News & Views |
Featured
-
-
News Feature |
The rise of eco-anxiety: scientists wake up to the mental-health toll of climate change
Researchers want to unpick how climate change affects mental health around the world — from lives that are disrupted by catastrophic weather to people who are anxious about the future.
- Helen Pearson
-
Correspondence |
Use fines from EU social-media act to fund research on adolescent mental health
- Christian Montag
- & Benjamin Becker
-
Technology Feature |
‘Without these tools, I’d be lost’: how generative AI aids in accessibility
A rush to place barriers around the use of artificial intelligence in academia could disproportionately affect those who stand to benefit most.
- Amanda Heidt
-
Research Highlight |
Green space near home has an antidepressant effect
People who had the most vegetation near their residences were the least likely to report depression and anxiety.
-
Book Review |
The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?
The evidence is equivocal on whether screen time is to blame for rising levels of teen depression and anxiety — and rising hysteria could distract us from tackling the real causes.
- Candice L. Odgers
-
News Explainer |
Ketamine is in the spotlight thanks to Elon Musk — but is it the right treatment for depression?
The entrepreneur endorses the drug, but researchers caution that it’s not to be taken lightly.
- David Adam
-
Outlook |
Could the gut give rise to alcohol addiction?
Microorganisms in the gut might make a person more vulnerable to substance-use disorders.
- Tammy Worth
-
News & Views |
Non-neuronal brain cells modulate behaviour
A single gene in astrocytes can constrain repetitive behaviours, indicating that these cells are regulators of behavioural disruption in conditions such as Huntington’s disease and obsessive–compulsive disorder.
- Anna Kruyer
-
Article
| Open Access
Crym-positive striatal astrocytes gate perseverative behaviour
In mice, a population of astrocytes in the central striatum, characterized by expression of μ-crystallin, has a role in perseveration phenotypes that are often associated with human neuropsychiatric disorders.
- Matthias Ollivier
- , Joselyn S. Soto
- & Baljit S. Khakh
-
Research Highlight |
Just a few counselling sessions can hold postpartum depression at bay
Even talking to a non-specialist during pregnancy was enough to reduce the risk of depression and anxiety after birth.
-
Article
| Open Access
Circulating myeloid-derived MMP8 in stress susceptibility and depression
Serum MMP8 is increased in stress-susceptible mice following chronic stress and leads to brain structure and behavioural changes in mice.
- Flurin Cathomas
- , Hsiao-Yun Lin
- & Scott J. Russo
-
Correspondence |
Heal the aftermath of intergenerational trauma and grief
- Yafit Levin
- , Menachem Ben-Ezra
- & Yaira Hamama-Raz
-
World View |
Only 0.5% of neuroscience studies look at women’s health. Here’s how to change that
A new initiative challenges the severe neglect of women’s brain health from puberty through to pregnancy and menopause.
- Emily G. Jacobs
-
News Feature |
Psychedelic treatments are speeding towards approval — but no one knows how they work
Many questions remain about the formerly taboo chemicals that are being used to treat trauma and depression.
- Sara Reardon
-
Outlook |
Mental health: The invisible effects of neglected tropical diseases
The psychological burden of disability and stigma has been overlooked, to the detriment of those affected and their carers.
- Simon Makin
-
News |
Is depression lifting? AI that interprets brain waves has answers
A pattern of brain activity linked with recovery from severe depression could be used to improve therapies such as deep-brain stimulation
- Max Kozlov
-
Nature Podcast |
Why does cancer spread to the spine? Newly discovered stem cells might be the key
A stem cell vital for vertebral growth also drives spine metastases, and the use of MDMA in the treatment of PTSD.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
-
Article
| Open Access
Cingulate dynamics track depression recovery with deep brain stimulation
This study demonstrates how activity in the cingulate cortex tracks depression recovery, providing symptom relief using deep brain stimulation.
- Sankaraleengam Alagapan
- , Ki Sueng Choi
- & Christopher J. Rozell
-
News |
Psychedelic drug MDMA moves closer to US approval following success in PTSD trial
Long-awaited trial data show drug is effective at treating post-traumatic stress disorder in a diversity of people.
- Sara Reardon
-
Article
| Open Access
An orexigenic subnetwork within the human hippocampus
An appetite-regulating subnetwork in humans involving the lateral hypothalamus and the dorsolateral hippocampus is implicated in obesity and related eating disorders.
- Daniel A. N. Barbosa
- , Sandra Gattas
- & Casey H. Halpern
-
News |
Australia to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin for PTSD and depression in world first
Decision to make the previously illicit drugs available is dogged by suggestions that it was rushed.
- Rich Haridy
-
Correspondence |
Autism: don’t negate the value of applied behaviour analysis
- Gina Green
- , Russell Lang
- & Jason Travers
-
-
News |
How psychedelic drugs achieve their potent health benefits
Mouse studies suggest that drugs from LSD to ecstasy renew the brain’s flexibility — but some scientists are sceptical.
- Sara Reardon
-
Outlook |
Brain-zapping technology helps smokers to quit
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is already approved to help people overcome addiction to cigarettes, but researchers still have a lot to learn about how to deliver the treatment effectively.
- Simon Makin
-
News Feature |
‘I am not a broken version of normal’ — autistic people argue for a stronger voice in research
Despite broader acceptance of neurodiversity, autistic advocates and scientists are still fighting for a chance to set clinical and scientific priorities.
- Emiliano Rodríguez Mega
-
News Feature |
Is the world ready for ChatGPT therapists?
The current landscape of mobile mental-health apps is the result of a 70-year search to automate therapy. Now, advanced AIs pose fresh ethical questions.
- Ian Graber-Stiehl
-
News Feature |
US could soon approve MDMA therapy — opening an era of psychedelic medicine
Perceptions have shifted dramatically in the past few years on the therapeutic value of illicit drugs such as ecstasy. But questions still linger about what FDA approval might look like.
- Sara Reardon
-
Article
| Open Access
Astrocyte–neuron subproteomes and obsessive–compulsive disorder mechanisms
Analyses of the proteomes of astrocytes and neurons in a cell-specific and subcompartment-specific manner reveal distinct roles for these cell types that are relevant to obsessive–compulsive disorder and perhaps other brain disorders.
- Joselyn S. Soto
- , Yasaman Jami-Alahmadi
- & Baljit S. Khakh
-
News |
Habit-linked brain circuits light up in people with eating disorders
Parts of the brain associated with habit formation seem unusually active in people with eating disorders.
- Bianca Nogrady
-
Comment |
How social media affects teen mental health: a missing link
Researchers investigating the impacts of social media on mental health must consider where exactly adolescents are in their cognitive and social development.
- Amy Orben
- & Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
-
Outlook |
How to help children traumatized by war
Widespread violence takes a serious toll on children’s mental health. But there are ways to alleviate the suffering.
- Fadi Maalouf
-
Outlook |
Social-media use isn’t always a problem for children
Maartje Boer explains how using social media can be good for young people, and how to spot the warning signs of problematic use.
- Niki Wilson
-
-
Article
| Open Access
Broad transcriptomic dysregulation occurs across the cerebral cortex in ASD
RNA sequencing reveals widespread transcriptomic changes across the cerebral cortex in autism spectrum disorder, including primary sensory regions, in addition to association regions, as well as an attenuation of regional identity.
- Michael J. Gandal
- , Jillian R. Haney
- & Daniel H. Geschwind
-
Outlook |
Psychedelic medicine faces the acid test
Mind-bending drugs are entering the therapeutic arena
- Herb Brody
-
Outlook |
Psychedelic microdosing hits a rough patch in clinical trials
Recent results cast doubt on claims that small amounts of these drugs can benefit mental health.
- Benjamin Plackett
-
Outlook |
Research round-up: psychedelic medicine
Predicting bad trips, treating depression without hallucinations, and other highlights from studies of psychedelics.
- Michael Eisenstein
-
Outlook |
Taking the tripping out of psychedelic medicine
Drugs under development offer the mental-health benefits of psilocybin and similar substances without inducing strong hallucinatory effects.
- Elie Dolgin
-
Outlook |
The psychedelic escape from depression
Clinical trials suggest that psilocybin — the active ingredient in magic mushrooms — can provide durable remission from an increasingly common mental health condition.
- Michael Eisenstein
-
Outlook |
Hope that psychedelic drugs can erase trauma
Some researchers are finding clues that MDMA might be able to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. But the science has yet to catch up with the optimism.
- Lauren Gravitz
-
Outlook |
Finding medical value in mescaline
After millennia of sacramental use, mescaline is finally entering fully powered clinical trials.
- Eric Bender
-
Outlook |
How MDMA resensitizes the brain
Gül Dölen explains how psychedelics restore the brain’s capacity for plasticity, which fades with age, and make possible new mental-health therapies.
- Alla Katsnelson
-
Outlook |
Psychedelic research and the real world
Clinical trials of psychedelic drugs impose constraints that make it difficult to judge how effective they will be in treating people.
- Paul S. Appelbaum
-
Outlook |
A journey into the causes and effects of depression
A raft of insights provide hope for improved treatments.
- Herb Brody
-
Outlook |
Can resetting the body clock help with depression?
Disrupted sleep patterns affect mental health, and researchers now hope that repairing circadian rhythms could ease symptoms.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
-
Outlook |
The vicious cycle of depression and obesity
Is it time for obesity to be treated as a mental-health concern?
- Benjamin Plackett
-
Outlook |
Research round-up: depression
How artificial intelligence detects lowered mood, why depression is linked to heart-disease risk, and other highlights.
- Elizabeth Svoboda
-
Outlook |
Brain-cell growth keeps mood disorders at bay
Neurogenesis can halt depressive symptoms or prevent them from emerging. Harnessing this phenomenon could open up treatment options.
- Elizabeth Svoboda
Targeting RNA opens therapeutic avenues for Timothy syndrome