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.
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…
Anxiety disorders are a group of conditions marked by persistent, excessive fear or worry and behaviors (like avoidance) that cause real trouble in daily life. They are the most common class of psychiatric disorder — large surveys report that up to 33.7% of people will have one in their lifetime…
A U.S. study reported that depression became more common between 2005 and 2015. The rise was faster for young people than for older adults. The study also found growing gaps in depression rates for vulnerable groups. The authors say we do not yet know a single cause and that more…
This review summarizes research on promoting mental wellbeing and preventing mental illness. It says many prevention and promotion programs work, including newer digital and community-based approaches, but most strong evidence comes from high-income countries. The review notes big gaps in real-world use, especially in low- and middle-income countries, and calls…
Treatments for depression have gotten better and far more people can get them since the 1980s. Yet the share of people in the general population with depression has not gone down. The authors call this the “treatment-prevalence paradox” and review seven possible explanations. They find little evidence that more cases…
This study reports that both full panic disorder (PD) and milder, “subthreshold” panic are linked with other mental health problems, trouble at work, and high use of health services. The authors used data from a large U.S. household survey to compare people with PD and varying levels of panic symptoms.…
Depressive symptoms imply a loss of quality of life, leading to increased morbidity and mortality as well as increased costs to the healthcare system. Information on the prevalence and distribution of depressive symptoms in the population is essential in light of planning prevention and care. GEDA 2014/2015-EHIS surveyed current depressive…
