TL;DR: A 2026 study in PLOS One found that emergency call takers and dispatchers who used more negatively valenced words when describing a stressful work event reported higher depression and anxiety symptoms, while arousal-related language did not predict distress. Key Findings 106 emergency communications workers described a stressful work-related event and completed the DASS-21, a …
TL;DR: Portable electroencephalography (EEG) recordings tracked perinatal anxiety most consistently in a preliminary medRxiv preprint, with delta power carrying the clearest longitudinal marker and alpha power appearing in visit-specific anxiety analyses. Key Findings First-trimester marker: Relative delta power before 16 gestational weeks was associated with third-trimester PHQ-9 depression and GAD-7 anxiety scores. Delta-anxiety link: Across …
TL;DR: A 2026 human study in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science found that low-intensity focused ultrasound aimed at salience-network hubs improved early skin-conductance habituation to repeated startle sounds, while eye-blink and EEG habituation did not change. Key Findings Forty healthy adults completed a crossover experiment: Participants attended separate low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) sessions targeting the …
TL;DR: A 2026 fMRI study in Molecular Psychiatry linked abuse before age 13 to stronger hippocampal responses during non-conscious negative emotion processing, while abuse during adolescence was linked to stronger amygdala responses during conscious emotion viewing. Key Findings Timing split the limbic response: The sample included 635 adults after exclusions and quality checks, including people …
TL;DR: A 2026 meta-analysis in Psychological Medicine found that reduced resting-state connectivity between the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex was the most robust brain-network difference in anxiety disorders. Key Findings 15 datasets: The meta-analysis pooled 14 studies with 15 independent datasets of amygdala-based resting-state functional MRI. 783 total participants: Included samples covered 378 people with …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Cureus found that a 55-year-old woman developed anxiety, somatic hypervigilance, and eventual delusional infestation after illicit cosmetic biopolymer injections, raising the possibility that chronic inflammatory exposure can help tip vulnerable patients into a secondary Ekbom syndrome. Key Findings One 55-year-old patient with no prior psychiatric history: The case centers on …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in The British Journal of Psychiatry found that a single 50 mg dose of naltrexone reduced distress and shifted threat-related brain activity without blocking people’s ability to reappraise negative images. Key Findings 38 healthy volunteers completed a placebo-controlled crossover: Participants received naltrexone 50 mg and placebo on separate visits, then performed …
TL;DR: A 2026 qualitative study in iScience found that a 10-week Arts on Prescription program helped unemployed young adults with anxiety, depression, or stress report better mood, stronger routines, and less isolation, but some activities also caused stress, fatigue, or boundary concerns. Key Findings Young adult mental-health sample: The study focused on 22 Danish participants …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Journal of Korean Medical Science found that resistance exercise was more consistently associated with lower depression and anxiety scores than aerobic exercise in Korean adults, but the cross-sectional design means the study cannot prove exercise caused the mental-health difference. Key Findings Resistance exercise had the strongest association with lower Patient …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Journal of Affective Disorders used interpretable machine learning to predict who completed more prompts during a 14-day mindfulness app trial for generalized anxiety disorder. Key Findings Trial size: A two-arm randomized trial included 110 people with generalized anxiety disorder, assigned to a mindfulness ecological momentary intervention or a self-monitoring app. …
