THE LATEST RESEARCH
New findings about the brain, behavior and mental health—with the evidence and limits in view.
TL;DR: In a small UK trial, 60 people with depression that hadn’t responded to standard treatment got either one 25-mg dose of psilocybin or a placebo, plus therapy support. Three weeks later, 13 of 30 people in the psilocybin group had responded, versus 1 of…
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TL;DR: Researchers in Munich tested 28 people who hear a near-constant low hum that the people around them usually can't. For most of them, the tests didn't support either of two hearing explanations: unusually sensitive hearing for deep sounds, or hearing sou…
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TL;DR: Pooling 29 trials of 1,913 people with Parkinson’s disease, the researchers found sleep drugs improved overall sleep quality by 2.66 points on a questionnaire compared with placebo. The evidence was low certainty, and other sleep problems showed unclear…
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TL;DR: At a busy, ethnically diverse Parkinson's clinic in East London, about half of 223 patients had thinking problems — either mild cognitive impairment or dementia — when a team of specialists reviewed each case. Thinking problems were more common in South…
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TL;DR: In a two-month trial of 62 children aged 2 to 5 with autism, adding a modified ketogenic diet to therapy brought bigger drops in two autism scores than a regular diet. The trial was small and not fully blinded. Key Findings Autism Behavior Checklist (AB…
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TL;DR: Among 10 people with dementia who finished a 6-month therapy garden program in Germany, restlessness ratings were lower than at the start. With no comparison group, the study cannot show the garden caused the change. Key Findings Lower restlessness rati…
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TL;DR: In 34 trials of children and teens with cancer, those given supportive programs like play or art did better on anxiety and pain than those who were not. But the trials were small and varied. Key Findings Anxiety: Across 7 trials, program group had a med…
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TL;DR: In a two-week trial of 30 adults with chronic insomnia, nightly sleep rose about 82 minutes with real brain stimulation and 6 with fake. The groups started far apart, so this is an early signal. Key Findings Sleep time: Real-stimulation group gained abo…
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TL;DR: A 2026 preprint on medRxiv followed 72 people with bipolar disorder who wore wrist activity monitors and asked whether day-to-day swings in sleep and activity carry information about mood episodes beyond weekly averages. They did — the swings were linke…
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TL;DR: In a small trial of 30 nursing-home residents with Parkinson's, adding 15 minutes of Baduanjin, a gentle qigong routine, to regular physical therapy led to better balance and farther walking after 12 weeks. Walking speed on a timed test and motor sympto…
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