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.

7 papers

Antidepressant effects of ketamine in depressed patients

Robert Berman, Angela Cappiello, Amit Anand, Dan A. Oren, George R. Heninger, Dennis S. Charney, et al.
Biological Psychiatry Summary & key facts 2000 3,784 citations

In a small, carefully controlled study, seven people with major depression each received a single low-dose ketamine infusion on one day and a saline infusion on another day, without anyone knowing which was which. People who got ketamine showed clear improvement in their depressive symptoms within three days, while those…

Functional Brain Connectivity Studies Treatment of Major Depression Tryptophan and brain disorders Ketamine

The World Health Organization Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS): a short screening scale for use in the general population

Ronald C. Kessler, Lenard A. Adler, Minnie Ames, Olga Demler, Stephen V. Faraone, Eva Hiripi, et al.
PubMed Summary & key facts 2005 3,245 citations

The WHO Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) has 18 questions about recent ADHD symptoms, and a shorter six-question screener was tested against blind clinical diagnoses in 154 people from the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Each ASRS item was linked to the clinical rating, but agreement varied a lot across…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Functional Brain Connectivity Studies Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Individual differences in extraversion and dopamine genetics predict neural reward responses

Michael X Cohen, Jennifer Young, Jong Min Baek, Christopher Kessler, Charan Ranganath
Cognitive Brain Research Summary & key facts 2005 271 citations

Researchers ran two fMRI studies using a gambling task to see how personality and a dopamine gene relate to brain reward signals. Rewards were given either right after a response (Study 1) or after a 7.5-second wait (Study 2). The studies found that people’s extraversion scores and whether they carried…

Functional Brain Connectivity Studies Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

ADHD and depression: investigating a causal explanation

Lucy Riglin, Beate Leppert, Christina Dardani, Ajay K. Thapar, Ajay K. Thapar, Frances Rice, et al.
Psychological Medicine Summary & key facts 2020 138 citations

This study used a long-term UK birth cohort (N = 8,310) and genetic analyses to test whether childhood ADHD is linked to depression later in life. Children with ADHD at age 7 had higher odds of recurrent depression in young adulthood (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.05–1.73). Genetic analyses (Mendelian randomization)…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Functional Brain Connectivity Studies Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging

‘Shine bright like a diamond!’: is research on high‐functioning ADHD at last entering the mainstream?

Klaus‐Peter Lesch

This ADDA article explains “high‑functioning ADHD” as when a person has ADHD symptoms but still manages daily life, often by using special strategies. It says high‑functioning ADHD is not an official diagnosis, can be hard to spot because coping methods hide symptoms, and that these workarounds can be tiring and…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Functional Brain Connectivity Studies

Testing the extreme male brain hypothesis: Is autism spectrum disorder associated with a more male‐typical brain?

Liza van Eijk, Brendan P. Zietsch
Autism Research Summary & key facts 2021 21 citations

The authors made a score that measures how male-typical a person’s subcortical brain shape is. They trained this score on 2,153 people and then measured it in 1,060 people with autism and 1,166 neurotypical controls. People with autism had a small, higher average “brain maleness” score (d = 0.20), and…

Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Functional Brain Connectivity Studies Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Emotional wellbeing in neurodivergent populations

Pincus, J. David, Beller, Ken
www.frontiersin.org Summary & key facts 2025 3 citations

This study used a short, image-based test called AgileBrain to measure emotional activation, the positive or negative tone of needs (valence), and a combined wellbeing score in adults who reported neurodivergent conditions and in a neurotypical comparison group. Results showed clear differences between groups: neurotypical people had the highest wellbeing…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
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