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.

130 papers

Mortality Rates in Patients With Anorexia Nervosa and Other Eating Disorders

Jon Arcelus, Alex J. Mitchell, Jackie Wales, Søren Nielsen
Archives of General Psychiatry Summary & key facts 2011 2,760 citations

This fact sheet reports that people with eating disorders have higher death rates than the general population. Death rates are highest for anorexia nervosa (AN). Bulimia nervosa (BN) and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) have similar death rates. The sheet says older age at assessment was linked to higher…

Eating Disorders and Behaviors Impact of Technology on Adolescents Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders

Risks of all-cause and suicide mortality in mental disorders: a meta-review

Edward Chesney, Guy M. Goodwin, Seena Fazel
World Psychiatry Summary & key facts 2014 2,040 citations

This study reviewed systematic reviews to measure death risks in major mental disorders. The authors screened 407 reviews and found 20 that reported mortality risks for 20 different disorders, covering over 1.7 million patients and more than a quarter of a million deaths. Every disorder showed higher all-cause death rates…

Bipolar Disorder and Treatment Mental Health Treatment and Access Suicide and Self-Harm Studies

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis

Alberto Chiesa, Alessandro Serretti

MBSR is able to reduce stress levels in healthy people. However, important limitations of the included studies as well as the paucity of evidence about possible specific effects of MBSR in comparison to other nonspecific treatments underline the necessity of further research.

COVID-19 and Mental Health Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions Resilience and Mental Health

Prevalence of eating disorders over the 2000–2018 period: a systematic literature review

Marie Galmiche, Pierre Déchelotte, Grégory Lambert, Marie‐Pierre Tavolacci
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Summary & key facts 2018 1,604 citations

This systematic review looked at studies from 2000–2018 that measured how common eating disorders are. The authors followed PRISMA rules and included 94 studies with accurate diagnoses and 27 studies with broader categories. Across the accurate-diagnosis studies, women had higher rates than men. Point prevalence estimates rose over time from…

Eating Disorders and Behaviors Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders

The Relationship Between Burnout, Depression, and Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Koutsimani, Panagiota, Montgomery, Anthony, Georganta, Katerina
www.frontiersin.org Summary & key facts 2019 1,003 citations

This review pooled studies from 2007–2018 to measure how strongly burnout is related to depression and to anxiety. The authors found a moderate positive link with depression (r = 0.52) and a moderate link with anxiety (r = 0.46). They also report that measurement choice and study quality changed the…

Health and Well-being Studies Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout Stress and Burnout Research

Effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving depression, anxiety and distress: an overview of systematic reviews

Ben Singh, Tim Olds, Rachel Curtis, Dorothea Dumuid, Rosa Virgara, Amanda Watson, et al.
PubMed Summary & key facts 2023 784 citations

This umbrella review pooled evidence from 97 systematic reviews (1,039 randomized trials, 128,119 participants) to examine whether physical activity affects symptoms of depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adults. Overall, physical activity produced medium-sized reductions in symptoms (median effect size for depression = -0.43, for anxiety = -0.42; distress effect…

Behavioral Health and Interventions Eating Disorders and Behaviors Physical Activity and Health

Self-Compassion: Theory, Method, Research, and Intervention

Kristin D. Neff
PubMed Summary & key facts 2023 721 citations

This review defines self-compassion as being supportive toward yourself during suffering and presents a six-part model (more self-kindness and common humanity and mindfulness; less self-judgment, isolation, and overidentification). It summarizes a growing set of empirical studies that suggest self-compassion helps people handle distressing thoughts and emotions and is linked to…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes COVID-19 and Mental Health Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions

Adoption of Digital Technologies in Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review of Early Scientific Literature

Davide Golinelli, Erik Boetto, Gherardo Carullo, Andrea Giovanni Nuzzolese, Maria Paola Landini, Maria Pia Fantini

This review looks at how large disasters, including COVID-19, affect mental health and discusses digital solutions. The authors report higher rates of anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress after disasters and give survey numbers from the COVID-19 outbreak. They say many countries have limited mental health services that could be stretched…

COVID-19 and healthcare impacts COVID-19 diagnosis using AI COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing

The global prevalence of ADHD in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Nader Salari, Hooman Ghasemi, Nasrin Abdoli, Adibeh Rahmani, Mohammad Hossain Shiri, Amir Hossein Hashemian, et al.

The authors pooled results from 61 cross-sectional studies to estimate how common ADHD is in children and adolescents worldwide. They found a pooled prevalence of 7.6% (95% CI 6.1–9.4%) in children aged 3–12 (from 96,907 children) and 5.6% (95% CI 4.8–7%) in adolescents aged 12–18. Prevalence estimates varied by age…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Children's Physical and Motor Development

The history of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Klaus W. Lange, Susanne Reichl, Katharina Lange, Lara Tucha, Oliver Tucha

The paper says the modern DSM-IV-TR idea of ADHD is relatively new, but people with symptoms like inattention, restlessness, and impulsivity were described more than 200 years ago. For example, Sir Alexander Crichton in 1798 wrote about children who could not keep their attention on one thing and were easily…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Autism Spectrum Disorder Research

Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic Review

Fazida Karim, Azeezat Abimbola Oyewande, Lamis F Abdalla, Reem Chaudhry Ehsanullah, Safeera Khan
Cureus Summary & key facts 2020 367 citations

This systematic review looked at research on social media and mental health. The authors state that social media are responsible for making mental health problems worse. They searched 50 papers and, after applying selection rules, included 16 studies. The final papers were checked for quality and included a mix of…

Digital Mental Health Interventions Impact of Technology on Adolescents Social Media in Health Education

Instagram use is linked to increased symptoms of orthorexia nervosa

Pixie G. Turner, Carmen E. Lefevre

Researchers surveyed 680 people who followed health-food accounts online. They measured eating behaviour and orthorexia nervosa symptoms with the ORTO-15 questionnaire. Higher Instagram use was linked to more orthorexia symptoms, while other social media did not show this effect (Twitter showed a small link in exploratory tests). About 49% of…

Child Development and Digital Technology Eating Disorders and Behaviors Impact of Technology on Adolescents
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