Frontier mental health research: psychedelics & drug studies

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.

4 papers

The brain-body disconnect: A somatic sensory basis for trauma-related disorders

Breanne E Kearney, Ruth A Lanius
PubMed Central (PMC) Summary & key facts 2022 116 citations

This review paper suggests that problems in body-based senses — especially the vestibular system (balance/motion) and the somatosensory system (touch and body position) — may help explain many symptoms of trauma-related disorders. The authors propose that trauma can disrupt low-level, brainstem sensory processing and that this disruption can cascade into…

Action Observation and Synchronization Mental Health and Psychiatry Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Deep Brain Stimulation in Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Efficacy and Safety

Youliang Wu, Jiajie Mo, Lisen Sui, Jianguo Zhang, Wenhan Hu, Chao Zhang, et al.
Frontiers in Neuroscience Summary & key facts 2021 74 citations

This review combined 17 studies of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for people with treatment-resistant depression. Across studies, about 56% of patients showed a clinical response and 35% reached remission, while 14% later had recurrence. Adverse events were common (about 67%), and the two randomized trials did not show a clear,…

Neurological disorders and treatments Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) stimulant medications as cognitive enhancers

Claire Advokat, Mindy Scheithauer
Frontiers in Neuroscience Summary & key facts 2013 62 citations

This review looked at studies of ADHD stimulant drugs (like methylphenidate and amphetamine). The drugs clearly reduce core ADHD symptoms for many people, but they do not reliably make ADHD students do better in school or on many cognitive tests in real-world settings. The drugs helped one type of memory…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Functional Brain Connectivity Studies Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations

Editorial: Fatigue: physiology and pathology

Sławomir Kujawski, Paweł Zalewski, Lynette Hodges, Jo Nijs, Julia L. Newton

This editorial pulls together recent research on fatigue. It notes that fatigue is common, can come from body or brain processes, and can be mild in healthy people or very disabling in illnesses like ME/CFS, long COVID, and MS. The authors report specific numbers from large reviews, describe studies on…

Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
Summaries and links are for general information and education only. They are not a substitute for reading the original publication or for professional medical, legal, or other advice. Always refer to the linked source for the full study.