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 chapter explains three ways people think about health. It says the best view — the "complete state" — includes both the lack of disease and the presence of positive mental capacities and functioning. The author reviews studies that support using this complete-state view for mental health and suggests that…
This study followed 1,356 apparently healthy, employed adults over about 18 months to see how burnout and insomnia change together. Using standard questionnaires, the researchers found that higher burnout predicted new cases of insomnia and higher insomnia predicted new cases of burnout, even after adjusting for depression and other factors.…
This meta-analysis looked at randomized trials to see if deliberate breathing practices (breathwork) reduce self-reported stress. Across 12 trials with 785 adults, breathwork was linked with a small-to-medium drop in stress compared with non-breathwork controls (g = -0.35). Similar small-to-medium effects were seen for anxiety and depression. Most included studies…
This randomized trial tested a 3‑week outpatient program that combined stress‑management training, relaxation, physical exercise and moor baths for people with above‑average stress. Compared with a waiting list group, people who did the program had large and statistically significant reductions in perceived stress and in burnout-related symptoms (including emotional exhaustion).…
This systematic narrative review looked at research from January 1981 to November 2020 across five databases to list factors linked to burnout. The authors found 40 distinct burnout-related factors and grouped them into 10 broad categories. They report that, besides biological, psychological, and social factors, spiritual and work-cultural factors also…
Depressive symptoms imply a loss of quality of life, leading to increased morbidity and mortality as well as increased costs to the healthcare system. Information on the prevalence and distribution of depressive symptoms in the population is essential in light of planning prevention and care. GEDA 2014/2015-EHIS surveyed current depressive…
This review says that calling ME/CFS a psychosomatic illness does not fit current scientific evidence and harms patients. ME/CFS has been classed as a neurological disease since 1969. Studies report repeated physical abnormalities in blood flow, vascular function, energy metabolism, and immune markers, and many patients develop ME/CFS after an…
This case-control study compared 163 depressed in-patients (44% women) with 176 controls (51% women). Using a median split on the Male Depression Rating Scale‑22 to label 'masculine' versus 'non-masculine' depression, the study found that masculine depression was linked to worse depression, more frequent and heavy use of alcohol (including binge…
This international mixed-method study developed and tested a new tool called the Trauma Recovery Rubric (TRR) to describe how people recover after gender-based violence. The researchers worked in three phases and used data from sites in four countries. They identified seven recovery pathways and six recovery domains, found that depression…
This review found that mental health disorders are common and closely linked with worse heart health. People with conditions like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or PTSD have higher rates of cardiovascular disease and higher death rates from it. The reasons include biology, behaviours, and problems in health care. The…
This cross‑sectional study of 242 women (ages 45–70) seen at one hospital in Tehran measured depression and anxiety with Beck questionnaires. The authors found that depression and anxiety were common overall, and that premenopausal women had a slightly higher rate of both conditions than menopausal women, but the differences were…
Researchers ran an 8-week mindful movement program (Movimento Biologico) with 38 university students (mean age 21.2 years; 60.5% male). Participants completed four questionnaires before and after the program. After the program, several measures of interoceptive awareness and positive mental health improved significantly, while overall psychological well-being and sense of coherence…
