Research News
Mental Health Workers Say They Want Recovery-Oriented Care. So Why Do They Still Endorse Involuntary Treatment?
A new study in Greece reveals that mental health professionals often accept involuntary hospitalization as a “necessary evil,” despite supporting community-based care.
Psychological Disorders Are “Shapeshifters,” Not Fixed Labels, Study Finds
Internalizing disorders, including depression and anxiety, shift their shape depending on cultural, physiological, and personal factors.
Philosophy Majors Improve in Critical Thinking, New Study Finds
A study by two philosophers finds evidence that majoring in philosophy increases one’s verbal reasoning ability, open-mindedness, and other essential intellectual virtues.
Early Life Adversity Predicts Later Mental Health Issues Around the World
Exposure to childhood trauma raises the risk of adult mental illness by 66%, according to a global systematic review.
Many Herbal Supplements As Good or Better Than Antidepressants
Herbal supplements like St. John's Wort, saffron, vitamin D, and probiotics beat placebo more consistently than antidepressants. St. John's Wort beat antidepressants in head-to-head comparisons too.
Before Involuntary Commitment: Coercion in the Shadows
New study reveals that psychiatric force is frequently applied long before formal admission procedures begin.
Participatory Research in India Redefines Who Gets to Create Mental Health Knowledge
Participatory action research yields novel insights and elicits a sense of pride and empowerment, particularly in low-resource settings.
What Clients Say They Get From Therapy—And It’s Not Just Fewer Symptoms
New study shows that clients value growth, self-understanding, and connection more than diagnostic relief.
UK Study Finds Ethnic Minorities More Likely to Face Psychiatric Detention
New research links racial and migration status to disproportionate use of involuntary hospitalization.
It’s Not Just in Your Head: Experts Urge Focus on Poverty, Discrimination, and Housing
Despite widespread recognition of social causes, clinical care remains focused on individual diagnosis.
Mental Health Needs Anthropology: A New Humanism for Psychology
An interview between several Norwegian psychologists and anthropologist Tim Ingold explores how mental health practitioners could engage more directly and ethically with service users.
UN Guidance Fails to Curb Psychiatric Coercion, British Legal Scholar Warns
Despite nearly two decades since the CRPD’s adoption, forced treatment and institutionalization remain widespread, a new review of UK law and international policy finds.
Youth Adversity Linked to Depression and Anxiety Regardless of Background, New Study Finds
Drawing on data from over 5,600 London adolescents, researchers found a strong, consistent link between childhood adversity and mental health struggles across 16 demographic profiles.
National Study Ties LGBTQ+ Mental Health Disparities to Structural Oppression, Not Individual Pathology
As anti-LGBTQ+ laws multiply, so do mental health struggles and psychiatric diagnoses. Experts say structural violence is the real driver of distress.
Gardening Best Depression Treatment in Elderly—Antidepressants Worst
“Horticulture therapy,” CBT, and exercise all beat usual care for the elderly, while antidepressants led to worse outcomes than usual care.
Psychiatry Hinders the Relational Capacity of Those with Anomalous Experiences
Psychiatry fails to consider the intersubjective element of hallucinations and psychosis, further isolating those with anomalous experiences.
AI Technologies Likely to Entrench Exploitation of Service Users
Corporate profit and government control valued over service user consent and wellbeing, warns critical law professor
Improving Mental Health Care by Centering Peers in Open Dialogue
A new study calls for rethinking Open Dialogue practices by placing peer practitioners at the heart of therapeutic work.
Growing Up Poor Has Long-Term Mental Health Costs, Danish Study Finds
New research traces depressive symptoms, psychiatric diagnoses, and drug use across nearly two decades, linking them to socioeconomic status at age 15.
ECT Proponents Deny Harms as the Tide Begins to Shift
WHO and APA guidance now recognizes the risks of electroshock, but proponents continue to cherry-pick data and deny the harms.
Study Finds Increase in Psychiatric Framing of Emotions in Czech Journalism
Czech media increasingly frames ordinary emotions like sadness and shyness in clinical language, raising concerns about cultural psychiatrization.
From Subjects to Co-Researchers: A Lived Experience Model for Decolonizing Global Mental Health
What happens when people with lived experience of mental health conditions design, lead, and interpret their own studies? A new project from Ghana and Indonesia offers some answers.
Critical-Liberation Psychotherapy Model Promises Liberation, Not Adaptation
Psychologists propose a comprehensive new model for psychotherapy that integrates insights from critical, liberation, and decolonial psychologies.
Mental Health Providers Support Cultural Humility, But Fear Policy Pushback
A new study finds widespread support for cultural humility among mental health professionals, but many fear institutional backlash and lack the training to do it well.
New Study Reveals Psychological Toll of Stigma in Self-Injury Survivors
Researchers found that stigma related to self-injury is a persistent psychological burden, often silencing individuals and preventing them from seeking help.
