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 2020 systematic review looked at human and animal studies on physical exercise and brain plasticity. The authors screened 20,782 records and included 21 original studies. They reported that exercise was linked to higher levels of several neurotrophic factors and receptors, more cell growth and proliferation, and better measures of…
This was a small open-label study of 31 young people (ages 12–25) whose anxiety had not improved with therapy or antidepressants. They took add-on cannabidiol (CBD) for 12 weeks, up to 800 mg per day, and average anxiety scores fell by about 42.6% over that time. Many participants had side…
This review says there is growing evidence of a link between ADHD and certain eating problems. The strongest links are with binge-eating behaviors and disorders that include bingeing and purging (bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and the binge–purge type of anorexia). Impulsivity is a likely but not proven part of the…
This study recorded brain activity (EEG) while 68 females aged 13–23 (35 with borderline personality disorder, 33 healthy) did a guessing task with equal wins and losses. People with BPD showed less difference in their brain responses to wins versus losses than healthy peers. Time-frequency tests suggested this smaller difference…
The study measured very early brain responses to emotional and neutral pictures in 119 undergraduate students (91 female, mean age 23.5 ± 3.6). It compared 30 fearful-avoidant people with 32 secure, 28 anxious-preoccupied, and 29 dismissive-avoidant participants. Fearful-avoidant individuals showed patterns in the early ERP components P1 (110–165 ms) and…
This was a 6-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that tested low-dose LSD (20 μg) given twice weekly in 53 adults with moderate to severe ADHD. Both the LSD group and the placebo group showed similar symptom reductions by week 6 (LSD mean change on the ADHD rating scale −7.1 points; placebo…
This review looked at research on the biology of cluster B personality disorders (for example, borderline and antisocial types). Brain imaging studies report differences in areas that handle emotion and self-control, and emotional instability and impulsiveness are common features. The authors say genes and early-life experiences may contribute, psychotherapy is…
The authors made and checked two short scales (MERS and MDRS) to measure helpful or unhelpful reactions during mindfulness exercises. They used three small studies with university students (21, 192, and 19 people). In a small experiment, people with a hyperactive/impulsive tendency said slumped sitting felt harder and lying on…
