Mental Health News and Research

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Latent HIV Viral Proteins Drive Persistent Low-Grade Brain Inflammation During ART

Antiretroviral drugs let people with HIV live full-length lives, but cognitive problems often persist. Some studies have found cognitive impairment in as many as half of people receiving antiretroviral therapy, although estimates vary and many cases do not interfere with daily activities.

24 Sep 2026

Antidepressant Withdrawal, Not Relapse, Linked to Mood Changes

When people stop taking antidepressants they can feel terrible – their mood can plummet and anxiety can spike.

22 Sep 2026

Reading for Pleasure Has Benefits at All Ages – From Improving Health and Wellbeing to Staving off Dementia – Say Scientists

Reading for pleasure – from tucking into a Jane Austen classic to devouring a Heartstopper graphic novel – is linked to better mental health, greater empathy and a lower risk of dementia, say researchers.

15 Sep 2026

AI-Designed Protein Vehicle Enables Lower RNA Dosing While Maximizing Therapeutic Protein Expression

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and TUM have developed Synthetic Transfer Vehicles (STVs), an entirely new class of RNA transporters. To do so, they combined naturally occurring protein building blocks with synthetic protein structures designed using generative AI.

3 Sep 2026

New Study Reveals How Brain Tags Important Memories During Sleep

Why do we remember certain moments while forgetting others? Every day, our minds are bombarded with thousands of pieces of information, yet our brains have a limited capacity to consolidate these experiences into lasting memories.

28 Aug 2026

Woodlands in Urban Areas Linked to Reduced Antidepressant Use

Improving and maintaining woodlands in deprived communities is linked with reduced antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication use, research suggests.

24 Aug 2026

Scientists Map Overlapping Genetic Markers in Serious Human Eating Disorders

A landmark global study including University of North Carolina eating disorder expert Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D., FAED, has, for the first time, mapped and compared the genetic profiles of binge eating and anorexia nervosa.

20 Aug 2026

Individual Brain Cells Store Long-Term Memories Utilizing Independent Dendrites

Branchlike structures called dendrites that extend from neurons appear to make their own computations independent of the cell body, helping individual brain cells store memories of the past, respond to the present, and anticipate the future, a study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers suggests.

17 Jul 2026

Scientists Move Beyond Individual Genes to Decode Schizophrenia’s Complex Genetic Network

Scientists have long known that schizophrenia runs in families, but pinpointing exactly which genes contribute to risk has been like searching for needles in a haystack. Now, researchers at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and a consortium of collaborators from the University of Bari, Italy, and over 60 psychiatric hospitals all over the world, have developed a groundbreaking approach that looks beyond individual genes.

23 Jun 2026

Childhood Adversity Leaves Coordinated Epigenetic Marks Across Tissues

The experiences we face early in life may leave their marks on our health in ways that echo across decades-and even across the entire body.

19 Jun 2026

Scientists Identify Epigenetic Mechanism Behind Lifelong Maternal Brain Modifications

Becoming a mother changes the brain not just temporarily, but for life.

5 Jun 2026

AI Designs Custom Miniproteins to Precisely Control Cell Receptors

G protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs, sit in the plasma membrane, the boundary that defines the inside and outside of a living cell. They communicate with nearly every physiological process in our bodies - from the ability to see and smell, to sensing of adrenaline, insulin, nutrients and medicines.

22 May 2026

Cryo-EM Study Explains Why Coffee Tastes Bitter to Humans

Have you ever wondered why freshly brewed coffee smells so delicious, but tastes bitter?

12 May 2026

Genomic Tool TRACS Improves Tracking of Microbial Transmission Patterns

The research, published today (24 April) in Nature Microbiology, describes how the new tool, called TRAnsmision Clustering of Strains (TRACS), uses genomics to distinguish between closely related bacterial strains.

4 May 2026

Brain Discovery Links Interhemispheric Communication to Spatial Memory

A team led by the Institute for Neurosciences (IN), a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH), has identified a brain circuit essential for spatial memory.

15 Apr 2026

CU Boulder Study Shows Genetic Link Between Mental and Physical Illness

For centuries, mental illness and physical disease have been viewed as two distinct categories, each with its own field of study, its own doctors, and its own menu of treatments.

10 Apr 2026

Genomic Study Reveals How Bacterial ‘Armor’ Reduces Cholera Disease Severity

Cholera-causing bacteria are locked in an evolutionary arms race with a viral nemesis, according to a new genomic study.

2 Apr 2026

Genetic Study Maps E. coli Capsules Behind Severe Infections

The first large-scale genetic study of E. coli's protective armor has identified the five capsule types that are responsible for 70 per cent of all multidrug-resistant bloodstream infections in Europe.

26 Mar 2026

Genetic Analysis Uncovers Shared Biology Across Major Psychiatric Conditions

Although mental disorders have multifactorial causes, genetics can explain some of them, yet this field remains largely unexplored in terms of guiding diagnoses and treatments.

10 Mar 2026

Advanced Genome Sequencing Reveals Hidden Genetic Variants Linked to Autism

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have identified new genetic variants associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by using long-read whole genome sequencing (LR-WGS), an emerging approach that reads large sections of the genome at once, making it easier for scientists to find new genetic variants and understand how genetic variants affect the function of a gene.

10 Mar 2026