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.
11 papers
Psychedelic "bad trips" can be intense and sometimes last past the session. Surveys and studies report that a minority of users have serious short- or long-term problems, while other people later say the experience was meaningful or helpful. Risk and duration vary by dose, setting, and support, and studies give…
This was a small, phase 1 open-label study of 10 adult females with anorexia nervosa or partial remission who each received a single 25 mg dose of synthetic psilocybin plus psychological support. The main goal was to check safety and whether the treatment was tolerable and feasible. No serious adverse…
The study asked 63,894 U.S. adults to imagine which would upset them more: their partner having sex with someone else (but not falling in love) or their partner falling in love with someone else (but not having sex). Heterosexual men were more likely than heterosexual women to say sexual cheating…
This paper describes a pilot study protocol that will test psilocybin-assisted therapy in 20 adult females with anorexia nervosa. Participants will get up to three oral doses (up to 25 mg) over a 6-week period, with psychological preparation, support people involved, and remote follow-up for 12 months. The study aims…
This is a teaching manual (December 2020) about how to do mediation and moderation analyses with SPSS and the free PROCESS macro. It explains the basic models, the regression equations used to estimate effects, the assumptions needed for causal claims, and common tests for indirect effects (like Sobel and bootstrap).…
The study tested two explanations for why people feel upset by a partner's unfaithfulness: an evolutionary view that men and women differ because of sex-linked mating strategies, and a view that upset comes from violations of expectations about what the partner did. Using logistic regression, the researchers found that a…
This narrative review looked at research up to 12 March 2022 on how the COVID-19 pandemic related to obsessive–compulsive (OC) symptoms in children and adolescents. The authors found six studies that fit their criteria (four clinical samples with OCD and two community samples). Five of those six studies reported increased…
This scoping review looked at research on eating disorders (EDs) and body image dissatisfaction (BID) in migrant groups. The authors searched PubMed/MEDLINE and Web of Science up to January 2023 and included 11 studies from 899 records. The studies show mixed and varying prevalence numbers, examples of ED cases linked…
We provide further preliminary evidence for the efficacy and tolerability of IM ketamine in an outpatient cohort of OCD. Additional work is required to establish the optimal dosing regimen and longer-term role of ketamine for OCD. These findings are encouraging given the well-known limitations that exist for treatments in this…
Researchers interviewed 10 men with diagnosed eating disorders from four NHS specialist services to learn how they experience body image. They used semi-structured interviews and analyzed the stories with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The analysis produced three main themes — 'Focus on Self', 'Focus on Others', and 'Systemic Influences and Pressures'…
Body-dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a mental illness where a person is deeply upset and focused on a perceived physical flaw. The worry can take many hours a day, lead to repeated checking or grooming, hurt work and school life, and sometimes lead to hospital stays or thoughts of suicide. Research…
