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. …
TL;DR: A 2026 Communications Biology study associated maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy with more positive toddler autism-risk screens and newborn immune-protein patterns tied to nicotinamide metabolism, microglial activation, and neutrophil activity. Key Findings Positive M-CHAT-R/F screens, a toddler autism-risk screening result, occurred in 10.1% of 218 SARS-CoV-2-exposed children versus 5.7% of 527 pre-pandemic controls. Earlier …
TL;DR: A 2026 retrospective database study in Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery found that people with major upper-extremity amputations had higher one-year rates of new mental-health diagnoses, antidepressant starts, and psychotherapy use than matched patients with minor hand or digit amputations. Key Findings Matched database study: Researchers compared 1,226 major upper-extremity amputation patients with …
TL;DR: A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in Psychogeriatrics linked loneliness with Alzheimer’s disease and several forms of suicidal behavior, with especially strong shared correlations for hopelessness, insomnia, entrapment, and stress. Key Findings 316 studies reviewed: Researchers found 44 studies on loneliness and Alzheimer’s disease, 261 on loneliness and suicide, and no original study that …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience found that lower frontal midline theta, an EEG marker of cognitive-control engagement, partly explained why young adults with higher negative emotionality performed worse on a Go/No-Go inhibition task. Key Findings 106 young adults completed EEG testing: U.S. Army National Guard recruits performed a Go/No-Go task …
TL;DR: A 2026 preprint on medRxiv used resting-state functional MRI (fMRI), a brain-connectivity scan taken while people are not doing a task, to divide older adults at Alzheimer’s risk into anxiety biotypes that responded differently to frontal-lobe tDCS stimulation. Key Findings Older-adult tDCS trial: The final sample included 199 older adults, with 99 sham tDCS …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that women with strong feminist identification criticized idealized beauty images more sharply, but that critique did not protect their momentary body satisfaction after seeing the images. Key Findings Media exposure: 433 women viewed either 15 idealized model images or a matched set of more …
TL;DR: A 2026 randomized trial in Scientific Reports found that adding esketamine to sufentanil patient-controlled analgesia lowered short-term postoperative depression and anxiety scores in elderly colorectal cancer surgery patients, without improving pain scores or increasing adverse events. Key Findings Three randomized groups: 91 older colorectal cancer surgery patients completed follow-up after assignment to sufentanil alone, …
TL;DR: A study in Communications Biology found that environmental enrichment, richer housing with objects, running space, and novelty, reduced early-life-stress-linked visceral pain and depression-like behavior in rats while normalizing a CB1 receptor-sensitive prefrontal-limbic stress circuit. Key Findings Early stress model: Researchers used neonatal colorectal distension (CRD), a controlled early-life gut stressor, in male and female …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Computers in Human Behavior grouped 1,316 U.S. adults by when they first saw sexually explicit media and when regular viewing began; the highest distress appeared in people who moved into regular viewing early, while late regular engagement looked lower-risk in this cross-sectional survey. Key Findings Three trajectories emerged: researchers identified …
