Depressed individuals do not display an information-processing bias towards negative emotional stimuli, according to new research

Researchers at Penn State and Jinan University discovered that excessive use of social media for COVID-19 health information is related to both depression and secondary trauma.

Over two years we follow the first ever medical trial of psilocybin (the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms) being used to treat a group of volunteers suffering from clinical depression.

A new paper by anthropologists argues that disorders are responses to adversity.

As we all know, unless you can afford a medical concierge and the most expensive insurance and facilities, the for-profit, private-insurance-based health care system in the United States is somewhere between a headache and a nightmare. Inpatient mental health care is no exception. The quality of life is ultimately defined by your insurance company’s concern to avoid liability.

Stanford Medicine researchers used high doses of magnetic stimulation, delivered on an accelerated timeline and targeted to individual neurocircuitry, to treat patients with severe depression.

Mood varies from hour-to-hour, day-to-day and healthy mood regulation involves choosing activities that help settle one’s mood. However, in situations where personal choices of activities are constrained, such as during periods of social isolation and lockdown, this natural mood regulation is impaired which might result in depression. New research, published today in JAMA Psychiatry, from the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford suggests a new target for treating and reducing depression is supporting natural mood regulation.

At Imperial College we’ve been comparing psilocybin to conventional antidepressants – and the results are likely to be game-changing, says Robin Carhart-Harris

Do antidepressants work? If so, which antidepressants are most effective? These two questions have been posed again and again over the last few decades, but the answer has remained elusive. The latest answer to the question of which antidepressants are most effective and well-tolerated comes from a 2018 paper. Published in The Lancet, the paper reported the results of the largest meta-analysis conducted to date on the acceptability and efficacy of 21 antidepressant treatments

Self‐reported sleep patterns and quality amongst adolescents: cross‐sectional and prospective associations with anxiety and depression. A mere 30 minutes extra sleep a day can make all the difference to a teenager’s lifelong mental health and wellbeing. A new international study of almost 5000 adolescents found those who generally slept 30 minutes less per night reported feeling anxious or depressed compared to other groups.

Some people have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me. I just woke up one day feeling sad and helpless for absolutely no reason.

On Monday, August 11, 2014, the world lost a great man. Robin Williams was found unresponsive in his home and it was suspected to be a suicide via asphyxiation.

You own a home, have a family, and are generally happy but have been feeling “off” lately. You work hard, you are feeling more tired than usual, and don’t know why. One day, you return from work and sit down to watch some television to unwind from your hard day. Your family hasn’t come home yet so you head to the kitchen to fix yourself a PB & J sandwich to tie yourself over until supper.

Last November, my father took his own life. I'm frequently aware of the fact that the depression which helped drive him to that dark fate lives on in my genes. That's a doozy of a legacy to inherit, but it's one that has not been wholly negative for me.

There are many faces to depression: sadness, hopelessness, trouble sleeping, lack of motivation, an inability to experience pleasure. That last one has a medical name—anhedonia—and people experiencing it often no longer enjoy activities that used to bring happiness. Anhedonia is not found just in depression; it can be an important part of other disorders, including schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and addiction.

I TRIED magic mushrooms out of curiosity and in middle age. I’d been on the amateur mycological circuit for a couple of years, but hallucinogenic species were rarely mentioned at the foraging expeditions and conferences I attended. It’s almost as if they were the black sheep of mycology: embarrassing to serious taxonomy jocks. I read some books on the subject, but most were tripper’s guides that didn’t utilize, um, specific language or current science.

January 19 has been marked as the "blue Monday" of 2015 as it is going to be the unhappiest day of the year. Experts have predicted it to be the biggest downer for Christmas revelers, based on the following factors: weather conditions, debt level (the difference between debt accumulated and our ability to pay), time since Christmas, time since failing our new year´s resolutions, low motivational levels and the feeling of a need to take action, the Daily Star reported.

Facebook began rolling out a set of tools on Wednesday that aim to help prevent suicide. You can now report posts to Facebook that seem to show someone suffering from suicidal thoughts. A third party will review reported posts, then decide whether to reach out to the user with advice and support.

Because Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz killed himself when he purposefully drove a plane carrying 149 other people into a mountain in the Alps, there has been an assumption that he suffered from “depression”—an assumption strengthened by the discovery of antidepressants in his home and reports that he had been treated in psychiatry and neurology clinics. Many patients and other interested parties are rightly concerned that Lubitz’s murderous behavior will further stigmatize the mentally ill.

I have been a grump. I have been down. And Steven Universe has helped bring me back.