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.
The effectiveness of weighted blankets on sleep and everyday activities – A retrospective follow-up study of children and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and/or autism spectrum disorder
This retrospective study asked 85 people with ADHD and/or autism who had been prescribed weighted blankets about their sleep and daily routines. The participants reported that the blankets helped them fall asleep, sleep through the night, and relax during the day. Many also said their morning and evening routines (going…
Anxiety modulates the relation between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder severity and working memory-related brain activity
Researchers scanned the brains of 371 adolescents and young adults (average age 17.1) while they did a visuospatial working memory task. They found that anxiety changed the link between how severe a person’s ADHD symptoms were and brain activity. Specifically, higher anxiety was linked with lower activity in the cerebellum…
Neurophysiological activity following rewards and losses among female adolescents and young adults with borderline personality disorder.
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…
Do I Have ADHD? Diagnosis of ADHD in Adulthood and Its Mimics in the Neurology Clinic
ADHD is a lifelong brain-development condition that makes it hard to keep attention, plan and organize, control impulses, be still, or manage emotions. Some people are diagnosed as children, while others first seek diagnosis as adults when life becomes less structured or family members recognize the pattern. Many other problems…
