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34 papers
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…
This research found that writing about important personal experiences in an emotional way for as little as 15 minutes on three separate days was linked to better mental and physical health. The results were seen across ages, genders, cultures, social classes, and personality types. Computer text analysis showed that people…
Social isolation and discrimination are linked with worse physical and mental health, more illness and higher death rates, and a lower quality of life. This review combines animal and human research and clinical studies. Animal studies show that social separation, especially early in life, activates the body's stress‑hormone system (the…
This study surveyed 426 Filipino adults online during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to see if perceived stress helps explain links between social support and mental health. Using standard questionnaires, the researchers found that lower perceived stress was linked to more positive feelings and less anxiety and depression when…
This meta-analysis looked at randomized trials to see if deliberate breathing practices (breathwork) reduce self-reported stress. Across 12 trials with 785 adults, breathwork was linked with a small-to-medium drop in stress compared with non-breathwork controls (g = -0.35). Similar small-to-medium effects were seen for anxiety and depression. Most included studies…
This review brings together reports from 38 papers (published 1994–2019) describing experiences of 322 practitioners and 163 clients who did talking therapy in outdoor natural spaces. The authors used a mixed-method thematic synthesis to build a framework of themes about how outdoor work is done, what practical steps are needed,…
This 2013 review explains how physical and psychological stress change the brain and body. It describes how stress activates the HPA (hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal) system and alters brain chemicals such as GABA, dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. The paper also covers short-term memory effects, animal models used to study chronic stress, and both…
There is increasing evidence that exposure to plants and green space, and particularly to gardening, is beneficial to mental and physical health, and so could reduce the pressure on NHS services. Health professionals should therefore encourage their patients to make use of green space and to work in gardens, and…
This small randomized pilot study tested a therapy called Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT) as an extra treatment for women in substance use disorder (SUD) care. Forty-six women were enrolled and those in the MABT group received eight weekly one-on-one sessions in addition to usual care. At the main…
Anxiety has long been linked to worse performance in evaluative social settings such as sex, sport, and stage. This paper asks three main questions: how each field understands anxiety and performance, what they can learn from one another, and how they could share useful ideas. The authors review existing models…
Writing Therapy (WT) is defined as a process of investigation about personal thoughts and feelings using the act of writing as an instrument, with the aim of promoting self-healing and personal growth. WT has been integrated in specific psychotherapies with the aim of treating specific mental disorders (PTSD, depression, etc.).…
This article offers a new humanities-based theory about how falling seriously ill can affect a person’s quality of life. The authors combine ideas about contingency (the feeling that life could have been different), narrative identity (how people make life stories), and quality of life to explain how people make meaning…
