeing measured throughout. A small pilot, not proof.
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Assessment
A new 14-item scale for antisocial personality disorder
The SEPBA-APD aims to bridge categorical and dimensional approaches to diagnosing ASPD.
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Psychosis
Two low-cost interventions for grandiose delusions
Indonesian nurse-researchers tested simple non-pharmacological approaches in a single case of schizophrenia with grandiose delusions.
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Neuroscience
Is the thalamus different in schizoaffective disorder?
Detailed imaging broke the thalamus into sub-regions across schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and healthy controls.
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Neuroscience
Pinpointing where autism and schizophrenia genes switch on
A preprint mapping risk-gene activity to specific brain regions, not just broad cell types. Not yet peer-reviewed.
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Forensic
What separates forensic from general psychiatric patients with schizophrenia?
Machine learning compared the two groups to find what actually distinguishes them — beyond the offense itself.
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Stigma
What drives stigma against tattooed people?
An Ecuadorian survey used factor analysis to unpack how tattoo stigma operates, especially within the justice system.
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Genetics
A million genomes reveal what mental illnesses share
Rather than treating diagnoses as separate boxes, this study mapped the genetic architecture connecting them beneath the surface.
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Trauma
What a violent hostage incident did to responders' mental health
Six months on, 192 police special forces and emergency personnel were assessed for quality of life and psychological impact.
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Training
Do demonstration videos actually teach therapy skills?
123 psychology students were randomized to watch a video or reread the text — with a clear winner for learning technique.
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Diagnosis
Can machine learning tell bipolar disorder from BPD?
Five studies, 591 participants: models beat traditional methods, but were far better at spotting bipolar than borderline.
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Neuroscience
The BPD brain is less flexible — and more variable
fMRI comparing 47 women with BPD to 28 controls found altered brain dynamics tied to childhood trauma and emotion dysregulation.
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Personality
Who drops out of DBT — and who improves?
Following 85 people through a DBT program, personality dimensions predicted both improvement and dropout better than symptoms alone.
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Neurodevelopmental
Kids with ADHD and autism face far higher mental-health risk
Across 14,000+ young people, those with neurodevelopmental disorders were 3 to 15 times more likely to also have anxiety, depression, or behavioral conditions.
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Personality
Cluster B personality disorders: what they are and what actually helps
A review of borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic PD — their origins, the therapies with real evidence, and why culture shapes both.
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Trauma
How many teens develop PTSD after an earthquake?
A survey of 234 adolescents found most were resilient — but a meaningful minority showed real distress, with hyperarousal the most common symptom.
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Trauma
Childhood trauma is the norm, not the exception, in prison psychiatric care
Records from 3,400+ adults in Dutch prison psychiatry found over half of men and nearly two-thirds of women had repeated trauma before 18.