Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
This meta-analysis combined 241 effect sizes from 114 studies to test how six habitual emotion-regulation strategies relate to symptoms of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and substance-related problems. Rumination showed the strongest (large) link with symptoms. Avoidance, problem solving, and suppression showed medium-to-large links, while reappraisal and acceptance showed smaller (small-to-medium)…
Anxiety disorders are a group of conditions marked by persistent, excessive fear or worry and behaviors (like avoidance) that cause real trouble in daily life. They are the most common class of psychiatric disorder — large surveys report that up to 33.7% of people will have one in their lifetime…
This 2001 review looked at studies on exercise, anxiety, depression, and stress. It found that short-term emotional effects of exercise are mixed, but many cross-sectional and longitudinal studies report that regular aerobic exercise training reduces anxiety and depression symptoms and may protect against the harmful effects of stress. The clearest…
This article reviews a large body of research on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders. It focuses on two common CBT methods — exposure therapy and cognitive therapy — and concludes that CBT generally works for many anxiety problems. The authors also say it is hard to compare active CBT…
This review looked at 41 studies with 92,340 adults to see how sleep timing and day-to-day regularity relate to health. It found that going to bed or waking up later, and having more variable sleep patterns, were generally linked to worse health. Social jetlag was linked to worse health, while…
The article describes “high functioning anxiety” as a way some people with anxiety symptoms talk about their experience, not as an official medical diagnosis. It says people can look successful and cope outwardly while having common anxiety symptoms, and that diagnosis can be hard because the symptom effects may be…
This review combined results from 10 intervention studies to see if physical activity programs change cortisol (a stress hormone) and sleep in adults. The pooled results found lower cortisol after activity programs and some improvement in sleep quality. The authors say the evidence is moderate for cortisol and low for…
Treatments for depression have gotten better and far more people can get them since the 1980s. Yet the share of people in the general population with depression has not gone down. The authors call this the “treatment-prevalence paradox” and review seven possible explanations. They find little evidence that more cases…
This small study asked 15 people who had SSRI-related sexual problems to rate their emotions on a questionnaire. Compared with control participants, most of these patients reported weaker emotional responses across many areas, and 80% described clinically meaningful emotional blunting. The reduced emotional scores were statistically significant (p
This paper looks at whether 'mixed anxiety and depressive disorder' should be an official diagnosis. That label describes people who have both anxiety and depression symptoms that are real and limiting, but not strong enough to count as a full disorder on their own. The authors review studies that support…
The article explains “high-functioning anxiety” as ongoing anxiety that people hide while still doing well at work, school, or home. It says this is not an official diagnosis but can come from common anxiety disorders. The piece lists typical signs (like overpreparing, racing thoughts, insomnia, and people-pleasing), possible causes (work…
This randomized noninferiority clinical trial examines the effect of internet-delivered vs face-to-face cognitive behavior therapy especially in light of resources, access, and cost.
