Research News
Rethinking Trust in Psychiatry: When Mistrust Is Misread as Madness
A new paper challenges the idea that therapeutic mistrust is pathological, reframing it as a rational stance against historical and cultural marginalization.
Study Finds Key Role for Emotion Recognition in Adolescent Well-Being
Longitudinal research links alexithymia to worsening emotional regulation and psychological distress in adolescence.
Cannabinoids Linked to Worse Psychosis Outcomes in Longitudinal Study
Natural cannabis users improved less than non-users. Synthetic cannabis users showed the worst outcomes across nearly all clinical dimensions.
Forced Hospitalization Increases Suicide and Violent Crime
Proponents claim involuntary treatment is necessary to reduce suicide and crime, but new research shows it doubles the risk of these outcomes.
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.
