Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
As Nature Mental Health closes in on one year of publication, there is a special opportunity to reflect on the state of mental health in 2023 to shape the mental health priorities for 2024. The journal considers the role of some of these defining issues as it readies for the new year.
The world’s population is becoming increasingly urbanized, which brings new considerations for the effects of urbanicity on physical and mental health. Despite the complexity, there is a tremendous opportunity for research to use new tools to examine the reciprocal relationship between mental health and urban environments to improve outcomes and communities.
Mental health, like physical health, is an intrinsic and universal aspect of the human condition. The observance of World Mental Health Day is a reminder that mental health is not just an individual concern but a collective one, deeply intertwined with the broader pursuit of improved mental health and being, sustainable development, and human rights.
Personalized medicine has made substantial strides in treating cancer and rare genetic disorders by leveraging advances in genomics, yet psychiatry has lagged behind. The complexity of psychiatric disorders, owing to heterogeneity, polygenicity and environmental and epigenetic effects, calls for varied approaches in achieving personalization.
Adolescence and young adulthood are decisive times for neurobiological, cognitive and emotional development, all of which converge on mental health. Research into the identification of risks for developing mental health disorders and early intervention in young people are crucial for curtailing the youth mental health crisis.
The past 40 years have seen a surge in exploring mindfulness-based practices and interventions as a non-pharmacological alternative to treating various physical and psychological conditions. Addressing specific challenges that the field faces is crucial for moving it forward in a meaningful direction.
The celebration of Pride in June each year is a way to recognize triumph over oppression. It is a time to acknowledge the past and to commit to protecting LGBT+ people by promoting inclusion, equality, and mental health and well-being.
Mental Health Month has been observed to reduce the stigma that is associated with mental illness and to educate the public and encourage individuals to make their mental health and wellbeing a priority. It is an important moment to bring the strengths of advocacy groups and researchers together to promote mental health awareness and to improve equity.
Social safety nets refer to the networks of assistance that are available to individuals or families who are vulnerable or who are experiencing poverty. Mental health safety nets can encompass traditional assistance, such as food and cash transfers, as well as behavioral health services and medication coverage — much-needed resources around the world.
The language of mental health is always being updated to better capture states of being and to be more inclusive. ‘Lived experience’, the core qualia of a mental health condition as it is perceived and inhabited by an individual, reflects this evolution. It is what makes some of us mental health ‘experts by experience’.
February 2023 marks Black History Month in the USA. It is a tradition that was built on the grass-roots commemoration of the principles of tradition and reform established in Negro History Week in 1926 (ref. 1). In the 1960s, lifted by the Civil Rights Movement, it was expanded into a month-long celebration by activists, and on college campuses by students and faculty. Born out of a yearning to better recognize the achievements of Black people in America, Black History Month also speaks to the reality that these achievements have been gained in the face of enduring hardships and the inheritance of racism and oppression.
Despite the many modern challenges to mental health, opportunities for improving outcomes abound. Multidisciplinary and structural approaches to mental health research provide promise and a call to work toward mental health equity. Nature Mental Health hopes to be part of that progress.
