psychiatric disorders

Researchers took a mind-bending trip to understand the connections between psychedelic compounds produced by fungi, plants, and humans.

Psychedelics are evolutionarily ancient compounds produced by fungi, plants, and microbes. Humans also synthesize psychedelics. Researchers want to know how and why.

After injecting moderate doses of the dissociative anesthetic into the animals, previously “awake” brain cells go dark, and those that had been dormant suddenly light up.

Take a break from the bench to puzzle and peruse

A jolt of norepinephrine in the mouse gut facilitates colonization by certain microbes, which in turn deplete glycine, enhancing cocaine-induced behaviors.

Before its association with a pining for the toys or TV shows of yesteryear, nostalgia was deemed a dangerous psychiatric disorder.

The largest study of its kind identifies single nucleotide polymorphisms with disparate effects on men’s and women’s susceptibility to conditions such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Absence of human contact is associated with declines in cognitive function. But as the COVID-19 pandemic brings concerns about the potential harms of isolation to the fore, researchers are still hunting for concrete evidence of a causal role as well as possible mechanisms.

Brain banks have struggled to convince unaffected individuals to donate, hampering studies on “cognitively normal” neurodevelopment and aging.

A meta-analysis of more than 80 studies from the past four decades finds weak evidence to support the use of medicinal cannabis to treat anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders.

The effects of the therapy in a small group of  patients were long-lasting, researchers say, adding to evidence that the approach works for treatment-resistant depression.

Some variants implicated in the disease are also linked to other psychiatric disorders.

The drug promotes and sustains brain cell connectivity in mice, reversing the effects of chronic stress.

Frequent use of high-strength cannabis may increase the risk of mental health problems, according to a large-scale epidemiological study.

Large-scale genomic studies of anorexia and bulimia are turning up clues about the conditions’ development and persistence.

The PsychENCODE project delves into the DNA, RNA, and protein changes related to brain development and neuropsychiatric disorders, but researchers caution it’s just a first step toward treatment.

Rosehip neurons are not found in rodents. Perhaps they offer clues about what separates our brains from those of other animals.

In the largest-ever study of its kind, researchers combined genomic data from nearly 900,000 patients and healthy individuals to identify commonalities among 10 mental illnesses.