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Numerous randomized placebo-controlled studies over the past two decades have shown that ketamine has a rapid antidepressant action. However, its acute transient effects on cognition and perception are likely to unmask study-arm assignment. Now, the use of surgical anesthesia to conceal treatment assignment finds high rates of rapid antidepressant response among participants, regardless of whether they are randomized to ketamine or placebo.
Robust 24-hour light–dark cycles are crucial for healthy circadian rhythms. A study now shows that there is an independent association between increased light at night and decreased light during the day with a variety of mental health disorders.
Sex steroid hormones are powerful neuromodulators of learning and memory. A new study in humans links rhythmic oscillations in ovarian hormone levels to changes in medial temporal lobe morphology.
Some individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience a series of symptoms attributable to ‘dissociation’ — severance either with themselves or their surroundings. A new study on the neurobiology of dissociation in PTSD uses functional MRI analysis to identify unique patterns of brain–behavior associations.
A study drawing on the expansive UK Biobank dataset to explore the lifestyle, genetic and biological underpinnings of mental health highlights the influence of lifestyle on depression risk and suggests that detailed investigations into lifestyle factors, in conjunction with psychological aspects and advanced analysis methods, may reveal a deeper understanding of the complexities of mental health.
Psychotic phenomena in early Parkinson’s disease are understudied and underappreciated. Bernasconi et al.1 report that such phenomena, when combined with evidence of low-frequency activity in frontal regions on EEG, herald a later decline in frontal cognitive functions, underlining their significance and need for timely, accurate detection.
In early childhood, many children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder experience challenges in adaptive behavior that are needed to meet the demands of daily life. Mandelli et al. propose the use of a data-driven prediction model to identify unique subgroups of autistic preschoolers based on a ‘snapshot’ of adaptive skills.
Unipolar depression is a common mental disorder that is increasingly treated with neuroimaging-guided therapeutics. Cash et al. use brain connectomics in 57 heterogeneous neuroimaging studies to report meta-analytic brain networks linked to aberrant emotional and cognitive processing in individuals with unipolar depression.
Will connectome-based predictive modeling change how we care for people at risk of late-life suicide? A novel two-step modeling approach used by Gao et al. in their study sheds light on the road ahead.
People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are at increased risk of suicide and face a shortage of efficient treatments options. A new study shows that brain stimulation by magnetic seizure therapy, combined with dialectical behavioral therapy, reduces suicidality, depressive symptoms and interpersonal symptoms in people with BPD.
Multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease that involves white matter lesions throughout the brain, and depression is a common comorbidity. In this paper, Siddiqi, Kletenik et al. propose the use of a recently developed technique known as lesion network mapping to identify a common depression network that may represent a treatment target for neuromodulatory approaches to treating depression.
