Reviews & Analysis

Adolescents and young adults face unique ethical challenges in digital health interventions due to their developmental and technological needs. Here the authors identify critical ethical gaps in digital health interventions research for this population and emphasize the need to co-design ethical guidelines with youth, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds, rooted in core principles, such as autonomy, beneficence and justice.

In this Perspective, the authors review evidence suggesting that stimulating posterior regions such as the occipital cortex and cerebellum could offer new therapeutic avenues, potentially enhancing TMS efficacy across various psychiatric conditions.

Restrictive eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, present with severe underweight but differ in their clinical presentations and psychiatric comorbidities. Distinguishing brain alterations primarily driven by low BMI from those associated with eating disorder and comorbidity-related pathophysiology remains a crucial challenge that we aimed to address in this study.

Adolescence marks a critical period for the onset of depression, yet the neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear. Here the authors review literature linking adolescent brain development to depression risk, emphasizing the need for both large-scale and focused studies to refine methodologies and enhance understanding of neural influences on youth depression.

This Perspective highlights the important role of energy metabolism in psychiatric disorders and sets the groundwork for future studies in the emerging field of metabolic psychiatry.

One in three stroke survivors experience depression or anxiety, but no large-scale studies of real-world clinical practice have assessed whether psychological therapies are beneficial for these patients. We analyzed national healthcare records in England to evaluate the effectiveness of primary care psychological therapies for stroke survivors with common mental disorders.

Genetic variants and regions associated with cannabis use disorder (CanUD) and cannabis use also influence a range of psychiatric traits. We used genetic methods to demonstrate increased risk caused by CanUD of developing several psychiatric disorders, and that psychiatric disorders also increase CanUD risk. There were genetic differences between cannabis use and CanUD.

In this Perspective, the authors cover what is known about anxiety and depression symptoms and sleep disturbance in relation to Alzheimer disease pathology and cognitive decline.

In this Perspective, the authors discuss the need to address the women’s brain health gap and its link to the concept of brain capital.

Greater genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia is associated with thinner retinal structures — the macula, as well as both the outer retina and the inner retina. Biological pathways associated with neuroinflammation, which play a part in schizophrenia, might be involved in retinal thinning mechanisms.

Whiskey et al. discuss the reasons for the underuse of clozapine among Black individuals with treatment-resistant schizophrenia and propose changes to enhance clinicians’ confidence in prescribing it to this population.

In this Perspective, the authors highlight the importance of the first 6 weeks after birth for postpartum neuroplasticity, and discuss multiple occurring processes that may contribute to the onset of postpartum depression.

This Perspective outlines evidence on existing platform trials in mental health and discusses key challenges and strategies to overcome barriers in order to maximize the potential of platform trials.

This Perspective discusses methodological and theoretical challenges for measuring well-being in clinical research and the importance of including well-being measures in clinical studies.

This Review discusses the multidimensional conceptualization of loneliness and the utility of this framework for clinical practice and public health.

This Review provides a comprehensive overview of the principles, processes and procedures in the application of machine learning for psychiatry and mental health research.

The role and effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on the development of chronic long-term health conditions are unclear. This umbrella review of existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses synthesizes the effects of TBI on risk of physical and mental health disorders and discusses implications for research and clinical management.

We showed, in multiple population-based birth cohorts, that blood-based DNA methylation partially explains the relationship between childhood adversity and adolescent depressive symptoms. DNA-methylation sites across the epigenome could explain an increased risk of depression but, unexpectedly, other sites also served as markers of resilience against the effects of childhood adversity on depression risk.

In this Perspective, the authors detail some of the ways that mental health has been incorporated in high-level climate policy discussions and explore how the prominence of mental health could be promoted in climate agendas.

Presenting a health-equity-promoting framework, this Perspective argues for considering access to technology, health literacy and effectiveness in digital non-pharmacological interventions for older adults.