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.
10 papers
This review looked at 13 studies of attachment in people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) or BPD traits. Every study found a strong link between BPD and insecure attachment. The insecure types most often seen were labeled unresolved, preoccupied, and fearful. The authors note that differences in how attachment was…
Pennebaker reviews more than ten years of research on how telling or writing stories about traumatic or difficult experiences relates to health. He highlights studies done by him and other teams around the world. The essay focuses mainly on reported physical health benefits of writing about these experiences and summarizes…
Many children and teens do not get enough sleep. Studies link use of screens, especially in the bedroom or in the hour before bed, to later bedtimes and less total sleep. Experts have set sleep-hour ranges for each age. Research also links short or disrupted sleep to emotional, behavioral, and…
This article proposes a clear, provisional definition of “emotional well-being” (EWB) to bring order to a crowded field. The authors reviewed prior definitions, consulted experts, and used concept mapping to create an umbrella concept that includes things like life satisfaction, sense of purpose, and positive emotions. They say the literature…
Over the last 40 years, personality tests have become much more common at work. Companies use them for things like coaching, building teams, and hiring. But most published research looks at tests only for hiring. That means reviews often use rules that fit hiring, not the different needs of helping…
Researchers ran an online survey of about 174 people who had used psychoactive drugs to see how these drugs affected obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. Participants reported that classic psychedelics were the only drugs that helped reduce OCD symptoms, and bigger immediate effects (which were linked to higher doses) were tied…
Based on fieldwork among adults suffering from depression in Denmark, I explore depression as an out-of-tune embodiment, characterized by disturbances of bodily experiences and loss of bodily resonance. I depict my informants' efforts to attune to the rhythm of the everyday through different kinds of body work. This perspective calls…
This short paper, written by researchers, clinicians and people with lived experience, argues that thinking of eating disorders mainly as a problem of “control” is too simple. The authors say control can matter for some people, but making it the main story risks blaming the person, missing life events and…
This opinion paper argues that changes in ovarian hormones are not well studied in psychedelic research. It explains that the main female hormones—estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4)—can change brain chemicals and connectivity that psychedelics target. The authors suggest tracking menstrual phase and measuring hormones in studies to reduce variability, help…
