Editorials in 2024

ADHD is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder in children, yet despite a large increase in awareness and in the number of diagnoses, much less is known about how this disorder affects adults. More research is needed to understand how ADHD may present differently as a function of age or how the experience of ADHD may change in people as they age.

Reporting, discussing and interpreting sex differences in clinical and biomedical research has become a more complicated task in recent years, but necessarily so. Achieving clarity around what constitutes sex and what is associated with gender provides few conclusive answers and far more questions. As cogently expressed by Beans Velocci, a historian of sex and science, in a recent piece in Cell on sex as a scientific category, “…because it is so many things at once, all we can say for sure about what sex is is what a given scientist does with it” (B. Velocci, Cell 187, 1343–1346; 2024).

Loneliness and social isolation are associated with a range of serious negative physical and mental health consequences and can affect people across the lifespan. As these are among the most formidable current public health issues, identifying interventions are paramount.

As the world grapples with the repercussions of climate change, the consequences for physical and mental health have become more salient. Climate mental health unifies multidisciplinary approaches, including climate science, psychiatry and psychology, to inform and shape public policy and action to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on mental health.

Looking closely at the papers published in Nature Mental Health, patterns and connections among topics become apparent. In the January 2024 issue, a narrative theme emerges that encourages inclusivity in mental health research through transdiagnostic approaches, innovative methodology and representation across the lifespan.