Environmental

From The Independent: The role that nutrition can play in improving our mental health is often overlooked. Research suggests that we should devote more resources to dietary...

In this piece for The New York Times Magazine, Nitsuh Abebe chronicles America's long history with anxiety, and the ways that America's collective societal anxiety...

From The Atlantic: New research suggests that power may impair neural processes involved in feeling empathy and understanding others' perspectives. Recalling experiences of powerlessness can help...

In this video for Verso Books, author George Monbiot explains how neoliberalism has destroyed our natural capacity for altruism. He proposes that we create a...

Can a renewed biopsychosocial approach, grounded in an updated philosophy, foster person-centered medicine, and psychiatry?

From My Science Academy: In a recent study, up to 81 drugs and personal care products were detected in the flesh of salmon caught in Puget...

In the Boston Globe, Sarah Schweitzer tells the story of a young boy brutally abused by his parents then given to his grandparents who struggled with extreme poverty and homelessness. “Researchers now understood that trauma could alter the chemistry of developing brains and disrupt the systems that help a person handle stress, propelling a perpetual state of high alert. The consequences could be lifelong. As an adult, he’d be more likely to suffer anxiety and depression and heart disease and stroke. His ability to hold a job, manage money, and make good decisions could be compromised. And there was evidence, controversial but mounting, that he could pass on these traits to his children.”

A literature review published in BMC Public Health by researchers from Portugal and the Czech Republic summarizes results from 101 studies investigating the effect...

In the first study of its kind, researchers from Finland found the “most definitive evidence to date” that smoking during pregnancy is associated with the eventual diagnosis of schizophrenia in offspring. After controlling for other potential variables, the study, published ahead of print in The American Journal of Psychiatry, revealed a 38% increased odds of developing symptoms diagnosed as schizophrenia in young adults who were exposed to high levels of nicotine in utero.

In this podcast for Cracked, Alex Schmidt and David Wong discuss how our fear of germs has shaped our politics, preferences, and personalities throughout history. "Stop...

From The Conversation US: Although personalized medicine, which involves tailoring health care to each person's individual genetic makeup, has helped make progress in the treatment...

In this piece for Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century, Hazel Croft argues for a more radical approach to mental health, exploring the impact of neoliberal...

From The Atlantic: The pattern of constant smartphone and social media use among post-Millennials may be leading to a public mental health crisis. Research shows that...

In this interview for Pacific Standard, David Dobbs, who profiled Nev Jones this month, discusses the ways that the mental health community is beginning to...

From BBC News: Black people are overrepresented in the UK's mental health system and are at an increased risk of being forcibly committed, diagnosed with...

In this month’s issue of Psychological Medicine, researchers from King’s College London found evidence for associations between different types of childhood adversity and specific symptoms associated with psychosis. As current categorical approaches to psychosis and schizophrenia diagnoses come under increasing scrutiny, this study adds support to sociological and psychological theories and treatments.

From The Michigan Daily: Netflix's new documentary "Take Your Pills" examines the historical, cultural, social, and systemic factors that have shaped the ever-increasing rates of...

Derek Summerfield, consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust, challenges the assumption that Western depression is a universal condition.

From The Independent: Over the past several years, mental health awareness has become a high priority. But in order to truly make a difference in people's...

From Science Magazine: A new study suggests that wisdom—specifically, the ability to take the perspectives of others into account and aim for compromise—comes much more...

In this piece for The Cut, Amy Larocca investigates various aspects of the wellness industry, including homeopathy, natural medicine, spiritual exercise classes, and meditation, exploring...

From MinnPost: According to pediatrician Michael Pitt, M.D., pediatricians see a spike in suicide attempts at back-to-school time, in part due to anxiety over bullying...

Any attempt to establish an alternative diagnostic system to the predominantly biologic DSM-5 classifications or to initiate a transformation of the individually oriented mental health treatment systems needs to critically explore how, not only what, we think about health and healing, about mental and emotional suffering, about traumatic experiences and injustices, and the multiple forms of pain that are part of our human existence. The broad critique of the DSM-5 by so many national and international organizations and individual colleagues will in the end not be powerful and far reaching enough without this inquiry into the foundations of our thinking and without reflection about our ways of thinking.

The National Institutes of Health announced $157 million in awards in fiscal year 2016 to launch a seven-year initiative called Environmental influences on Child...

From Nautilus: Numerous research studies demonstrate the strong correlation between social isolation and significant emotional and physical health risks. The pain of loneliness can serve...