#psychiatry — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #psychiatry, aggregated by home.social.
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Curious people tend to have more of the experiences linked to cognitive reserve, study finds
A small study in the Netherlands found that people with a more curious personality tended to score higher on indicators of cognitive reserve, such as education and mentally stimulating leisure activities. However, neither curiosity nor these indicators of cognitive reserve were associated with performance on cognitive tests. The paper was published in Personality and Individual Differences.
As people age, many experience gradual cognitive decline. However, not everyone experiences this decline at the same pace or at the same age. While some individuals show marked cognitive decline relatively early, others maintain normal cognitive abilities into very advanced age. To help explain these differences, scientists developed the concept of cognitive reserve.
Cognitive reserve is the brain’s ability to maintain cognitive functioning despite aging, brain injury, or disease-related changes. It is thought to develop gradually across life through experiences that repeatedly engage the brain, such as education, intellectually demanding work, reading, learning new skills, and other mentally stimulating activities. In later life, greater cognitive reserve may help delay or reduce the cognitive effects of brain atrophy and other age-related changes, even though it does not necessarily prevent those physical changes from occurring.
One factor that may be of particular importance for building cognitive reserve is curiosity. Curious people are more likely to seek new information, explore unfamiliar experiences, and continue learning throughout adulthood. Activities encouraged by curiosity, such as reading books, learning languages, or exploring new places and ideas, may provide repeated cognitive stimulation over many years. Research has already linked the personality trait of openness to experience (a trait that also predisposes people to curious behaviors) to slower cognitive decline, suggesting that it may support resilience against it.
Study author Carolien Torenvliet and colleagues at Radboud University’s Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour explored the association between curiosity and various indicators of cognitive reserve. They also examined whether a curious personality (i.e., openness to experience and interest-based curiosity) was associated with cognitive abilities, and whether cognitive reserve might explain any such link.
Study participants were 106 adults recruited mainly from around Nijmegen in the Netherlands. They were between 40 and 85 years of age, with an average age of about 62, and 57% were women. People with current or past psychiatric or neurological disorders were excluded. Participants’ average estimated IQ was 118, well above the population average of 100.
Participants completed three questionnaires assessing curious personality: two measuring interest-based curiosity and one measuring openness to experience. They also completed the Dutch version of the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire, which estimates cognitive reserve from a person’s education, the complexity of their work, and their leisure activities. Finally, they completed three brief neuropsychological tests measuring memory, executive function, and processing speed.
Results showed that more curious individuals tended to score higher on indicators of cognitive reserve, specifically education and leisure activities, but not the complexity of their work. This association held after accounting for participants’ age. However, neither curiosity nor the cognitive reserve indicators were associated with performance on the cognitive tests.
“Although this study is limited by its cross-sectional design and relatively healthy sample, the results suggest that a curious personality may drive individual differences in cognitively stimulating experiences, but not cognitive abilities themselves,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of cognitive reserve. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be drawn from the results. Curiosity may lead people to pursue more education and stimulating activities, but those experiences could also foster curiosity.
In addition, cognitive reserve was estimated from participants’ own reports of their past education, work, and activities rather than measured directly. Finally, participants were healthy and had higher-than-average estimated intelligence, and the sample was relatively small for a study of this type, which may have made it harder to detect links with cognitive performance.
The paper, “Curious people, resilient minds? The role of a curious personality in cognitive reserve and cognitive abilities,” was authored by Carolien Torenvliet, Dirk Bertens, Joukje M. Oosterman, and Iris Wiegand.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #CuriosityAndCognition #CognitiveReserve #CuriousMinds #OpennessToExperience #MentalStimulation #EducationAndLeisure #CognitiveHealth #AgingAndBrain #Neurocognition #BrainResilience
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Curious people tend to have more of the experiences linked to cognitive reserve, study finds
A small study in the Netherlands found that people with a more curious personality tended to score higher on indicators of cognitive reserve, such as education and mentally stimulating leisure activities. However, neither curiosity nor these indicators of cognitive reserve were associated with performance on cognitive tests. The paper was published in Personality and Individual Differences.
As people age, many experience gradual cognitive decline. However, not everyone experiences this decline at the same pace or at the same age. While some individuals show marked cognitive decline relatively early, others maintain normal cognitive abilities into very advanced age. To help explain these differences, scientists developed the concept of cognitive reserve.
Cognitive reserve is the brain’s ability to maintain cognitive functioning despite aging, brain injury, or disease-related changes. It is thought to develop gradually across life through experiences that repeatedly engage the brain, such as education, intellectually demanding work, reading, learning new skills, and other mentally stimulating activities. In later life, greater cognitive reserve may help delay or reduce the cognitive effects of brain atrophy and other age-related changes, even though it does not necessarily prevent those physical changes from occurring.
One factor that may be of particular importance for building cognitive reserve is curiosity. Curious people are more likely to seek new information, explore unfamiliar experiences, and continue learning throughout adulthood. Activities encouraged by curiosity, such as reading books, learning languages, or exploring new places and ideas, may provide repeated cognitive stimulation over many years. Research has already linked the personality trait of openness to experience (a trait that also predisposes people to curious behaviors) to slower cognitive decline, suggesting that it may support resilience against it.
Study author Carolien Torenvliet and colleagues at Radboud University’s Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour explored the association between curiosity and various indicators of cognitive reserve. They also examined whether a curious personality (i.e., openness to experience and interest-based curiosity) was associated with cognitive abilities, and whether cognitive reserve might explain any such link.
Study participants were 106 adults recruited mainly from around Nijmegen in the Netherlands. They were between 40 and 85 years of age, with an average age of about 62, and 57% were women. People with current or past psychiatric or neurological disorders were excluded. Participants’ average estimated IQ was 118, well above the population average of 100.
Participants completed three questionnaires assessing curious personality: two measuring interest-based curiosity and one measuring openness to experience. They also completed the Dutch version of the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire, which estimates cognitive reserve from a person’s education, the complexity of their work, and their leisure activities. Finally, they completed three brief neuropsychological tests measuring memory, executive function, and processing speed.
Results showed that more curious individuals tended to score higher on indicators of cognitive reserve, specifically education and leisure activities, but not the complexity of their work. This association held after accounting for participants’ age. However, neither curiosity nor the cognitive reserve indicators were associated with performance on the cognitive tests.
“Although this study is limited by its cross-sectional design and relatively healthy sample, the results suggest that a curious personality may drive individual differences in cognitively stimulating experiences, but not cognitive abilities themselves,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of cognitive reserve. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be drawn from the results. Curiosity may lead people to pursue more education and stimulating activities, but those experiences could also foster curiosity.
In addition, cognitive reserve was estimated from participants’ own reports of their past education, work, and activities rather than measured directly. Finally, participants were healthy and had higher-than-average estimated intelligence, and the sample was relatively small for a study of this type, which may have made it harder to detect links with cognitive performance.
The paper, “Curious people, resilient minds? The role of a curious personality in cognitive reserve and cognitive abilities,” was authored by Carolien Torenvliet, Dirk Bertens, Joukje M. Oosterman, and Iris Wiegand.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #CuriosityAndCognition #CognitiveReserve #CuriousMinds #OpennessToExperience #MentalStimulation #EducationAndLeisure #CognitiveHealth #AgingAndBrain #Neurocognition #BrainResilience
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Curious people tend to have more of the experiences linked to cognitive reserve, study finds
A small study in the Netherlands found that people with a more curious personality tended to score higher on indicators of cognitive reserve, such as education and mentally stimulating leisure activities. However, neither curiosity nor these indicators of cognitive reserve were associated with performance on cognitive tests. The paper was published in Personality and Individual Differences.
As people age, many experience gradual cognitive decline. However, not everyone experiences this decline at the same pace or at the same age. While some individuals show marked cognitive decline relatively early, others maintain normal cognitive abilities into very advanced age. To help explain these differences, scientists developed the concept of cognitive reserve.
Cognitive reserve is the brain’s ability to maintain cognitive functioning despite aging, brain injury, or disease-related changes. It is thought to develop gradually across life through experiences that repeatedly engage the brain, such as education, intellectually demanding work, reading, learning new skills, and other mentally stimulating activities. In later life, greater cognitive reserve may help delay or reduce the cognitive effects of brain atrophy and other age-related changes, even though it does not necessarily prevent those physical changes from occurring.
One factor that may be of particular importance for building cognitive reserve is curiosity. Curious people are more likely to seek new information, explore unfamiliar experiences, and continue learning throughout adulthood. Activities encouraged by curiosity, such as reading books, learning languages, or exploring new places and ideas, may provide repeated cognitive stimulation over many years. Research has already linked the personality trait of openness to experience (a trait that also predisposes people to curious behaviors) to slower cognitive decline, suggesting that it may support resilience against it.
Study author Carolien Torenvliet and colleagues at Radboud University’s Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour explored the association between curiosity and various indicators of cognitive reserve. They also examined whether a curious personality (i.e., openness to experience and interest-based curiosity) was associated with cognitive abilities, and whether cognitive reserve might explain any such link.
Study participants were 106 adults recruited mainly from around Nijmegen in the Netherlands. They were between 40 and 85 years of age, with an average age of about 62, and 57% were women. People with current or past psychiatric or neurological disorders were excluded. Participants’ average estimated IQ was 118, well above the population average of 100.
Participants completed three questionnaires assessing curious personality: two measuring interest-based curiosity and one measuring openness to experience. They also completed the Dutch version of the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire, which estimates cognitive reserve from a person’s education, the complexity of their work, and their leisure activities. Finally, they completed three brief neuropsychological tests measuring memory, executive function, and processing speed.
Results showed that more curious individuals tended to score higher on indicators of cognitive reserve, specifically education and leisure activities, but not the complexity of their work. This association held after accounting for participants’ age. However, neither curiosity nor the cognitive reserve indicators were associated with performance on the cognitive tests.
“Although this study is limited by its cross-sectional design and relatively healthy sample, the results suggest that a curious personality may drive individual differences in cognitively stimulating experiences, but not cognitive abilities themselves,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of cognitive reserve. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be drawn from the results. Curiosity may lead people to pursue more education and stimulating activities, but those experiences could also foster curiosity.
In addition, cognitive reserve was estimated from participants’ own reports of their past education, work, and activities rather than measured directly. Finally, participants were healthy and had higher-than-average estimated intelligence, and the sample was relatively small for a study of this type, which may have made it harder to detect links with cognitive performance.
The paper, “Curious people, resilient minds? The role of a curious personality in cognitive reserve and cognitive abilities,” was authored by Carolien Torenvliet, Dirk Bertens, Joukje M. Oosterman, and Iris Wiegand.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #CuriosityAndCognition #CognitiveReserve #CuriousMinds #OpennessToExperience #MentalStimulation #EducationAndLeisure #CognitiveHealth #AgingAndBrain #Neurocognition #BrainResilience
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Scientists reveal the brain’s hidden role in building exercise endurance
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-brain-s-hidden-role-in-building-exercise-endurance/
Repeated physical activity builds endurance by triggering widespread adaptations throughout the human body, but a new study reveals that the brain actually directs these physiological changes. Researchers found that activating a specific cluster of brain cells immediately after a workout is required for mice to increase their physical stamina over time. This discovery flips the traditional view of exercise physiology by showing that structural changes in the brain drive muscle adaptations, rather than just reflecting them. The findings were published in the journal Neuron.
Physiology research on exercise adaptations often focuses on the periphery of the body. When an animal or a human engages in a workout routine, skeletal muscles, the cardiovascular system, and immune function all undergo structural and chemical changes. For years, researchers viewed the brain’s structural changes during exercise as a reflection of these peripheral adaptations. Under this model, muscle tissues release chemical signals into the bloodstream, and the rest of the body responds to that muscular stress.
However, the central nervous system maintains an expansive network for sensing and regulating the body’s daily energy demands. The ventromedial hypothalamus is a region deep in the brain that manages energy expenditure, feeding behavior, and blood sugar levels. Within this neural region sits a specific population of neurons that express a protein known as steroidogenic factor-1, or SF1. Because these cells regulate metabolism, researchers suspected they might play an active role in how the body handles the physical stress of a demanding workout.
University of Pennsylvania researcher Morgan Kindel, Providence College researcher Ryan J. Post, and a team of colleagues investigated whether these SF1 neurons respond to physical exertion. The scientists hypothesized that the brain actively coordinates the metabolic remodeling that leads to increased athletic stamina. They designed a series of small studies using mice to test how manipulating this tiny cluster of brain cells would affect overall physical endurance. The resulting data established a feed-forward loop between physical movement and brain plasticity.
The researchers first exposed a small group of mice to a single session of treadmill running and analyzed their brain tissue. They stained the tissue to measure the expression of a gene called Bdnf, which becomes more active when neurons fire. The analysis showed an increase in both the number of SF1 neurons expressing this gene and the total amount of the gene’s transcripts per cell. This initial test indicated that the exercise session successfully stimulated the neural population.
To see what happens when this neural activity is blocked, the team injected a specialized genetic tool into the brains of a small group of mice. This tool produced a tetanus toxin that prevented the SF1 neurons from releasing chemical signals to other cells. When placed on a treadmill stress test that gradually increased in speed, the mice with silenced SF1 neurons reached exhaustion faster than unmodified control mice. The researchers used indirect calorimetry, which measures oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output to track metabolism, and found that the modified mice burned through their carbohydrate stores prematurely rather than relying on fat reserves.
Next, the researchers put the mice through a three-week treadmill training program to see if they could build endurance. The control mice steadily improved their running times and maximum distances over the three weeks. The mice with silenced SF1 neurons failed to build this endurance capacity. An analysis of their leg muscles showed an absence of the genetic changes that typically optimize energy use after regular training, showing that silencing the brain cells halted the muscles’ ability to adapt.
To track how the neurons behaved in real time, the team used tiny head-mounted microscopes to monitor calcium levels in the brains of active mice. Calcium flows into neurons when they fire, providing a visual proxy for cellular activity. During a week of daily training, the researchers observed a specific subset of SF1 neurons that consistently became active right after the exercise ended. Over the course of the week, the repeated training increased both the number of these post-workout neurons and the intensity of their firing.
The researchers then extracted brain tissue from mice that had exercised for three weeks and measured the electrical properties of individual SF1 neurons. Compared to tissue from sedentary mice, the cells from the trained animals were more electrically excitable and fired spontaneous action potentials at a higher rate. High-resolution imaging of the cells’ branches, or dendrites, revealed that the exercised mice had twice as many tiny protrusions called dendritic spines. This structural growth means the neurons had physically adapted to accommodate more synaptic connections.
Because the live imaging showed peak activity right after running, the team tested whether post-workout firing is the primary driver of endurance. They used optogenetics, a technique that allows researchers to turn specific neurons off using targeted light. By delivering light through fiber optic implants, they inhibited SF1 neurons for exactly 15 minutes immediately following each daily treadmill session. This brief post-workout suppression blunted the endurance gains that the mice would normally achieve.
In a final test, the researchers used a different optogenetic setup to artificially stimulate the SF1 neurons for one hour immediately after daily exercise. Activating the cells during this recovery window enhanced the animals’ endurance gains beyond their normal physiological plateau. The artificial stimulation triggered an increase in blood sugar and overall energy expenditure, which the researchers suggest may help initiate the metabolic recovery signals that prepare muscles for future physical stress.
These experiments rely on mouse models running on treadmills, and rodent metabolism does not perfectly map onto human physiology. Human endurance adaptations take place over longer time scales and involve more varied types of physical training. The results show that activating these brain cells is necessary for building stamina in mice, but they do not establish exactly how the brain receives the message that the exercise has stopped.
Identifying the physical pathways that carry signals from fatigued muscles back up to the ventromedial hypothalamus remains a goal for future studies. Researchers will also need to determine if different types of exercise, such as weightlifting or high-intensity interval training, recruit these exact same neural pathways. Mapping out this brain-to-body loop could eventually inform the development of therapeutics for individuals who cannot safely engage in rigorous physical activity.
The study, “Exercise-induced activation of ventromedial hypothalamic steroidogenic factor-1 neurons mediates improvements in endurance,” was published in May 2026. It was authored by Morgan Kindel, Ryan J. Post, Kyle Grose, Louise Lantier, Eunsang Hwang, Jamie R.E. Carty, Lenka Dohnalova´, Lauren Lepeak, Hallie C. Kern, Rachael Villari, Nitsan Goldstein, Emily Lo, Albert Yeung, Lukas Richie, Bridget Skelly, Jenna Golub, Manmeet Rai, Teppei Fujikawa, Julio E. Ayala, Joel K. Elmquist, Christoph A. Thaiss, David H. Wasserman, Kevin W. Williams, Erik B. Bloss, and J. Nicholas Betley.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-brain-s-hidden-role-in-building-exercise-endurance/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BrainEndurance #SF1Neurons #ExerciseNeurology #VentralHypothalamus #Neuroplasticity #PostWorkoutRecovery #BrainBodyConnection #EnduranceTraining #BDNF #Optogenetics
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Scientists reveal the brain’s hidden role in building exercise endurance
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-brain-s-hidden-role-in-building-exercise-endurance/
Repeated physical activity builds endurance by triggering widespread adaptations throughout the human body, but a new study reveals that the brain actually directs these physiological changes. Researchers found that activating a specific cluster of brain cells immediately after a workout is required for mice to increase their physical stamina over time. This discovery flips the traditional view of exercise physiology by showing that structural changes in the brain drive muscle adaptations, rather than just reflecting them. The findings were published in the journal Neuron.
Physiology research on exercise adaptations often focuses on the periphery of the body. When an animal or a human engages in a workout routine, skeletal muscles, the cardiovascular system, and immune function all undergo structural and chemical changes. For years, researchers viewed the brain’s structural changes during exercise as a reflection of these peripheral adaptations. Under this model, muscle tissues release chemical signals into the bloodstream, and the rest of the body responds to that muscular stress.
However, the central nervous system maintains an expansive network for sensing and regulating the body’s daily energy demands. The ventromedial hypothalamus is a region deep in the brain that manages energy expenditure, feeding behavior, and blood sugar levels. Within this neural region sits a specific population of neurons that express a protein known as steroidogenic factor-1, or SF1. Because these cells regulate metabolism, researchers suspected they might play an active role in how the body handles the physical stress of a demanding workout.
University of Pennsylvania researcher Morgan Kindel, Providence College researcher Ryan J. Post, and a team of colleagues investigated whether these SF1 neurons respond to physical exertion. The scientists hypothesized that the brain actively coordinates the metabolic remodeling that leads to increased athletic stamina. They designed a series of small studies using mice to test how manipulating this tiny cluster of brain cells would affect overall physical endurance. The resulting data established a feed-forward loop between physical movement and brain plasticity.
The researchers first exposed a small group of mice to a single session of treadmill running and analyzed their brain tissue. They stained the tissue to measure the expression of a gene called Bdnf, which becomes more active when neurons fire. The analysis showed an increase in both the number of SF1 neurons expressing this gene and the total amount of the gene’s transcripts per cell. This initial test indicated that the exercise session successfully stimulated the neural population.
To see what happens when this neural activity is blocked, the team injected a specialized genetic tool into the brains of a small group of mice. This tool produced a tetanus toxin that prevented the SF1 neurons from releasing chemical signals to other cells. When placed on a treadmill stress test that gradually increased in speed, the mice with silenced SF1 neurons reached exhaustion faster than unmodified control mice. The researchers used indirect calorimetry, which measures oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output to track metabolism, and found that the modified mice burned through their carbohydrate stores prematurely rather than relying on fat reserves.
Next, the researchers put the mice through a three-week treadmill training program to see if they could build endurance. The control mice steadily improved their running times and maximum distances over the three weeks. The mice with silenced SF1 neurons failed to build this endurance capacity. An analysis of their leg muscles showed an absence of the genetic changes that typically optimize energy use after regular training, showing that silencing the brain cells halted the muscles’ ability to adapt.
To track how the neurons behaved in real time, the team used tiny head-mounted microscopes to monitor calcium levels in the brains of active mice. Calcium flows into neurons when they fire, providing a visual proxy for cellular activity. During a week of daily training, the researchers observed a specific subset of SF1 neurons that consistently became active right after the exercise ended. Over the course of the week, the repeated training increased both the number of these post-workout neurons and the intensity of their firing.
The researchers then extracted brain tissue from mice that had exercised for three weeks and measured the electrical properties of individual SF1 neurons. Compared to tissue from sedentary mice, the cells from the trained animals were more electrically excitable and fired spontaneous action potentials at a higher rate. High-resolution imaging of the cells’ branches, or dendrites, revealed that the exercised mice had twice as many tiny protrusions called dendritic spines. This structural growth means the neurons had physically adapted to accommodate more synaptic connections.
Because the live imaging showed peak activity right after running, the team tested whether post-workout firing is the primary driver of endurance. They used optogenetics, a technique that allows researchers to turn specific neurons off using targeted light. By delivering light through fiber optic implants, they inhibited SF1 neurons for exactly 15 minutes immediately following each daily treadmill session. This brief post-workout suppression blunted the endurance gains that the mice would normally achieve.
In a final test, the researchers used a different optogenetic setup to artificially stimulate the SF1 neurons for one hour immediately after daily exercise. Activating the cells during this recovery window enhanced the animals’ endurance gains beyond their normal physiological plateau. The artificial stimulation triggered an increase in blood sugar and overall energy expenditure, which the researchers suggest may help initiate the metabolic recovery signals that prepare muscles for future physical stress.
These experiments rely on mouse models running on treadmills, and rodent metabolism does not perfectly map onto human physiology. Human endurance adaptations take place over longer time scales and involve more varied types of physical training. The results show that activating these brain cells is necessary for building stamina in mice, but they do not establish exactly how the brain receives the message that the exercise has stopped.
Identifying the physical pathways that carry signals from fatigued muscles back up to the ventromedial hypothalamus remains a goal for future studies. Researchers will also need to determine if different types of exercise, such as weightlifting or high-intensity interval training, recruit these exact same neural pathways. Mapping out this brain-to-body loop could eventually inform the development of therapeutics for individuals who cannot safely engage in rigorous physical activity.
The study, “Exercise-induced activation of ventromedial hypothalamic steroidogenic factor-1 neurons mediates improvements in endurance,” was published in May 2026. It was authored by Morgan Kindel, Ryan J. Post, Kyle Grose, Louise Lantier, Eunsang Hwang, Jamie R.E. Carty, Lenka Dohnalova´, Lauren Lepeak, Hallie C. Kern, Rachael Villari, Nitsan Goldstein, Emily Lo, Albert Yeung, Lukas Richie, Bridget Skelly, Jenna Golub, Manmeet Rai, Teppei Fujikawa, Julio E. Ayala, Joel K. Elmquist, Christoph A. Thaiss, David H. Wasserman, Kevin W. Williams, Erik B. Bloss, and J. Nicholas Betley.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-brain-s-hidden-role-in-building-exercise-endurance/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BrainEndurance #SF1Neurons #ExerciseNeurology #VentralHypothalamus #Neuroplasticity #PostWorkoutRecovery #BrainBodyConnection #EnduranceTraining #BDNF #Optogenetics
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Scientists reveal the brain’s hidden role in building exercise endurance
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-brain-s-hidden-role-in-building-exercise-endurance/
Repeated physical activity builds endurance by triggering widespread adaptations throughout the human body, but a new study reveals that the brain actually directs these physiological changes. Researchers found that activating a specific cluster of brain cells immediately after a workout is required for mice to increase their physical stamina over time. This discovery flips the traditional view of exercise physiology by showing that structural changes in the brain drive muscle adaptations, rather than just reflecting them. The findings were published in the journal Neuron.
Physiology research on exercise adaptations often focuses on the periphery of the body. When an animal or a human engages in a workout routine, skeletal muscles, the cardiovascular system, and immune function all undergo structural and chemical changes. For years, researchers viewed the brain’s structural changes during exercise as a reflection of these peripheral adaptations. Under this model, muscle tissues release chemical signals into the bloodstream, and the rest of the body responds to that muscular stress.
However, the central nervous system maintains an expansive network for sensing and regulating the body’s daily energy demands. The ventromedial hypothalamus is a region deep in the brain that manages energy expenditure, feeding behavior, and blood sugar levels. Within this neural region sits a specific population of neurons that express a protein known as steroidogenic factor-1, or SF1. Because these cells regulate metabolism, researchers suspected they might play an active role in how the body handles the physical stress of a demanding workout.
University of Pennsylvania researcher Morgan Kindel, Providence College researcher Ryan J. Post, and a team of colleagues investigated whether these SF1 neurons respond to physical exertion. The scientists hypothesized that the brain actively coordinates the metabolic remodeling that leads to increased athletic stamina. They designed a series of small studies using mice to test how manipulating this tiny cluster of brain cells would affect overall physical endurance. The resulting data established a feed-forward loop between physical movement and brain plasticity.
The researchers first exposed a small group of mice to a single session of treadmill running and analyzed their brain tissue. They stained the tissue to measure the expression of a gene called Bdnf, which becomes more active when neurons fire. The analysis showed an increase in both the number of SF1 neurons expressing this gene and the total amount of the gene’s transcripts per cell. This initial test indicated that the exercise session successfully stimulated the neural population.
To see what happens when this neural activity is blocked, the team injected a specialized genetic tool into the brains of a small group of mice. This tool produced a tetanus toxin that prevented the SF1 neurons from releasing chemical signals to other cells. When placed on a treadmill stress test that gradually increased in speed, the mice with silenced SF1 neurons reached exhaustion faster than unmodified control mice. The researchers used indirect calorimetry, which measures oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output to track metabolism, and found that the modified mice burned through their carbohydrate stores prematurely rather than relying on fat reserves.
Next, the researchers put the mice through a three-week treadmill training program to see if they could build endurance. The control mice steadily improved their running times and maximum distances over the three weeks. The mice with silenced SF1 neurons failed to build this endurance capacity. An analysis of their leg muscles showed an absence of the genetic changes that typically optimize energy use after regular training, showing that silencing the brain cells halted the muscles’ ability to adapt.
To track how the neurons behaved in real time, the team used tiny head-mounted microscopes to monitor calcium levels in the brains of active mice. Calcium flows into neurons when they fire, providing a visual proxy for cellular activity. During a week of daily training, the researchers observed a specific subset of SF1 neurons that consistently became active right after the exercise ended. Over the course of the week, the repeated training increased both the number of these post-workout neurons and the intensity of their firing.
The researchers then extracted brain tissue from mice that had exercised for three weeks and measured the electrical properties of individual SF1 neurons. Compared to tissue from sedentary mice, the cells from the trained animals were more electrically excitable and fired spontaneous action potentials at a higher rate. High-resolution imaging of the cells’ branches, or dendrites, revealed that the exercised mice had twice as many tiny protrusions called dendritic spines. This structural growth means the neurons had physically adapted to accommodate more synaptic connections.
Because the live imaging showed peak activity right after running, the team tested whether post-workout firing is the primary driver of endurance. They used optogenetics, a technique that allows researchers to turn specific neurons off using targeted light. By delivering light through fiber optic implants, they inhibited SF1 neurons for exactly 15 minutes immediately following each daily treadmill session. This brief post-workout suppression blunted the endurance gains that the mice would normally achieve.
In a final test, the researchers used a different optogenetic setup to artificially stimulate the SF1 neurons for one hour immediately after daily exercise. Activating the cells during this recovery window enhanced the animals’ endurance gains beyond their normal physiological plateau. The artificial stimulation triggered an increase in blood sugar and overall energy expenditure, which the researchers suggest may help initiate the metabolic recovery signals that prepare muscles for future physical stress.
These experiments rely on mouse models running on treadmills, and rodent metabolism does not perfectly map onto human physiology. Human endurance adaptations take place over longer time scales and involve more varied types of physical training. The results show that activating these brain cells is necessary for building stamina in mice, but they do not establish exactly how the brain receives the message that the exercise has stopped.
Identifying the physical pathways that carry signals from fatigued muscles back up to the ventromedial hypothalamus remains a goal for future studies. Researchers will also need to determine if different types of exercise, such as weightlifting or high-intensity interval training, recruit these exact same neural pathways. Mapping out this brain-to-body loop could eventually inform the development of therapeutics for individuals who cannot safely engage in rigorous physical activity.
The study, “Exercise-induced activation of ventromedial hypothalamic steroidogenic factor-1 neurons mediates improvements in endurance,” was published in May 2026. It was authored by Morgan Kindel, Ryan J. Post, Kyle Grose, Louise Lantier, Eunsang Hwang, Jamie R.E. Carty, Lenka Dohnalova´, Lauren Lepeak, Hallie C. Kern, Rachael Villari, Nitsan Goldstein, Emily Lo, Albert Yeung, Lukas Richie, Bridget Skelly, Jenna Golub, Manmeet Rai, Teppei Fujikawa, Julio E. Ayala, Joel K. Elmquist, Christoph A. Thaiss, David H. Wasserman, Kevin W. Williams, Erik B. Bloss, and J. Nicholas Betley.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-brain-s-hidden-role-in-building-exercise-endurance/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BrainEndurance #SF1Neurons #ExerciseNeurology #VentralHypothalamus #Neuroplasticity #PostWorkoutRecovery #BrainBodyConnection #EnduranceTraining #BDNF #Optogenetics
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 05:02AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: A.I. Anxiety Is Showing Up in Therapy
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/well/mind/ai-anxiety-therapy-artificial-intelligence.html
Patients and providers are processing their uncertainty in real time.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/well/mind/ai-anxiety-therapy-artificial-intelligence.html
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AIanxiety #therapy #mentalhealth #AItakesover #digitalwellness #mentalhealthawareness #therapytools #anxietyrelief #psychiatry #technologyintherapy
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 05:02AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: A.I. Anxiety Is Showing Up in Therapy
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/well/mind/ai-anxiety-therapy-artificial-intelligence.html
Patients and providers are processing their uncertainty in real time.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/well/mind/ai-anxiety-therapy-artificial-intelligence.html
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AIanxiety #therapy #mentalhealth #AItakesover #digitalwellness #mentalhealthawareness #therapytools #anxietyrelief #psychiatry #technologyintherapy
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 05:02AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: A.I. Anxiety Is Showing Up in Therapy
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/well/mind/ai-anxiety-therapy-artificial-intelligence.html
Patients and providers are processing their uncertainty in real time.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/well/mind/ai-anxiety-therapy-artificial-intelligence.html
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AIanxiety #therapy #mentalhealth #AItakesover #digitalwellness #mentalhealthawareness #therapytools #anxietyrelief #psychiatry #technologyintherapy
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 05:02AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: A.I. Anxiety Is Showing Up in Therapy
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/well/mind/ai-anxiety-therapy-artificial-intelligence.html
Patients and providers are processing their uncertainty in real time.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/well/mind/ai-anxiety-therapy-artificial-intelligence.html
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AIanxiety #therapy #mentalhealth #AItakesover #digitalwellness #mentalhealthawareness #therapytools #anxietyrelief #psychiatry #technologyintherapy
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Longitudinal study highlights the enduring toll of childhood loneliness and social isolation
A new study published in Development and Psychopathology indicates that experiencing loneliness during childhood does not help socially isolated youth reconnect with others later on. Instead, childhood loneliness and social isolation independently predict a range of mental health and socioeconomic difficulties in young adulthood. The findings challenge the idea that feeling lonely serves as a helpful biological alarm bell that pushes young people to repair their social bonds.
To understand the study, it helps to distinguish between two related concepts: social isolation and loneliness. Social isolation is the objective, physical reality of lacking positive social relationships and a support network. In childhood and adolescence, this often looks like social withdrawal and peer rejection. Loneliness, on the other hand, is the subjective, internal feeling of being dissatisfied with the quality or quantity of one’s relationships.
A person can be surrounded by peers but still feel lonely, or they can spend a lot of time by themselves without feeling lonely at all. For example, a study covered by PsyPost in 2026 found that teenagers who spend more time in physical solitude are not necessarily lonelier overall, highlighting the difference between temporary alone time and structural social isolation.
Past research has debated how these two social deficits influence one another. A 2013 paper proposed an evolutionary theory suggesting that loneliness acts as an adaptive warning signal, motivating individuals to seek out companionship and escape the dangers of isolation. At the same time, a 2018 study of middle-aged and older adults in Germany found that loneliness and social isolation interacted to predict mortality, with each amplifying the other’s effect.
The research team, led by Bridget T. Bryan and Louise Arseneault of King’s College London, wanted to directly test these competing ideas during the transition from childhood to adulthood.
“Although there is a large body of evidence that loneliness has negative consequences for health and wellbeing, some influential theories suggest that loneliness also serves a useful purpose by motivating socially isolated people to rebuild their social connections,” Bryan, a research fellow at King’s College London’s Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, told PsyPost. “They argue that loneliness is a bit like hunger: an uncomfortable experience that signals to us that a basic need isn’t being met and motivates us to act on it. In this case, loneliness signals that we have unmet social needs, and pushes us to connect with others.”
“But few studies have tested whether this plays out in the long term, partly because loneliness and social isolation are rarely measured together,” Bryan said. To address this gap, the researchers designed a study to track whether loneliness actually helps isolated children reconnect over time, and whether facing both loneliness and isolation simultaneously creates a magnified penalty for a person’s future well-being. “We also wanted to better understand how loneliness and isolation work together and separately to shape a young person’s health, wellbeing, education and employment as they grow up,” she added.
To do this, the researchers used data from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, which follows 2,232 twins born in England and Wales in 1994 and 1995. The sample is nationally representative, covering a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, and consists of 49% male and 90% White participants. The team collected data on the participants at two key developmental stages: age 12 and age 18.
At age 12, the researchers gathered data on social isolation by asking mothers and teachers to rate the children’s social withdrawal and the extent to which they were rejected by peers. The 12-year-olds also filled out a questionnaire to self-report their own feelings of loneliness. At age 18, the participants self-reported both their loneliness and their level of social isolation, which was measured by asking about their access to supportive relationships with family and friends.
The team also assessed a wide array of life outcomes when the participants reached age 18. These included mental health indicators, such as depression and anxiety symptoms. They also measured general well-being, like life satisfaction and sleep quality, along with health behaviors such as smoking and alcohol use. Finally, they evaluated socioeconomic outcomes, tracking the participants’ educational achievements, employability, and whether they were currently out of school and out of work.
The researchers found that loneliness and social isolation feed into each other over time, rather than correcting one another. Children who felt lonely at age 12 tended to be more socially isolated at age 18, and this effect was about twice as strong as the reverse, where children who were socially isolated at age 12 reported higher levels of loneliness as young adults.
This does not support the evolutionary theory that loneliness acts as a helpful alarm bell. Isolated children who experienced high loneliness went on to experience high levels of social isolation as young adults, just like their peers who were isolated but not lonely. The distress of loneliness did not seem to help these youths successfully build or rebuild social connections over the six-year period. “Rather than assuming these children will find their own way through it, our findings suggest loneliness and social isolation may need to be tackled directly,” Bryan noted.
The study also evaluated how these two social deficits impact later life outcomes. Both loneliness and isolation at age 12 independently predicted poorer mental health, worse well-being, and lower socioeconomic standing at age 18. While most mental health links held even after accounting for childhood mental health and personality, childhood isolation’s link to depression and loneliness’s link to anxiety disappeared when these earlier factors were considered. However, childhood social isolation remained linked to every future socioeconomic outcome. “Each mattered in its own right, not just because they tend to occur together,” Bryan explained.
The impact on a participant’s future career prospects proved especially dramatic. “Social isolation was particularly important for education and employment outcomes more socially isolated secondary school students went on to have fewer qualifications and be less employable in young adulthood than their less isolated peers,” the researcher continued. “The risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) was particularly striking: the most isolated children had around 2.4 times the odds of being NEET at 18, compared with their peers.”
Interestingly, the researchers did not find evidence of a compounded penalty. Young people who were both highly lonely and highly isolated struggled with similar levels of mental health and socioeconomic difficulties as those who experienced only one of the issues. For well-being and socioeconomic outcomes, the authors described this as a potential ceiling effect. For children who reported the highest levels of loneliness, being socially isolated did not add much extra damage to their well-being or socioeconomic outcomes, possibly because those outcomes were already heavily affected, or because loneliness and isolation work through similar pathways.
Despite this ceiling effect, the sheer impact of isolation alone stood out to the research team. “What surprised us most was the strength of the association between social isolation and poor education and employment outcomes,” Bryan said. “We didn’t expect it to be quite this strong two to three times stronger than for other well-established risk factors, like childhood depression or anxiety.”
This finding highlights a potential blind spot in how society addresses youth employment. “Given how much public and policy attention youth employment is getting right now, it was striking to find social isolation playing such a large role, when most current strategies focus on skills and job opportunities instead,” she added.
These long-term impacts on mental health are in line with research covered by PsyPost previously. For example, a study covered by PsyPost in 2025 tracked youth into adulthood and found that adolescent loneliness predicted a higher risk for depression and stress-related conditions. In a similar vein, a meta-analysis covered by PsyPost in 2022 highlighted a steady link between youth loneliness and depressive symptoms across different ages and genders. However, while that review measured depressive symptoms at a single point in time, the new study tracked broader mental health longitudinally into young adulthood.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. The study measured loneliness and social isolation only at two points in time, separated by six years. This large gap makes it impossible to know if short, temporary bursts of loneliness might act differently than long-term, persistent loneliness. The evolutionary theory suggests that mild, fleeting loneliness might prompt social connection, but this study could not track daily or weekly fluctuations.
The researchers also used different measurement tools at age 12 compared to age 18. This was done to ensure the questions were appropriate for the participants’ changing developmental stages, but it makes it slightly harder to compare their social experiences directly across time.
There are a few things to keep in mind regarding the study sample. Because all participants are twins, their social experiences might look slightly different from those of single children. Twins grow up with a sibling of the exact same age, which could influence how they interact with peers and experience feelings of isolation or companionship.
Going forward, the team hopes to identify the mechanisms that prevent lonely youth from rebuilding their networks. “We’d like to better understand why loneliness doesn’t seem to help isolated children reconnect for example, whether this is because they withdraw rather than reach out, or because other difficulties that often go along with loneliness (like social difficulties or anxiety) make attempts to reconnect less successful,” Bryan said.
The researchers also want to expand their timeline. “It would also be important to look at how loneliness and isolation relate to each other across different stages of life,” Bryan noted. “Our study focused on childhood and adolescence, but loneliness and social isolation matter at all stages of life.”
The study, “Investigating the interplay of loneliness and social isolation across adolescence: Findings from a nationally representative longitudinal study,” was authored by Bridget T. Bryan, Katherine N. Thompson, Helen L. Fisher, Timothy Matthews, Barry Milne, and Louise Arseneault.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ChildhoodLoneliness #SocialIsolation #LonelinessVsIsolation #AdolescentMentalHealth #EducationAndEmployment #NEETRisk #LonelinessLongTermEffects #TwinStudy #EnvironmentalRiskLongitudinalStudy #MentalHealthResearch
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Longitudinal study highlights the enduring toll of childhood loneliness and social isolation
A new study published in Development and Psychopathology indicates that experiencing loneliness during childhood does not help socially isolated youth reconnect with others later on. Instead, childhood loneliness and social isolation independently predict a range of mental health and socioeconomic difficulties in young adulthood. The findings challenge the idea that feeling lonely serves as a helpful biological alarm bell that pushes young people to repair their social bonds.
To understand the study, it helps to distinguish between two related concepts: social isolation and loneliness. Social isolation is the objective, physical reality of lacking positive social relationships and a support network. In childhood and adolescence, this often looks like social withdrawal and peer rejection. Loneliness, on the other hand, is the subjective, internal feeling of being dissatisfied with the quality or quantity of one’s relationships.
A person can be surrounded by peers but still feel lonely, or they can spend a lot of time by themselves without feeling lonely at all. For example, a study covered by PsyPost in 2026 found that teenagers who spend more time in physical solitude are not necessarily lonelier overall, highlighting the difference between temporary alone time and structural social isolation.
Past research has debated how these two social deficits influence one another. A 2013 paper proposed an evolutionary theory suggesting that loneliness acts as an adaptive warning signal, motivating individuals to seek out companionship and escape the dangers of isolation. At the same time, a 2018 study of middle-aged and older adults in Germany found that loneliness and social isolation interacted to predict mortality, with each amplifying the other’s effect.
The research team, led by Bridget T. Bryan and Louise Arseneault of King’s College London, wanted to directly test these competing ideas during the transition from childhood to adulthood.
“Although there is a large body of evidence that loneliness has negative consequences for health and wellbeing, some influential theories suggest that loneliness also serves a useful purpose by motivating socially isolated people to rebuild their social connections,” Bryan, a research fellow at King’s College London’s Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, told PsyPost. “They argue that loneliness is a bit like hunger: an uncomfortable experience that signals to us that a basic need isn’t being met and motivates us to act on it. In this case, loneliness signals that we have unmet social needs, and pushes us to connect with others.”
“But few studies have tested whether this plays out in the long term, partly because loneliness and social isolation are rarely measured together,” Bryan said. To address this gap, the researchers designed a study to track whether loneliness actually helps isolated children reconnect over time, and whether facing both loneliness and isolation simultaneously creates a magnified penalty for a person’s future well-being. “We also wanted to better understand how loneliness and isolation work together and separately to shape a young person’s health, wellbeing, education and employment as they grow up,” she added.
To do this, the researchers used data from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, which follows 2,232 twins born in England and Wales in 1994 and 1995. The sample is nationally representative, covering a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, and consists of 49% male and 90% White participants. The team collected data on the participants at two key developmental stages: age 12 and age 18.
At age 12, the researchers gathered data on social isolation by asking mothers and teachers to rate the children’s social withdrawal and the extent to which they were rejected by peers. The 12-year-olds also filled out a questionnaire to self-report their own feelings of loneliness. At age 18, the participants self-reported both their loneliness and their level of social isolation, which was measured by asking about their access to supportive relationships with family and friends.
The team also assessed a wide array of life outcomes when the participants reached age 18. These included mental health indicators, such as depression and anxiety symptoms. They also measured general well-being, like life satisfaction and sleep quality, along with health behaviors such as smoking and alcohol use. Finally, they evaluated socioeconomic outcomes, tracking the participants’ educational achievements, employability, and whether they were currently out of school and out of work.
The researchers found that loneliness and social isolation feed into each other over time, rather than correcting one another. Children who felt lonely at age 12 tended to be more socially isolated at age 18, and this effect was about twice as strong as the reverse, where children who were socially isolated at age 12 reported higher levels of loneliness as young adults.
This does not support the evolutionary theory that loneliness acts as a helpful alarm bell. Isolated children who experienced high loneliness went on to experience high levels of social isolation as young adults, just like their peers who were isolated but not lonely. The distress of loneliness did not seem to help these youths successfully build or rebuild social connections over the six-year period. “Rather than assuming these children will find their own way through it, our findings suggest loneliness and social isolation may need to be tackled directly,” Bryan noted.
The study also evaluated how these two social deficits impact later life outcomes. Both loneliness and isolation at age 12 independently predicted poorer mental health, worse well-being, and lower socioeconomic standing at age 18. While most mental health links held even after accounting for childhood mental health and personality, childhood isolation’s link to depression and loneliness’s link to anxiety disappeared when these earlier factors were considered. However, childhood social isolation remained linked to every future socioeconomic outcome. “Each mattered in its own right, not just because they tend to occur together,” Bryan explained.
The impact on a participant’s future career prospects proved especially dramatic. “Social isolation was particularly important for education and employment outcomes more socially isolated secondary school students went on to have fewer qualifications and be less employable in young adulthood than their less isolated peers,” the researcher continued. “The risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) was particularly striking: the most isolated children had around 2.4 times the odds of being NEET at 18, compared with their peers.”
Interestingly, the researchers did not find evidence of a compounded penalty. Young people who were both highly lonely and highly isolated struggled with similar levels of mental health and socioeconomic difficulties as those who experienced only one of the issues. For well-being and socioeconomic outcomes, the authors described this as a potential ceiling effect. For children who reported the highest levels of loneliness, being socially isolated did not add much extra damage to their well-being or socioeconomic outcomes, possibly because those outcomes were already heavily affected, or because loneliness and isolation work through similar pathways.
Despite this ceiling effect, the sheer impact of isolation alone stood out to the research team. “What surprised us most was the strength of the association between social isolation and poor education and employment outcomes,” Bryan said. “We didn’t expect it to be quite this strong two to three times stronger than for other well-established risk factors, like childhood depression or anxiety.”
This finding highlights a potential blind spot in how society addresses youth employment. “Given how much public and policy attention youth employment is getting right now, it was striking to find social isolation playing such a large role, when most current strategies focus on skills and job opportunities instead,” she added.
These long-term impacts on mental health are in line with research covered by PsyPost previously. For example, a study covered by PsyPost in 2025 tracked youth into adulthood and found that adolescent loneliness predicted a higher risk for depression and stress-related conditions. In a similar vein, a meta-analysis covered by PsyPost in 2022 highlighted a steady link between youth loneliness and depressive symptoms across different ages and genders. However, while that review measured depressive symptoms at a single point in time, the new study tracked broader mental health longitudinally into young adulthood.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. The study measured loneliness and social isolation only at two points in time, separated by six years. This large gap makes it impossible to know if short, temporary bursts of loneliness might act differently than long-term, persistent loneliness. The evolutionary theory suggests that mild, fleeting loneliness might prompt social connection, but this study could not track daily or weekly fluctuations.
The researchers also used different measurement tools at age 12 compared to age 18. This was done to ensure the questions were appropriate for the participants’ changing developmental stages, but it makes it slightly harder to compare their social experiences directly across time.
There are a few things to keep in mind regarding the study sample. Because all participants are twins, their social experiences might look slightly different from those of single children. Twins grow up with a sibling of the exact same age, which could influence how they interact with peers and experience feelings of isolation or companionship.
Going forward, the team hopes to identify the mechanisms that prevent lonely youth from rebuilding their networks. “We’d like to better understand why loneliness doesn’t seem to help isolated children reconnect for example, whether this is because they withdraw rather than reach out, or because other difficulties that often go along with loneliness (like social difficulties or anxiety) make attempts to reconnect less successful,” Bryan said.
The researchers also want to expand their timeline. “It would also be important to look at how loneliness and isolation relate to each other across different stages of life,” Bryan noted. “Our study focused on childhood and adolescence, but loneliness and social isolation matter at all stages of life.”
The study, “Investigating the interplay of loneliness and social isolation across adolescence: Findings from a nationally representative longitudinal study,” was authored by Bridget T. Bryan, Katherine N. Thompson, Helen L. Fisher, Timothy Matthews, Barry Milne, and Louise Arseneault.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ChildhoodLoneliness #SocialIsolation #LonelinessVsIsolation #AdolescentMentalHealth #EducationAndEmployment #NEETRisk #LonelinessLongTermEffects #TwinStudy #EnvironmentalRiskLongitudinalStudy #MentalHealthResearch
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Longitudinal study highlights the enduring toll of childhood loneliness and social isolation
A new study published in Development and Psychopathology indicates that experiencing loneliness during childhood does not help socially isolated youth reconnect with others later on. Instead, childhood loneliness and social isolation independently predict a range of mental health and socioeconomic difficulties in young adulthood. The findings challenge the idea that feeling lonely serves as a helpful biological alarm bell that pushes young people to repair their social bonds.
To understand the study, it helps to distinguish between two related concepts: social isolation and loneliness. Social isolation is the objective, physical reality of lacking positive social relationships and a support network. In childhood and adolescence, this often looks like social withdrawal and peer rejection. Loneliness, on the other hand, is the subjective, internal feeling of being dissatisfied with the quality or quantity of one’s relationships.
A person can be surrounded by peers but still feel lonely, or they can spend a lot of time by themselves without feeling lonely at all. For example, a study covered by PsyPost in 2026 found that teenagers who spend more time in physical solitude are not necessarily lonelier overall, highlighting the difference between temporary alone time and structural social isolation.
Past research has debated how these two social deficits influence one another. A 2013 paper proposed an evolutionary theory suggesting that loneliness acts as an adaptive warning signal, motivating individuals to seek out companionship and escape the dangers of isolation. At the same time, a 2018 study of middle-aged and older adults in Germany found that loneliness and social isolation interacted to predict mortality, with each amplifying the other’s effect.
The research team, led by Bridget T. Bryan and Louise Arseneault of King’s College London, wanted to directly test these competing ideas during the transition from childhood to adulthood.
“Although there is a large body of evidence that loneliness has negative consequences for health and wellbeing, some influential theories suggest that loneliness also serves a useful purpose by motivating socially isolated people to rebuild their social connections,” Bryan, a research fellow at King’s College London’s Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, told PsyPost. “They argue that loneliness is a bit like hunger: an uncomfortable experience that signals to us that a basic need isn’t being met and motivates us to act on it. In this case, loneliness signals that we have unmet social needs, and pushes us to connect with others.”
“But few studies have tested whether this plays out in the long term, partly because loneliness and social isolation are rarely measured together,” Bryan said. To address this gap, the researchers designed a study to track whether loneliness actually helps isolated children reconnect over time, and whether facing both loneliness and isolation simultaneously creates a magnified penalty for a person’s future well-being. “We also wanted to better understand how loneliness and isolation work together and separately to shape a young person’s health, wellbeing, education and employment as they grow up,” she added.
To do this, the researchers used data from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, which follows 2,232 twins born in England and Wales in 1994 and 1995. The sample is nationally representative, covering a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, and consists of 49% male and 90% White participants. The team collected data on the participants at two key developmental stages: age 12 and age 18.
At age 12, the researchers gathered data on social isolation by asking mothers and teachers to rate the children’s social withdrawal and the extent to which they were rejected by peers. The 12-year-olds also filled out a questionnaire to self-report their own feelings of loneliness. At age 18, the participants self-reported both their loneliness and their level of social isolation, which was measured by asking about their access to supportive relationships with family and friends.
The team also assessed a wide array of life outcomes when the participants reached age 18. These included mental health indicators, such as depression and anxiety symptoms. They also measured general well-being, like life satisfaction and sleep quality, along with health behaviors such as smoking and alcohol use. Finally, they evaluated socioeconomic outcomes, tracking the participants’ educational achievements, employability, and whether they were currently out of school and out of work.
The researchers found that loneliness and social isolation feed into each other over time, rather than correcting one another. Children who felt lonely at age 12 tended to be more socially isolated at age 18, and this effect was about twice as strong as the reverse, where children who were socially isolated at age 12 reported higher levels of loneliness as young adults.
This does not support the evolutionary theory that loneliness acts as a helpful alarm bell. Isolated children who experienced high loneliness went on to experience high levels of social isolation as young adults, just like their peers who were isolated but not lonely. The distress of loneliness did not seem to help these youths successfully build or rebuild social connections over the six-year period. “Rather than assuming these children will find their own way through it, our findings suggest loneliness and social isolation may need to be tackled directly,” Bryan noted.
The study also evaluated how these two social deficits impact later life outcomes. Both loneliness and isolation at age 12 independently predicted poorer mental health, worse well-being, and lower socioeconomic standing at age 18. While most mental health links held even after accounting for childhood mental health and personality, childhood isolation’s link to depression and loneliness’s link to anxiety disappeared when these earlier factors were considered. However, childhood social isolation remained linked to every future socioeconomic outcome. “Each mattered in its own right, not just because they tend to occur together,” Bryan explained.
The impact on a participant’s future career prospects proved especially dramatic. “Social isolation was particularly important for education and employment outcomes more socially isolated secondary school students went on to have fewer qualifications and be less employable in young adulthood than their less isolated peers,” the researcher continued. “The risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) was particularly striking: the most isolated children had around 2.4 times the odds of being NEET at 18, compared with their peers.”
Interestingly, the researchers did not find evidence of a compounded penalty. Young people who were both highly lonely and highly isolated struggled with similar levels of mental health and socioeconomic difficulties as those who experienced only one of the issues. For well-being and socioeconomic outcomes, the authors described this as a potential ceiling effect. For children who reported the highest levels of loneliness, being socially isolated did not add much extra damage to their well-being or socioeconomic outcomes, possibly because those outcomes were already heavily affected, or because loneliness and isolation work through similar pathways.
Despite this ceiling effect, the sheer impact of isolation alone stood out to the research team. “What surprised us most was the strength of the association between social isolation and poor education and employment outcomes,” Bryan said. “We didn’t expect it to be quite this strong two to three times stronger than for other well-established risk factors, like childhood depression or anxiety.”
This finding highlights a potential blind spot in how society addresses youth employment. “Given how much public and policy attention youth employment is getting right now, it was striking to find social isolation playing such a large role, when most current strategies focus on skills and job opportunities instead,” she added.
These long-term impacts on mental health are in line with research covered by PsyPost previously. For example, a study covered by PsyPost in 2025 tracked youth into adulthood and found that adolescent loneliness predicted a higher risk for depression and stress-related conditions. In a similar vein, a meta-analysis covered by PsyPost in 2022 highlighted a steady link between youth loneliness and depressive symptoms across different ages and genders. However, while that review measured depressive symptoms at a single point in time, the new study tracked broader mental health longitudinally into young adulthood.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. The study measured loneliness and social isolation only at two points in time, separated by six years. This large gap makes it impossible to know if short, temporary bursts of loneliness might act differently than long-term, persistent loneliness. The evolutionary theory suggests that mild, fleeting loneliness might prompt social connection, but this study could not track daily or weekly fluctuations.
The researchers also used different measurement tools at age 12 compared to age 18. This was done to ensure the questions were appropriate for the participants’ changing developmental stages, but it makes it slightly harder to compare their social experiences directly across time.
There are a few things to keep in mind regarding the study sample. Because all participants are twins, their social experiences might look slightly different from those of single children. Twins grow up with a sibling of the exact same age, which could influence how they interact with peers and experience feelings of isolation or companionship.
Going forward, the team hopes to identify the mechanisms that prevent lonely youth from rebuilding their networks. “We’d like to better understand why loneliness doesn’t seem to help isolated children reconnect for example, whether this is because they withdraw rather than reach out, or because other difficulties that often go along with loneliness (like social difficulties or anxiety) make attempts to reconnect less successful,” Bryan said.
The researchers also want to expand their timeline. “It would also be important to look at how loneliness and isolation relate to each other across different stages of life,” Bryan noted. “Our study focused on childhood and adolescence, but loneliness and social isolation matter at all stages of life.”
The study, “Investigating the interplay of loneliness and social isolation across adolescence: Findings from a nationally representative longitudinal study,” was authored by Bridget T. Bryan, Katherine N. Thompson, Helen L. Fisher, Timothy Matthews, Barry Milne, and Louise Arseneault.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ChildhoodLoneliness #SocialIsolation #LonelinessVsIsolation #AdolescentMentalHealth #EducationAndEmployment #NEETRisk #LonelinessLongTermEffects #TwinStudy #EnvironmentalRiskLongitudinalStudy #MentalHealthResearch
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Financial and relationship worries predict bad dreams
URL: https://www.psypost.org/daytime-stress-predicts-negative-emotions-during-sleep/
People experiencing high levels of stress during their waking hours are more likely to experience negative emotions while they dream. However, the specific coping strategies people use to manage daytime stress do not appear to alter these nocturnal emotional responses. These findings were published in the journal Dreaming.
Psychologists often frame the relationship between daily life and sleep through a concept known as the Continuity Hypothesis. This idea suggests that a person’s waking experiences, thoughts, and feelings carry over directly into their dream content. If someone experiences a highly stressful event at work or in their personal life, those same anxious or fearful emotions are expected to surface while they sleep.
Stress is a common psychological experience, but individuals manage it in vastly different ways. This management process is known as coping. Coping strategies are generally divided into adaptive and maladaptive categories.
Adaptive methods are considered healthy and constructive. They include seeking social support from friends, focusing on positive thoughts, keeping faith, or engaging in active problem solving to remove the source of the stress.
Maladaptive methods are less constructive and can sometimes worsen the original problem. These behaviors often involve avoiding the issue or engaging in harmful habits, such as excessive alcohol consumption or smoking. Both types of coping shape how individuals experience waking distress, and researchers are curious if these habits also shape the subconscious mind.
Some psychological theories propose that dreaming itself acts as an overnight coping mechanism. Known as the Mastery Hypothesis, this idea posits that dreams help the brain process difficult waking events in a safe, offline environment. By simulating stressful scenarios, the mind might be trying to practice emotional regulation or problem solving.
Past research has established a firm connection between daily distress and the frequency of nightmares. Less is known about whether the waking behaviors people use to handle stress might influence the emotional tone of their dreams at night. Psychologist Jonas Mathes of SRH University Heidelberg and his colleagues designed a study to test whether specific daytime coping strategies could buffer the effects of stress on negative dream emotions.
The research team recruited 65 participants, ranging in age from 17 to 61, primarily through social media advertisements. The vast majority of the participants were female, and most were currently enrolled as students. Before beginning the main observation period, the participants completed a comprehensive survey assessing their current levels of daily stress.
This initial questionnaire asked participants to rate their burdens across various domains of life, including financial problems, performance pressure at work or school, and uncertainties regarding their health. It also asked them to identify the coping strategies they typically use to handle these difficult situations. The strategies were sorted into adaptive categories, like positive thinking and social support, and maladaptive categories, which the survey defined exclusively as increased alcohol and cigarette consumption.
After finishing the survey, participants were instructed to keep a structured online dream diary for 14 consecutive days. Each morning, they recorded whether they remembered their dreams and rated the intensity of any positive or negative emotions they experienced while sleeping on a scale from zero to three.
The diary also asked participants to note the specific types of emotions present in their dreams. They could select from fear, sadness, contempt, joy, anger, disgust, and surprise, with multiple selections allowed per night. Finally, the participants indicated whether they intuitively felt the dream was a nightmare, relying on their own personal interpretation rather than a strict clinical definition.
Over the two-week period, the participants recorded a total of 276 dreams. The emotions of surprise and joy were the most frequently reported, appearing in the majority of the dream entries. However, participants reported primary negative emotions, such as fear, sadness, contempt, anger, or disgust, in 39 percent of their dream reports.
Out of all the recorded dreams, approximately 11 percent were classified by the dreamers as nightmares. The frequency of these self-described nightmares was closely tied to negative dream emotions, particularly feelings of anger. Nightmares were also inversely associated with feelings of joy, meaning dreams labeled as nightmares tended to contain less joy.
When analyzing the questionnaire data alongside the dream diaries, the researchers found that waking-life distress was a predictable indicator of negative emotions during sleep. Participants who reported higher levels of daily stress were more likely to experience intense negative emotions in their dreams.
The researchers looked at specific sources of waking stress to see which had the strongest carryover effect. They found that interpersonal and financial worries were the most closely linked to bad dreams. Specifically, uncertainties regarding family, friends, romantic relationships, and debt had the strongest associations with negative dream emotions.
The research team then evaluated whether coping strategies modified this emotional carryover. They anticipated that adaptive daytime coping might reduce the occurrence of negative dreams, while maladaptive coping might exacerbate them. However, the influence of both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies on negative dream emotions was not statistically significant.
Participants who frequently relied on social support or positive thinking did not predictably experience fewer negative emotions in their sleep compared to those who did not. Similarly, the use of alcohol or cigarettes to cope with stress did not produce a statistically significant increase in negative dream emotions. The way a person managed their stress during the day did not seem to change how that stress manifested at night.
The study relies heavily on self-reported data entered retrospectively each morning. This approach means the results could be influenced by memory errors, as people often struggle to recall the exact emotional nuances of their dreams upon waking. A participant might remember a dream as frightening in the morning, even if the fear was only a minor component of the actual dream experience.
The sample size was also relatively constrained and consisted mainly of younger adult students recruited online. This demographic makeup might limit how well the findings apply to the broader population, as older adults or non-students might experience different types of stress or rely on different coping mechanisms. The overall frequency of nightmares in the sample was also quite low, which made it difficult to draw definitive conclusions about nightmare disorders.
The measurement tool used to track maladaptive coping only asked about alcohol and cigarette consumption. People use many other less healthy strategies to manage stress, such as overeating, behavioral avoidance, or social withdrawal, which were not captured by the questionnaire.
Future research could expand on these behavioral measures by utilizing a wider array of maladaptive coping descriptions. Researchers could also focus specifically on individuals who experience frequent, severe nightmares to better understand how daily coping mechanisms interact with sleep. Tracking participants over a longer period, such as a full month, could also provide a better picture of how fluctuating stress levels alter the dream landscape.
The study, “Coping Strategies and Dreams: The Impact of Waking-Life Distress on Negative Dream Emotions,” was authored by Jonas Mathes, Eileen Hizal-Keul, and Nadia Sosnowsky-Waschek.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/daytime-stress-predicts-negative-emotions-during-sleep/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #stressanddreams #nightmares #dreamemotion #sleepstudy #continuityhypothesis #copingstrategies #financialworries #interpersonalstress #negativeemotions #DreamingJournal
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Financial and relationship worries predict bad dreams
URL: https://www.psypost.org/daytime-stress-predicts-negative-emotions-during-sleep/
People experiencing high levels of stress during their waking hours are more likely to experience negative emotions while they dream. However, the specific coping strategies people use to manage daytime stress do not appear to alter these nocturnal emotional responses. These findings were published in the journal Dreaming.
Psychologists often frame the relationship between daily life and sleep through a concept known as the Continuity Hypothesis. This idea suggests that a person’s waking experiences, thoughts, and feelings carry over directly into their dream content. If someone experiences a highly stressful event at work or in their personal life, those same anxious or fearful emotions are expected to surface while they sleep.
Stress is a common psychological experience, but individuals manage it in vastly different ways. This management process is known as coping. Coping strategies are generally divided into adaptive and maladaptive categories.
Adaptive methods are considered healthy and constructive. They include seeking social support from friends, focusing on positive thoughts, keeping faith, or engaging in active problem solving to remove the source of the stress.
Maladaptive methods are less constructive and can sometimes worsen the original problem. These behaviors often involve avoiding the issue or engaging in harmful habits, such as excessive alcohol consumption or smoking. Both types of coping shape how individuals experience waking distress, and researchers are curious if these habits also shape the subconscious mind.
Some psychological theories propose that dreaming itself acts as an overnight coping mechanism. Known as the Mastery Hypothesis, this idea posits that dreams help the brain process difficult waking events in a safe, offline environment. By simulating stressful scenarios, the mind might be trying to practice emotional regulation or problem solving.
Past research has established a firm connection between daily distress and the frequency of nightmares. Less is known about whether the waking behaviors people use to handle stress might influence the emotional tone of their dreams at night. Psychologist Jonas Mathes of SRH University Heidelberg and his colleagues designed a study to test whether specific daytime coping strategies could buffer the effects of stress on negative dream emotions.
The research team recruited 65 participants, ranging in age from 17 to 61, primarily through social media advertisements. The vast majority of the participants were female, and most were currently enrolled as students. Before beginning the main observation period, the participants completed a comprehensive survey assessing their current levels of daily stress.
This initial questionnaire asked participants to rate their burdens across various domains of life, including financial problems, performance pressure at work or school, and uncertainties regarding their health. It also asked them to identify the coping strategies they typically use to handle these difficult situations. The strategies were sorted into adaptive categories, like positive thinking and social support, and maladaptive categories, which the survey defined exclusively as increased alcohol and cigarette consumption.
After finishing the survey, participants were instructed to keep a structured online dream diary for 14 consecutive days. Each morning, they recorded whether they remembered their dreams and rated the intensity of any positive or negative emotions they experienced while sleeping on a scale from zero to three.
The diary also asked participants to note the specific types of emotions present in their dreams. They could select from fear, sadness, contempt, joy, anger, disgust, and surprise, with multiple selections allowed per night. Finally, the participants indicated whether they intuitively felt the dream was a nightmare, relying on their own personal interpretation rather than a strict clinical definition.
Over the two-week period, the participants recorded a total of 276 dreams. The emotions of surprise and joy were the most frequently reported, appearing in the majority of the dream entries. However, participants reported primary negative emotions, such as fear, sadness, contempt, anger, or disgust, in 39 percent of their dream reports.
Out of all the recorded dreams, approximately 11 percent were classified by the dreamers as nightmares. The frequency of these self-described nightmares was closely tied to negative dream emotions, particularly feelings of anger. Nightmares were also inversely associated with feelings of joy, meaning dreams labeled as nightmares tended to contain less joy.
When analyzing the questionnaire data alongside the dream diaries, the researchers found that waking-life distress was a predictable indicator of negative emotions during sleep. Participants who reported higher levels of daily stress were more likely to experience intense negative emotions in their dreams.
The researchers looked at specific sources of waking stress to see which had the strongest carryover effect. They found that interpersonal and financial worries were the most closely linked to bad dreams. Specifically, uncertainties regarding family, friends, romantic relationships, and debt had the strongest associations with negative dream emotions.
The research team then evaluated whether coping strategies modified this emotional carryover. They anticipated that adaptive daytime coping might reduce the occurrence of negative dreams, while maladaptive coping might exacerbate them. However, the influence of both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies on negative dream emotions was not statistically significant.
Participants who frequently relied on social support or positive thinking did not predictably experience fewer negative emotions in their sleep compared to those who did not. Similarly, the use of alcohol or cigarettes to cope with stress did not produce a statistically significant increase in negative dream emotions. The way a person managed their stress during the day did not seem to change how that stress manifested at night.
The study relies heavily on self-reported data entered retrospectively each morning. This approach means the results could be influenced by memory errors, as people often struggle to recall the exact emotional nuances of their dreams upon waking. A participant might remember a dream as frightening in the morning, even if the fear was only a minor component of the actual dream experience.
The sample size was also relatively constrained and consisted mainly of younger adult students recruited online. This demographic makeup might limit how well the findings apply to the broader population, as older adults or non-students might experience different types of stress or rely on different coping mechanisms. The overall frequency of nightmares in the sample was also quite low, which made it difficult to draw definitive conclusions about nightmare disorders.
The measurement tool used to track maladaptive coping only asked about alcohol and cigarette consumption. People use many other less healthy strategies to manage stress, such as overeating, behavioral avoidance, or social withdrawal, which were not captured by the questionnaire.
Future research could expand on these behavioral measures by utilizing a wider array of maladaptive coping descriptions. Researchers could also focus specifically on individuals who experience frequent, severe nightmares to better understand how daily coping mechanisms interact with sleep. Tracking participants over a longer period, such as a full month, could also provide a better picture of how fluctuating stress levels alter the dream landscape.
The study, “Coping Strategies and Dreams: The Impact of Waking-Life Distress on Negative Dream Emotions,” was authored by Jonas Mathes, Eileen Hizal-Keul, and Nadia Sosnowsky-Waschek.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/daytime-stress-predicts-negative-emotions-during-sleep/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #stressanddreams #nightmares #dreamemotion #sleepstudy #continuityhypothesis #copingstrategies #financialworries #interpersonalstress #negativeemotions #DreamingJournal
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Financial and relationship worries predict bad dreams
URL: https://www.psypost.org/daytime-stress-predicts-negative-emotions-during-sleep/
People experiencing high levels of stress during their waking hours are more likely to experience negative emotions while they dream. However, the specific coping strategies people use to manage daytime stress do not appear to alter these nocturnal emotional responses. These findings were published in the journal Dreaming.
Psychologists often frame the relationship between daily life and sleep through a concept known as the Continuity Hypothesis. This idea suggests that a person’s waking experiences, thoughts, and feelings carry over directly into their dream content. If someone experiences a highly stressful event at work or in their personal life, those same anxious or fearful emotions are expected to surface while they sleep.
Stress is a common psychological experience, but individuals manage it in vastly different ways. This management process is known as coping. Coping strategies are generally divided into adaptive and maladaptive categories.
Adaptive methods are considered healthy and constructive. They include seeking social support from friends, focusing on positive thoughts, keeping faith, or engaging in active problem solving to remove the source of the stress.
Maladaptive methods are less constructive and can sometimes worsen the original problem. These behaviors often involve avoiding the issue or engaging in harmful habits, such as excessive alcohol consumption or smoking. Both types of coping shape how individuals experience waking distress, and researchers are curious if these habits also shape the subconscious mind.
Some psychological theories propose that dreaming itself acts as an overnight coping mechanism. Known as the Mastery Hypothesis, this idea posits that dreams help the brain process difficult waking events in a safe, offline environment. By simulating stressful scenarios, the mind might be trying to practice emotional regulation or problem solving.
Past research has established a firm connection between daily distress and the frequency of nightmares. Less is known about whether the waking behaviors people use to handle stress might influence the emotional tone of their dreams at night. Psychologist Jonas Mathes of SRH University Heidelberg and his colleagues designed a study to test whether specific daytime coping strategies could buffer the effects of stress on negative dream emotions.
The research team recruited 65 participants, ranging in age from 17 to 61, primarily through social media advertisements. The vast majority of the participants were female, and most were currently enrolled as students. Before beginning the main observation period, the participants completed a comprehensive survey assessing their current levels of daily stress.
This initial questionnaire asked participants to rate their burdens across various domains of life, including financial problems, performance pressure at work or school, and uncertainties regarding their health. It also asked them to identify the coping strategies they typically use to handle these difficult situations. The strategies were sorted into adaptive categories, like positive thinking and social support, and maladaptive categories, which the survey defined exclusively as increased alcohol and cigarette consumption.
After finishing the survey, participants were instructed to keep a structured online dream diary for 14 consecutive days. Each morning, they recorded whether they remembered their dreams and rated the intensity of any positive or negative emotions they experienced while sleeping on a scale from zero to three.
The diary also asked participants to note the specific types of emotions present in their dreams. They could select from fear, sadness, contempt, joy, anger, disgust, and surprise, with multiple selections allowed per night. Finally, the participants indicated whether they intuitively felt the dream was a nightmare, relying on their own personal interpretation rather than a strict clinical definition.
Over the two-week period, the participants recorded a total of 276 dreams. The emotions of surprise and joy were the most frequently reported, appearing in the majority of the dream entries. However, participants reported primary negative emotions, such as fear, sadness, contempt, anger, or disgust, in 39 percent of their dream reports.
Out of all the recorded dreams, approximately 11 percent were classified by the dreamers as nightmares. The frequency of these self-described nightmares was closely tied to negative dream emotions, particularly feelings of anger. Nightmares were also inversely associated with feelings of joy, meaning dreams labeled as nightmares tended to contain less joy.
When analyzing the questionnaire data alongside the dream diaries, the researchers found that waking-life distress was a predictable indicator of negative emotions during sleep. Participants who reported higher levels of daily stress were more likely to experience intense negative emotions in their dreams.
The researchers looked at specific sources of waking stress to see which had the strongest carryover effect. They found that interpersonal and financial worries were the most closely linked to bad dreams. Specifically, uncertainties regarding family, friends, romantic relationships, and debt had the strongest associations with negative dream emotions.
The research team then evaluated whether coping strategies modified this emotional carryover. They anticipated that adaptive daytime coping might reduce the occurrence of negative dreams, while maladaptive coping might exacerbate them. However, the influence of both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies on negative dream emotions was not statistically significant.
Participants who frequently relied on social support or positive thinking did not predictably experience fewer negative emotions in their sleep compared to those who did not. Similarly, the use of alcohol or cigarettes to cope with stress did not produce a statistically significant increase in negative dream emotions. The way a person managed their stress during the day did not seem to change how that stress manifested at night.
The study relies heavily on self-reported data entered retrospectively each morning. This approach means the results could be influenced by memory errors, as people often struggle to recall the exact emotional nuances of their dreams upon waking. A participant might remember a dream as frightening in the morning, even if the fear was only a minor component of the actual dream experience.
The sample size was also relatively constrained and consisted mainly of younger adult students recruited online. This demographic makeup might limit how well the findings apply to the broader population, as older adults or non-students might experience different types of stress or rely on different coping mechanisms. The overall frequency of nightmares in the sample was also quite low, which made it difficult to draw definitive conclusions about nightmare disorders.
The measurement tool used to track maladaptive coping only asked about alcohol and cigarette consumption. People use many other less healthy strategies to manage stress, such as overeating, behavioral avoidance, or social withdrawal, which were not captured by the questionnaire.
Future research could expand on these behavioral measures by utilizing a wider array of maladaptive coping descriptions. Researchers could also focus specifically on individuals who experience frequent, severe nightmares to better understand how daily coping mechanisms interact with sleep. Tracking participants over a longer period, such as a full month, could also provide a better picture of how fluctuating stress levels alter the dream landscape.
The study, “Coping Strategies and Dreams: The Impact of Waking-Life Distress on Negative Dream Emotions,” was authored by Jonas Mathes, Eileen Hizal-Keul, and Nadia Sosnowsky-Waschek.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/daytime-stress-predicts-negative-emotions-during-sleep/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #stressanddreams #nightmares #dreamemotion #sleepstudy #continuityhypothesis #copingstrategies #financialworries #interpersonalstress #negativeemotions #DreamingJournal
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The right side of the brain shows more signs of aging than the left, new study suggests
A recent study published in PNAS introduces a new artificial intelligence approach to map how different regions of the human brain age. By analyzing MRI scans in fine detail, the research provides evidence that aging does not happen evenly across the brain, with certain areas showing more advanced biological age in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
Doctors and scientists use Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a technique that uses strong magnetic fields to create detailed images of the body’s internal structures, to estimate a person’s “brain age.” This metric tells us whether a person’s brain looks older or younger than their actual chronological age. An older-looking brain is often a risk factor for cognitive decline and neurodegenerative conditions.
Usually, researchers calculate a single, global brain age. But the human brain is a complex organ made of distinct regions, each handling different tasks. For instance, the frontal lobe is involved in complex decision-making, and the hippocampus plays a role in memory. Because these regions perform differently, they also tend to age at different rates. A single brain age score can hide these regional differences, making it harder to detect early signs of localized damage.
“Our earlier work focused on global brain age, where AI estimates how old a person’s brain appears from an MRI,” study author Andrei Irimia, an associate professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, told PsyPost. “That provides a useful summary, but it reduces the entire brain to a single number, making the result difficult to interpret biologically.”
“We therefore developed local brain age, which asks not only ‘How old does this brain look?’ but ‘How old does each part of this brain look?'” Irimia explained. “The resulting model transforms a structural MRI into a spatial map of local brain age.”
The research, led by Nikhil N. Chaudhari with Irimia and colleagues at the Irimia Lab, aimed to create a more detailed map of brain aging. The authors wanted to measure biological aging at a fine-grained level, breaking the brain down into tiny three-dimensional pixels called voxels. By doing this, they hoped to pinpoint exactly where the brain is aging the fastest and how these specific regional changes relate to cognitive decline.
To build their localized map of brain aging, the scientists trained a deep learning computer model using MRI scans from 14,748 cognitively healthy adults ranging in age from 19 to 100. “Scale and interpretability were important aspects of the project,” Irimia noted. “We trained the model using 14,748 cognitively normal participants from multiple imaging cohorts, exposing it to substantial variation in age, anatomy, and imaging data.”
“Our goal was not simply to produce an AI model with good predictive accuracy, but to generate an output that neuroscientists can map directly back onto brain anatomy,” he said. “In that sense, local brain age is intended to provide a bridge between AI-based prediction and questions about the biology of human aging.”
After training the system, the research team tested it on a separate group of 1,985 individuals from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. This testing group included 1,102 adults with normal cognitive function, 354 with mild cognitive impairment, and 529 with Alzheimer’s disease.
When observing the cognitively healthy adults, the model’s estimates were off by about 5.9 years on average. It identified a distinct pattern of aging across the brain. The frontal and temporal lobes, which are heavily involved in higher-level thinking and memory, exhibited a more advanced biological age compared to regions at the back of the brain, such as the visual processing centers in the occipital lobe.
The researchers also looked closely at the brain’s folded outer layer, the cerebral cortex. They found that the sulci, which are the deep grooves between the folds, appeared biologically older than the gyri, the outward-facing ridges of the folds. On average, the local brain age gap (the difference between the estimated biological age and the person’s actual chronological age) was 0.40 years higher in the sulci. The team also observed that the right hemisphere of the brain generally showed an older biological age than the left hemisphere, a pattern that persisted when the researchers retrained the model on a sample balanced between left- and right-handed people.
“The left–right asymmetry was particularly interesting,” Irimia told PsyPost. “The model estimated systematically higher local brain ages in the right hemisphere than in the left, and this difference remained when we investigated whether handedness in the training data could account for it. We do not yet know what produces this asymmetry, but it raises an interesting question about whether structural aging may differ between the two hemispheres.”
When comparing the groups, the researchers found that patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment had older local brain ages in specific regions known to be affected early in neurodegeneration. In Alzheimer’s patients, subcortical structures like the pallidum and putamen, which help regulate movement and some types of learning, showed brain age gaps about 3.5 to 3.6 years larger than those of cognitively healthy adults. The hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped structure important for forming new memories, appeared more than three years older on average in the Alzheimer’s group compared to the healthy adults.
“The main message is that the brain does not appear to age uniformly,” Irimia said. “Different regions can exhibit different aging patterns within the same person, and these regional differences become more pronounced in cognitive impairment. This gives us a way to move beyond a single estimate of overall brain age and investigate where aging-related structural differences occur.”
The team also analyzed how these localized aging gaps related to performance on cognitive tests. In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, having an older local brain age in regions like the right pallidum strongly correlated with worse scores on general cognitive screening tests and a measure of everyday functioning. These associations were much weaker in people with mild cognitive impairment and largely absent in healthy adults.
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in May 2026, which demonstrated that mapping regional structural changes across the brain with MRI can track neurodegeneration across the progression from healthy aging to Alzheimer’s disease. The new study differs slightly in its approach. The previous research compared scans to an established Alzheimer’s structural vulnerability blueprint, whereas the current model estimates localized biological brain aging at the voxel level without relying on a pre-existing disease map.
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The artificial intelligence model was trained using research-grade MRI scans, which are typically much higher quality than the standard scans taken in everyday clinical settings. It is unknown if the system would perform as accurately on the lower-resolution images typically produced by hospital equipment.
Because of this and other factors, the tool is not yet ready for everyday medical use. “I would view local brain age primarily as a research tool at this stage rather than a clinical test,” Irimia noted. “Its importance is that it provides spatial information that is lost when brain aging is summarized with a single number. The next question is whether these regional patterns can eventually help us understand differences in cognitive aging or predict clinically meaningful trajectories, which will require further longitudinal validation.”
Additionally, the model was trained exclusively on the brains of cognitively healthy adults. The researchers suggest that future versions of the software might benefit from training on the brains of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Including those cases could help the system become more sensitive to specific disease-related changes.
Finally, the study analyzed images captured at a single point in time, with limited follow-up data. Because of this, it is not possible to say whether having an older local brain age directly predicts that a healthy individual will eventually develop cognitive impairment. Tracking individuals over many years with repeated scans is a necessary next step to determine if these local age gaps can serve as an early warning system for dementia.
Irimia echoed this caution against overinterpreting a single scan. “An ‘older’ local brain age does not by itself mean that someone has Alzheimer’s disease or will develop it,” he clarified. “The method identifies structural MRI patterns associated with aging; determining whether it can predict an individual’s future disease trajectory will require longitudinal validation. The longitudinal examples in this study are encouraging, but we regard them as supportive rather than definitive validation.”
Looking forward, the team hopes to uncover the root causes of these regional differences. “A major next step is understanding what local brain age represents biologically,” Irimia told PsyPost. “We want to relate these spatial aging patterns to vascular and cardiovascular health, metabolic factors, lifestyle, and other biomarkers to understand why some regions appear to age faster than others. Longitudinal studies will be particularly important for determining whether changes in local brain age can track aging trajectories and identify factors associated with healthier brain aging.”
The study, “Deep learning maps local brain aging in relation to cognition across human adulthood,” was authored by Nikhil N. Chaudhari, Owen M. Vega Huerta, Samayan Bhattacharya, Nahian F. Chowdhury, Andrei Irimia, and the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BrainAging #LocalBrainAge #MRIAnalysis #Neurodegeneration #AlzheimersResearch #BrainImaging #AgingBrain #CognitiveHealth #Neuroscience #AIinMedicine
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The right side of the brain shows more signs of aging than the left, new study suggests
A recent study published in PNAS introduces a new artificial intelligence approach to map how different regions of the human brain age. By analyzing MRI scans in fine detail, the research provides evidence that aging does not happen evenly across the brain, with certain areas showing more advanced biological age in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
Doctors and scientists use Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a technique that uses strong magnetic fields to create detailed images of the body’s internal structures, to estimate a person’s “brain age.” This metric tells us whether a person’s brain looks older or younger than their actual chronological age. An older-looking brain is often a risk factor for cognitive decline and neurodegenerative conditions.
Usually, researchers calculate a single, global brain age. But the human brain is a complex organ made of distinct regions, each handling different tasks. For instance, the frontal lobe is involved in complex decision-making, and the hippocampus plays a role in memory. Because these regions perform differently, they also tend to age at different rates. A single brain age score can hide these regional differences, making it harder to detect early signs of localized damage.
“Our earlier work focused on global brain age, where AI estimates how old a person’s brain appears from an MRI,” study author Andrei Irimia, an associate professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, told PsyPost. “That provides a useful summary, but it reduces the entire brain to a single number, making the result difficult to interpret biologically.”
“We therefore developed local brain age, which asks not only ‘How old does this brain look?’ but ‘How old does each part of this brain look?'” Irimia explained. “The resulting model transforms a structural MRI into a spatial map of local brain age.”
The research, led by Nikhil N. Chaudhari with Irimia and colleagues at the Irimia Lab, aimed to create a more detailed map of brain aging. The authors wanted to measure biological aging at a fine-grained level, breaking the brain down into tiny three-dimensional pixels called voxels. By doing this, they hoped to pinpoint exactly where the brain is aging the fastest and how these specific regional changes relate to cognitive decline.
To build their localized map of brain aging, the scientists trained a deep learning computer model using MRI scans from 14,748 cognitively healthy adults ranging in age from 19 to 100. “Scale and interpretability were important aspects of the project,” Irimia noted. “We trained the model using 14,748 cognitively normal participants from multiple imaging cohorts, exposing it to substantial variation in age, anatomy, and imaging data.”
“Our goal was not simply to produce an AI model with good predictive accuracy, but to generate an output that neuroscientists can map directly back onto brain anatomy,” he said. “In that sense, local brain age is intended to provide a bridge between AI-based prediction and questions about the biology of human aging.”
After training the system, the research team tested it on a separate group of 1,985 individuals from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. This testing group included 1,102 adults with normal cognitive function, 354 with mild cognitive impairment, and 529 with Alzheimer’s disease.
When observing the cognitively healthy adults, the model’s estimates were off by about 5.9 years on average. It identified a distinct pattern of aging across the brain. The frontal and temporal lobes, which are heavily involved in higher-level thinking and memory, exhibited a more advanced biological age compared to regions at the back of the brain, such as the visual processing centers in the occipital lobe.
The researchers also looked closely at the brain’s folded outer layer, the cerebral cortex. They found that the sulci, which are the deep grooves between the folds, appeared biologically older than the gyri, the outward-facing ridges of the folds. On average, the local brain age gap (the difference between the estimated biological age and the person’s actual chronological age) was 0.40 years higher in the sulci. The team also observed that the right hemisphere of the brain generally showed an older biological age than the left hemisphere, a pattern that persisted when the researchers retrained the model on a sample balanced between left- and right-handed people.
“The left–right asymmetry was particularly interesting,” Irimia told PsyPost. “The model estimated systematically higher local brain ages in the right hemisphere than in the left, and this difference remained when we investigated whether handedness in the training data could account for it. We do not yet know what produces this asymmetry, but it raises an interesting question about whether structural aging may differ between the two hemispheres.”
When comparing the groups, the researchers found that patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment had older local brain ages in specific regions known to be affected early in neurodegeneration. In Alzheimer’s patients, subcortical structures like the pallidum and putamen, which help regulate movement and some types of learning, showed brain age gaps about 3.5 to 3.6 years larger than those of cognitively healthy adults. The hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped structure important for forming new memories, appeared more than three years older on average in the Alzheimer’s group compared to the healthy adults.
“The main message is that the brain does not appear to age uniformly,” Irimia said. “Different regions can exhibit different aging patterns within the same person, and these regional differences become more pronounced in cognitive impairment. This gives us a way to move beyond a single estimate of overall brain age and investigate where aging-related structural differences occur.”
The team also analyzed how these localized aging gaps related to performance on cognitive tests. In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, having an older local brain age in regions like the right pallidum strongly correlated with worse scores on general cognitive screening tests and a measure of everyday functioning. These associations were much weaker in people with mild cognitive impairment and largely absent in healthy adults.
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in May 2026, which demonstrated that mapping regional structural changes across the brain with MRI can track neurodegeneration across the progression from healthy aging to Alzheimer’s disease. The new study differs slightly in its approach. The previous research compared scans to an established Alzheimer’s structural vulnerability blueprint, whereas the current model estimates localized biological brain aging at the voxel level without relying on a pre-existing disease map.
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The artificial intelligence model was trained using research-grade MRI scans, which are typically much higher quality than the standard scans taken in everyday clinical settings. It is unknown if the system would perform as accurately on the lower-resolution images typically produced by hospital equipment.
Because of this and other factors, the tool is not yet ready for everyday medical use. “I would view local brain age primarily as a research tool at this stage rather than a clinical test,” Irimia noted. “Its importance is that it provides spatial information that is lost when brain aging is summarized with a single number. The next question is whether these regional patterns can eventually help us understand differences in cognitive aging or predict clinically meaningful trajectories, which will require further longitudinal validation.”
Additionally, the model was trained exclusively on the brains of cognitively healthy adults. The researchers suggest that future versions of the software might benefit from training on the brains of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Including those cases could help the system become more sensitive to specific disease-related changes.
Finally, the study analyzed images captured at a single point in time, with limited follow-up data. Because of this, it is not possible to say whether having an older local brain age directly predicts that a healthy individual will eventually develop cognitive impairment. Tracking individuals over many years with repeated scans is a necessary next step to determine if these local age gaps can serve as an early warning system for dementia.
Irimia echoed this caution against overinterpreting a single scan. “An ‘older’ local brain age does not by itself mean that someone has Alzheimer’s disease or will develop it,” he clarified. “The method identifies structural MRI patterns associated with aging; determining whether it can predict an individual’s future disease trajectory will require longitudinal validation. The longitudinal examples in this study are encouraging, but we regard them as supportive rather than definitive validation.”
Looking forward, the team hopes to uncover the root causes of these regional differences. “A major next step is understanding what local brain age represents biologically,” Irimia told PsyPost. “We want to relate these spatial aging patterns to vascular and cardiovascular health, metabolic factors, lifestyle, and other biomarkers to understand why some regions appear to age faster than others. Longitudinal studies will be particularly important for determining whether changes in local brain age can track aging trajectories and identify factors associated with healthier brain aging.”
The study, “Deep learning maps local brain aging in relation to cognition across human adulthood,” was authored by Nikhil N. Chaudhari, Owen M. Vega Huerta, Samayan Bhattacharya, Nahian F. Chowdhury, Andrei Irimia, and the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BrainAging #LocalBrainAge #MRIAnalysis #Neurodegeneration #AlzheimersResearch #BrainImaging #AgingBrain #CognitiveHealth #Neuroscience #AIinMedicine
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The right side of the brain shows more signs of aging than the left, new study suggests
A recent study published in PNAS introduces a new artificial intelligence approach to map how different regions of the human brain age. By analyzing MRI scans in fine detail, the research provides evidence that aging does not happen evenly across the brain, with certain areas showing more advanced biological age in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
Doctors and scientists use Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a technique that uses strong magnetic fields to create detailed images of the body’s internal structures, to estimate a person’s “brain age.” This metric tells us whether a person’s brain looks older or younger than their actual chronological age. An older-looking brain is often a risk factor for cognitive decline and neurodegenerative conditions.
Usually, researchers calculate a single, global brain age. But the human brain is a complex organ made of distinct regions, each handling different tasks. For instance, the frontal lobe is involved in complex decision-making, and the hippocampus plays a role in memory. Because these regions perform differently, they also tend to age at different rates. A single brain age score can hide these regional differences, making it harder to detect early signs of localized damage.
“Our earlier work focused on global brain age, where AI estimates how old a person’s brain appears from an MRI,” study author Andrei Irimia, an associate professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, told PsyPost. “That provides a useful summary, but it reduces the entire brain to a single number, making the result difficult to interpret biologically.”
“We therefore developed local brain age, which asks not only ‘How old does this brain look?’ but ‘How old does each part of this brain look?'” Irimia explained. “The resulting model transforms a structural MRI into a spatial map of local brain age.”
The research, led by Nikhil N. Chaudhari with Irimia and colleagues at the Irimia Lab, aimed to create a more detailed map of brain aging. The authors wanted to measure biological aging at a fine-grained level, breaking the brain down into tiny three-dimensional pixels called voxels. By doing this, they hoped to pinpoint exactly where the brain is aging the fastest and how these specific regional changes relate to cognitive decline.
To build their localized map of brain aging, the scientists trained a deep learning computer model using MRI scans from 14,748 cognitively healthy adults ranging in age from 19 to 100. “Scale and interpretability were important aspects of the project,” Irimia noted. “We trained the model using 14,748 cognitively normal participants from multiple imaging cohorts, exposing it to substantial variation in age, anatomy, and imaging data.”
“Our goal was not simply to produce an AI model with good predictive accuracy, but to generate an output that neuroscientists can map directly back onto brain anatomy,” he said. “In that sense, local brain age is intended to provide a bridge between AI-based prediction and questions about the biology of human aging.”
After training the system, the research team tested it on a separate group of 1,985 individuals from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. This testing group included 1,102 adults with normal cognitive function, 354 with mild cognitive impairment, and 529 with Alzheimer’s disease.
When observing the cognitively healthy adults, the model’s estimates were off by about 5.9 years on average. It identified a distinct pattern of aging across the brain. The frontal and temporal lobes, which are heavily involved in higher-level thinking and memory, exhibited a more advanced biological age compared to regions at the back of the brain, such as the visual processing centers in the occipital lobe.
The researchers also looked closely at the brain’s folded outer layer, the cerebral cortex. They found that the sulci, which are the deep grooves between the folds, appeared biologically older than the gyri, the outward-facing ridges of the folds. On average, the local brain age gap (the difference between the estimated biological age and the person’s actual chronological age) was 0.40 years higher in the sulci. The team also observed that the right hemisphere of the brain generally showed an older biological age than the left hemisphere, a pattern that persisted when the researchers retrained the model on a sample balanced between left- and right-handed people.
“The left–right asymmetry was particularly interesting,” Irimia told PsyPost. “The model estimated systematically higher local brain ages in the right hemisphere than in the left, and this difference remained when we investigated whether handedness in the training data could account for it. We do not yet know what produces this asymmetry, but it raises an interesting question about whether structural aging may differ between the two hemispheres.”
When comparing the groups, the researchers found that patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment had older local brain ages in specific regions known to be affected early in neurodegeneration. In Alzheimer’s patients, subcortical structures like the pallidum and putamen, which help regulate movement and some types of learning, showed brain age gaps about 3.5 to 3.6 years larger than those of cognitively healthy adults. The hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped structure important for forming new memories, appeared more than three years older on average in the Alzheimer’s group compared to the healthy adults.
“The main message is that the brain does not appear to age uniformly,” Irimia said. “Different regions can exhibit different aging patterns within the same person, and these regional differences become more pronounced in cognitive impairment. This gives us a way to move beyond a single estimate of overall brain age and investigate where aging-related structural differences occur.”
The team also analyzed how these localized aging gaps related to performance on cognitive tests. In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, having an older local brain age in regions like the right pallidum strongly correlated with worse scores on general cognitive screening tests and a measure of everyday functioning. These associations were much weaker in people with mild cognitive impairment and largely absent in healthy adults.
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in May 2026, which demonstrated that mapping regional structural changes across the brain with MRI can track neurodegeneration across the progression from healthy aging to Alzheimer’s disease. The new study differs slightly in its approach. The previous research compared scans to an established Alzheimer’s structural vulnerability blueprint, whereas the current model estimates localized biological brain aging at the voxel level without relying on a pre-existing disease map.
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The artificial intelligence model was trained using research-grade MRI scans, which are typically much higher quality than the standard scans taken in everyday clinical settings. It is unknown if the system would perform as accurately on the lower-resolution images typically produced by hospital equipment.
Because of this and other factors, the tool is not yet ready for everyday medical use. “I would view local brain age primarily as a research tool at this stage rather than a clinical test,” Irimia noted. “Its importance is that it provides spatial information that is lost when brain aging is summarized with a single number. The next question is whether these regional patterns can eventually help us understand differences in cognitive aging or predict clinically meaningful trajectories, which will require further longitudinal validation.”
Additionally, the model was trained exclusively on the brains of cognitively healthy adults. The researchers suggest that future versions of the software might benefit from training on the brains of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Including those cases could help the system become more sensitive to specific disease-related changes.
Finally, the study analyzed images captured at a single point in time, with limited follow-up data. Because of this, it is not possible to say whether having an older local brain age directly predicts that a healthy individual will eventually develop cognitive impairment. Tracking individuals over many years with repeated scans is a necessary next step to determine if these local age gaps can serve as an early warning system for dementia.
Irimia echoed this caution against overinterpreting a single scan. “An ‘older’ local brain age does not by itself mean that someone has Alzheimer’s disease or will develop it,” he clarified. “The method identifies structural MRI patterns associated with aging; determining whether it can predict an individual’s future disease trajectory will require longitudinal validation. The longitudinal examples in this study are encouraging, but we regard them as supportive rather than definitive validation.”
Looking forward, the team hopes to uncover the root causes of these regional differences. “A major next step is understanding what local brain age represents biologically,” Irimia told PsyPost. “We want to relate these spatial aging patterns to vascular and cardiovascular health, metabolic factors, lifestyle, and other biomarkers to understand why some regions appear to age faster than others. Longitudinal studies will be particularly important for determining whether changes in local brain age can track aging trajectories and identify factors associated with healthier brain aging.”
The study, “Deep learning maps local brain aging in relation to cognition across human adulthood,” was authored by Nikhil N. Chaudhari, Owen M. Vega Huerta, Samayan Bhattacharya, Nahian F. Chowdhury, Andrei Irimia, and the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BrainAging #LocalBrainAge #MRIAnalysis #Neurodegeneration #AlzheimersResearch #BrainImaging #AgingBrain #CognitiveHealth #Neuroscience #AIinMedicine
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Gut bacteria and digestive metabolites are linked to psychopathic traits
URL: https://www.psypost.org/gut-bacteria-and-digestive-metabolites-are-linked-to-psychopathic-traits/
Specific bacteria in the gut and mouth, along with the chemical byproducts of digestion, are associated with traits like emotional detachment and impulsivity. These findings suggest that the microscopic organisms living inside the human body might play a role in shaping complex personality characteristics. The research was published in Translational Psychiatry.
The human body is home to trillions of microorganisms, collectively known as the microbiome. These bacteria, viruses, and fungi do a lot more than digest food and fight off infections. They communicate directly with the central nervous system through a network of chemical signals, hormones, and immune responses called the gut-brain axis.
Previous research links this biological pathway to mood disorders like depression and anxiety. More recently, researchers have started looking at how the microbiome relates to everyday personality traits and social behavior.
Psychopathy is a personality construct defined by emotional detachment, a lack of empathy, manipulative behavior, and a tendency toward impulsivity. In a clinical setting, it affects roughly one percent of the population. The exact biological mechanisms behind these traits remain poorly understood.
Carolina F.F.A. Costa, a researcher at the University of Porto and the University of Oxford, led a team to investigate this knowledge gap. The researchers wanted to see if the bacteria in the gut and mouth could be tied to subclinical psychopathic traits in the general public.
The researchers recruited 200 adult volunteers from the community in Portugal. The participants were screened to remove individuals who had taken antibiotics in the prior three months, as those medications drastically alter intestinal bacteria. The volunteers completed extensive self-report questionnaires designed to measure their levels of psychopathy, empathy, and anxiety.
These psychological assessments measured several distinct components of personality. The psychopathy survey looked at interpersonal manipulation, affective callousness, an erratic lifestyle, and antisocial behavior. Empathy was measured by testing how well participants could understand the perspectives of others and share their emotional states.
Alongside the psychological assessments, participants provided stool, saliva, and blood samples. The research team used a laboratory technique called DNA sequencing to identify the specific types of bacteria present in the gut and oral microbiomes. They also analyzed the samples for metabolites, which are the small molecules left behind when the body or bacteria break down food.
The researchers first grouped the participants based on their psychological survey scores. A computer algorithm separated the volunteers into four distinct groups characterized by varying levels of psychopathy and anxiety. As expected, participants who scored high in psychopathic traits tended to score lower in overall empathy.
Next, the team examined the bacterial makeup of the participants. They found that the overall richness of the microbiome, meaning the total number of different species present, did not vary among the four psychological groups. Any initial correlations between total diversity and psychopathy were not statistically significant after adjusting for the ages of the participants.
While overall diversity did not differ, the abundance of specific bacterial families did show a relationship with personality traits. In the gut, bacteria from the groups Allisonella and Prevotella, as well as a species called Cloacibacillus evryensis, were positively associated with higher psychopathy scores.
Participants with elevated levels of traits like an erratic lifestyle and emotional callousness had higher amounts of these specific intestinal bacteria. In the mouth, a bacterial species called Treponema vincentii showed a negative association, meaning it was less abundant in individuals with higher psychopathy scores.
Many of these specific bacteria have known biological roles that could influence the brain. Allisonella is known to produce histamine, a chemical that triggers immune responses and inflammation. Chronic inflammation in the body can send stress signals directly to the brain, which often influences mood and behavior.
Cloacibacillus evryensis has the genetic potential to produce gamma-aminobutyric acid in the gut. This specific chemical acts as an inhibitory signal in the central nervous system, helping to regulate impulsivity and self-control. Prevotella has been previously associated with differences in how the brain processes emotional and sensory stimuli.
After identifying the bacteria, the researchers looked at the metabolites in the stool and blood samples. Out of over 200 molecules analyzed, two stood out in the stool samples: glucose and taurine. Both molecules were found at elevated levels in the group of participants who scored high in both psychopathy and anxiety.
When looking at the scores on a sliding scale, higher levels of fecal glucose and taurine correlated positively with traits like antisociality and interpersonal manipulation. Glucose serves as the primary energy source for the body. The digestive tract contains specialized sensors that detect glucose and send metabolic updates to the brain.
Finding elevated glucose in feces suggests a disruption in how energy is extracted from food and absorbed into the bloodstream. Previous studies have noted abnormal glucose metabolism in the brains of individuals with high psychopathic traits, suggesting a potential link between energy use and behavior.
Taurine is an amino acid primarily produced by the liver, and it is involved in brain development and anxiety regulation. It normally binds to bile acids to help digest fats, and gut bacteria eventually separate the taurine from the bile. Finding excess free taurine in stool can indicate that the gut is struggling to absorb nutrients properly, or that specific bacterial populations are overgrown.
Finally, the team cross-referenced the bacterial data with the metabolite data. They found that higher levels of Allisonella in the gut predicted higher amounts of both glucose and taurine. This suggests that specific gut bacteria might be altering energy metabolism in ways that ultimately relate to personality expression.
The researchers note several caveats to their findings. The study relies on observations at a single point in time, meaning it cannot prove that gut bacteria cause psychopathic traits. It is equally possible that the behaviors associated with psychopathy, such as dietary choices or physiological stress responses, alter the microbiome.
The participants were volunteers from the general community rather than individuals with clinical diagnoses. The findings relate to subclinical personality traits, which may not fully represent the severe psychopathy seen in forensic settings.
The psychological data came from self-reported surveys. While these are standard tools in psychology, they are subject to personal bias, as individuals may lack self-awareness or alter their answers to appear more socially acceptable. Future research using animal models could help determine if altering gut bacteria directly changes behavior.
The study, “Gut and oral microbiota composition is associated with psychopathic personality: a cross-sectional study,” was authored by Carolina F.F.A. Costa, Daniel Radford-Smith, Alexandre R.T. Figueiredo, Rita C.M. Ribeiro, Sofia Pinto, Fay Probert, Renata Barros, Paula Serrão, Luisa Barreiros, Marcela A. Segundo, Daniel C. Anthony, Fernando Barbosa, Philip W.J. Burnet, and Benedita Sampaio-Maia.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/gut-bacteria-and-digestive-metabolites-are-linked-to-psychopathic-traits/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #GutBrainAxis #Microbiome #PsychopathicTraits #GutBacteria #Prevotella #Allisonella #CloacibacillusEvryensis #Taurine #Glucose #TranslationalPsychiatry
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Gut bacteria and digestive metabolites are linked to psychopathic traits
URL: https://www.psypost.org/gut-bacteria-and-digestive-metabolites-are-linked-to-psychopathic-traits/
Specific bacteria in the gut and mouth, along with the chemical byproducts of digestion, are associated with traits like emotional detachment and impulsivity. These findings suggest that the microscopic organisms living inside the human body might play a role in shaping complex personality characteristics. The research was published in Translational Psychiatry.
The human body is home to trillions of microorganisms, collectively known as the microbiome. These bacteria, viruses, and fungi do a lot more than digest food and fight off infections. They communicate directly with the central nervous system through a network of chemical signals, hormones, and immune responses called the gut-brain axis.
Previous research links this biological pathway to mood disorders like depression and anxiety. More recently, researchers have started looking at how the microbiome relates to everyday personality traits and social behavior.
Psychopathy is a personality construct defined by emotional detachment, a lack of empathy, manipulative behavior, and a tendency toward impulsivity. In a clinical setting, it affects roughly one percent of the population. The exact biological mechanisms behind these traits remain poorly understood.
Carolina F.F.A. Costa, a researcher at the University of Porto and the University of Oxford, led a team to investigate this knowledge gap. The researchers wanted to see if the bacteria in the gut and mouth could be tied to subclinical psychopathic traits in the general public.
The researchers recruited 200 adult volunteers from the community in Portugal. The participants were screened to remove individuals who had taken antibiotics in the prior three months, as those medications drastically alter intestinal bacteria. The volunteers completed extensive self-report questionnaires designed to measure their levels of psychopathy, empathy, and anxiety.
These psychological assessments measured several distinct components of personality. The psychopathy survey looked at interpersonal manipulation, affective callousness, an erratic lifestyle, and antisocial behavior. Empathy was measured by testing how well participants could understand the perspectives of others and share their emotional states.
Alongside the psychological assessments, participants provided stool, saliva, and blood samples. The research team used a laboratory technique called DNA sequencing to identify the specific types of bacteria present in the gut and oral microbiomes. They also analyzed the samples for metabolites, which are the small molecules left behind when the body or bacteria break down food.
The researchers first grouped the participants based on their psychological survey scores. A computer algorithm separated the volunteers into four distinct groups characterized by varying levels of psychopathy and anxiety. As expected, participants who scored high in psychopathic traits tended to score lower in overall empathy.
Next, the team examined the bacterial makeup of the participants. They found that the overall richness of the microbiome, meaning the total number of different species present, did not vary among the four psychological groups. Any initial correlations between total diversity and psychopathy were not statistically significant after adjusting for the ages of the participants.
While overall diversity did not differ, the abundance of specific bacterial families did show a relationship with personality traits. In the gut, bacteria from the groups Allisonella and Prevotella, as well as a species called Cloacibacillus evryensis, were positively associated with higher psychopathy scores.
Participants with elevated levels of traits like an erratic lifestyle and emotional callousness had higher amounts of these specific intestinal bacteria. In the mouth, a bacterial species called Treponema vincentii showed a negative association, meaning it was less abundant in individuals with higher psychopathy scores.
Many of these specific bacteria have known biological roles that could influence the brain. Allisonella is known to produce histamine, a chemical that triggers immune responses and inflammation. Chronic inflammation in the body can send stress signals directly to the brain, which often influences mood and behavior.
Cloacibacillus evryensis has the genetic potential to produce gamma-aminobutyric acid in the gut. This specific chemical acts as an inhibitory signal in the central nervous system, helping to regulate impulsivity and self-control. Prevotella has been previously associated with differences in how the brain processes emotional and sensory stimuli.
After identifying the bacteria, the researchers looked at the metabolites in the stool and blood samples. Out of over 200 molecules analyzed, two stood out in the stool samples: glucose and taurine. Both molecules were found at elevated levels in the group of participants who scored high in both psychopathy and anxiety.
When looking at the scores on a sliding scale, higher levels of fecal glucose and taurine correlated positively with traits like antisociality and interpersonal manipulation. Glucose serves as the primary energy source for the body. The digestive tract contains specialized sensors that detect glucose and send metabolic updates to the brain.
Finding elevated glucose in feces suggests a disruption in how energy is extracted from food and absorbed into the bloodstream. Previous studies have noted abnormal glucose metabolism in the brains of individuals with high psychopathic traits, suggesting a potential link between energy use and behavior.
Taurine is an amino acid primarily produced by the liver, and it is involved in brain development and anxiety regulation. It normally binds to bile acids to help digest fats, and gut bacteria eventually separate the taurine from the bile. Finding excess free taurine in stool can indicate that the gut is struggling to absorb nutrients properly, or that specific bacterial populations are overgrown.
Finally, the team cross-referenced the bacterial data with the metabolite data. They found that higher levels of Allisonella in the gut predicted higher amounts of both glucose and taurine. This suggests that specific gut bacteria might be altering energy metabolism in ways that ultimately relate to personality expression.
The researchers note several caveats to their findings. The study relies on observations at a single point in time, meaning it cannot prove that gut bacteria cause psychopathic traits. It is equally possible that the behaviors associated with psychopathy, such as dietary choices or physiological stress responses, alter the microbiome.
The participants were volunteers from the general community rather than individuals with clinical diagnoses. The findings relate to subclinical personality traits, which may not fully represent the severe psychopathy seen in forensic settings.
The psychological data came from self-reported surveys. While these are standard tools in psychology, they are subject to personal bias, as individuals may lack self-awareness or alter their answers to appear more socially acceptable. Future research using animal models could help determine if altering gut bacteria directly changes behavior.
The study, “Gut and oral microbiota composition is associated with psychopathic personality: a cross-sectional study,” was authored by Carolina F.F.A. Costa, Daniel Radford-Smith, Alexandre R.T. Figueiredo, Rita C.M. Ribeiro, Sofia Pinto, Fay Probert, Renata Barros, Paula Serrão, Luisa Barreiros, Marcela A. Segundo, Daniel C. Anthony, Fernando Barbosa, Philip W.J. Burnet, and Benedita Sampaio-Maia.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/gut-bacteria-and-digestive-metabolites-are-linked-to-psychopathic-traits/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #GutBrainAxis #Microbiome #PsychopathicTraits #GutBacteria #Prevotella #Allisonella #CloacibacillusEvryensis #Taurine #Glucose #TranslationalPsychiatry
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Gut bacteria and digestive metabolites are linked to psychopathic traits
URL: https://www.psypost.org/gut-bacteria-and-digestive-metabolites-are-linked-to-psychopathic-traits/
Specific bacteria in the gut and mouth, along with the chemical byproducts of digestion, are associated with traits like emotional detachment and impulsivity. These findings suggest that the microscopic organisms living inside the human body might play a role in shaping complex personality characteristics. The research was published in Translational Psychiatry.
The human body is home to trillions of microorganisms, collectively known as the microbiome. These bacteria, viruses, and fungi do a lot more than digest food and fight off infections. They communicate directly with the central nervous system through a network of chemical signals, hormones, and immune responses called the gut-brain axis.
Previous research links this biological pathway to mood disorders like depression and anxiety. More recently, researchers have started looking at how the microbiome relates to everyday personality traits and social behavior.
Psychopathy is a personality construct defined by emotional detachment, a lack of empathy, manipulative behavior, and a tendency toward impulsivity. In a clinical setting, it affects roughly one percent of the population. The exact biological mechanisms behind these traits remain poorly understood.
Carolina F.F.A. Costa, a researcher at the University of Porto and the University of Oxford, led a team to investigate this knowledge gap. The researchers wanted to see if the bacteria in the gut and mouth could be tied to subclinical psychopathic traits in the general public.
The researchers recruited 200 adult volunteers from the community in Portugal. The participants were screened to remove individuals who had taken antibiotics in the prior three months, as those medications drastically alter intestinal bacteria. The volunteers completed extensive self-report questionnaires designed to measure their levels of psychopathy, empathy, and anxiety.
These psychological assessments measured several distinct components of personality. The psychopathy survey looked at interpersonal manipulation, affective callousness, an erratic lifestyle, and antisocial behavior. Empathy was measured by testing how well participants could understand the perspectives of others and share their emotional states.
Alongside the psychological assessments, participants provided stool, saliva, and blood samples. The research team used a laboratory technique called DNA sequencing to identify the specific types of bacteria present in the gut and oral microbiomes. They also analyzed the samples for metabolites, which are the small molecules left behind when the body or bacteria break down food.
The researchers first grouped the participants based on their psychological survey scores. A computer algorithm separated the volunteers into four distinct groups characterized by varying levels of psychopathy and anxiety. As expected, participants who scored high in psychopathic traits tended to score lower in overall empathy.
Next, the team examined the bacterial makeup of the participants. They found that the overall richness of the microbiome, meaning the total number of different species present, did not vary among the four psychological groups. Any initial correlations between total diversity and psychopathy were not statistically significant after adjusting for the ages of the participants.
While overall diversity did not differ, the abundance of specific bacterial families did show a relationship with personality traits. In the gut, bacteria from the groups Allisonella and Prevotella, as well as a species called Cloacibacillus evryensis, were positively associated with higher psychopathy scores.
Participants with elevated levels of traits like an erratic lifestyle and emotional callousness had higher amounts of these specific intestinal bacteria. In the mouth, a bacterial species called Treponema vincentii showed a negative association, meaning it was less abundant in individuals with higher psychopathy scores.
Many of these specific bacteria have known biological roles that could influence the brain. Allisonella is known to produce histamine, a chemical that triggers immune responses and inflammation. Chronic inflammation in the body can send stress signals directly to the brain, which often influences mood and behavior.
Cloacibacillus evryensis has the genetic potential to produce gamma-aminobutyric acid in the gut. This specific chemical acts as an inhibitory signal in the central nervous system, helping to regulate impulsivity and self-control. Prevotella has been previously associated with differences in how the brain processes emotional and sensory stimuli.
After identifying the bacteria, the researchers looked at the metabolites in the stool and blood samples. Out of over 200 molecules analyzed, two stood out in the stool samples: glucose and taurine. Both molecules were found at elevated levels in the group of participants who scored high in both psychopathy and anxiety.
When looking at the scores on a sliding scale, higher levels of fecal glucose and taurine correlated positively with traits like antisociality and interpersonal manipulation. Glucose serves as the primary energy source for the body. The digestive tract contains specialized sensors that detect glucose and send metabolic updates to the brain.
Finding elevated glucose in feces suggests a disruption in how energy is extracted from food and absorbed into the bloodstream. Previous studies have noted abnormal glucose metabolism in the brains of individuals with high psychopathic traits, suggesting a potential link between energy use and behavior.
Taurine is an amino acid primarily produced by the liver, and it is involved in brain development and anxiety regulation. It normally binds to bile acids to help digest fats, and gut bacteria eventually separate the taurine from the bile. Finding excess free taurine in stool can indicate that the gut is struggling to absorb nutrients properly, or that specific bacterial populations are overgrown.
Finally, the team cross-referenced the bacterial data with the metabolite data. They found that higher levels of Allisonella in the gut predicted higher amounts of both glucose and taurine. This suggests that specific gut bacteria might be altering energy metabolism in ways that ultimately relate to personality expression.
The researchers note several caveats to their findings. The study relies on observations at a single point in time, meaning it cannot prove that gut bacteria cause psychopathic traits. It is equally possible that the behaviors associated with psychopathy, such as dietary choices or physiological stress responses, alter the microbiome.
The participants were volunteers from the general community rather than individuals with clinical diagnoses. The findings relate to subclinical personality traits, which may not fully represent the severe psychopathy seen in forensic settings.
The psychological data came from self-reported surveys. While these are standard tools in psychology, they are subject to personal bias, as individuals may lack self-awareness or alter their answers to appear more socially acceptable. Future research using animal models could help determine if altering gut bacteria directly changes behavior.
The study, “Gut and oral microbiota composition is associated with psychopathic personality: a cross-sectional study,” was authored by Carolina F.F.A. Costa, Daniel Radford-Smith, Alexandre R.T. Figueiredo, Rita C.M. Ribeiro, Sofia Pinto, Fay Probert, Renata Barros, Paula Serrão, Luisa Barreiros, Marcela A. Segundo, Daniel C. Anthony, Fernando Barbosa, Philip W.J. Burnet, and Benedita Sampaio-Maia.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/gut-bacteria-and-digestive-metabolites-are-linked-to-psychopathic-traits/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #GutBrainAxis #Microbiome #PsychopathicTraits #GutBacteria #Prevotella #Allisonella #CloacibacillusEvryensis #Taurine #Glucose #TranslationalPsychiatry
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: “Mate-value backlash” may help explain anti-feminist attitudes among some Trump-era men, researchers say
New research suggests that never-married men without a college degree have recently shown more anti-feminist attitudes than their college-educated peers, a trend that is associated with support for the Republican Party and Donald Trump. The authors argue this reflects a reaction rooted in romantic and economic insecurity, which they call “mate-value backlash,” rather than simply a desire to return to traditional gender roles. The study was published in Political Research Quarterly.
In recent years, political scientists have documented a global rise in right-wing populist movements, which tend to emphasize strong central power and anti-establishment rhetoric. A 2019 book outlined an influential theory that this political shift is largely a cultural backlash, where voters are reacting against progressive changes in social values. Along these lines, a study covered by PsyPost in 2019 indicated that supporters of Donald Trump scored higher on measures of modern sexism after the 2016 election.
At the same time, separate research has looked at the changing demographics of dating and marriage. A 2019 study found that when manufacturing jobs were lost to foreign competition, young men’s earnings fell relative to young women’s, and marriage rates declined. This decline in relationship prospects can have real-world consequences, as a 2021 study in Germany found that men who worried refugees would make it harder to find a female partner were more supportive of hate crimes against refugees.
The research, led by Stan Oklobdzija of the University of California, Riverside, and Christopher Witko of the University of California, Davis, aimed to connect these two lines of inquiry. The authors proposed that the political right is currently benefiting from a specific phenomenon they call “mate-value backlash.”
Mate-value refers to a person’s overall desirability as a romantic partner. According to the researchers, as women have gained economic independence and surpassed men in college attendance, women are less reliant on men for financial security. Men who lack a college degree now face steeper competition in both the job market and the dating pool. This perceived loss of status and romantic insecurity, the authors suggest, generates resentment toward feminism and women’s equality.
To test their hypothesis, the scientists analyzed data from the American National Election Studies, a long-running survey that tracks the political attitudes and behaviors of voters in the United States. They focused specifically on male respondents. The data was split into two timeframes: the period from 1970 to 2012, before Donald Trump entered presidential politics, and the period from 2016 to 2024, during which Trump was the Republican nominee.
The main measure used to gauge anti-feminist attitudes was a “feeling thermometer,” a survey tool where respondents rate their feelings toward a group on a scale from 0 to 100. In this case, respondents were asked to rate their warmth toward feminists. A lower score indicated greater antipathy or coldness, and the statistical models accounted for factors such as the respondent’s age, whether they identified as White, and their political party affiliation.
When looking at the historical data from 1970 to 2012, the researchers found that negative feelings toward feminists consistently predicted voting for Republican presidential candidates. However, during this 42-year stretch, never-married men without a college education did not generally show higher levels of anti-feminist hostility than other men. The only exception was in 1992, often called the “Year of the Woman,” a period marked by prominent debates about women’s place in politics.
In 2016, never-married men without a degree did not differ from their college-educated counterparts. But in the 2020 and 2024 surveys, never-married men without a bachelor’s degree reported substantially higher hostility toward feminists compared to never-married men with a college degree. Specifically, these men rated feminists about 10 points lower on the 100-point scale. The authors see this as consistent with mate-value backlash and suggest that Trump’s emergence may have activated these attitudes.
Additionally, this hostility toward feminists strongly predicted voting for Donald Trump among men overall in 2016, 2020, and 2024, even after controlling for party identification. The authors note that their estimates are likely underestimates, because these attitudes also shape party identity itself. The predictive power of these attitudes was even stronger in 2020 than it was in 2016.
These results are in line with a study covered by PsyPost in 2017, which found that higher endorsement of hostile attitudes toward women was linked to a greater likelihood of voting for Trump, though that previous research focused on a smaller sample of college undergraduates rather than a nationally representative survey. The findings also align with a study covered by PsyPost in 2026, which indicated that sexist attitudes strongly predict support for right-wing candidates.
“The findings from this research replicate a well established link between anti-feminist attitudes and conservative voting behavior,” Rachael Robnett, a professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and director of the Women’s Research Institute of Nevada, told PsyPost. Robnett, who was not involved in the study, noted that the results “extend existing work by demonstrating a rise in anti-feminist attitudes among unmarried men without college degrees, with this rise appearing to coincide with Donald Trump’s presidential terms.”
“The authors speculate that contemporary conservative rhetoric may have activated anti-feminist sentiment among unmarried [men] with lower levels of education,” Robnett added. “This speculation aligns with research that has focused on the manosphere, which is an eclectic group of online communities that often espouse ideals that are inconsistent with gender equality. Some of these communities also express overt antipathy toward women.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. Because the data is correlational, it cannot prove cause and effect. Additionally, the study measures negative feelings toward “feminists,” which is a broad and highly politicized term. Survey respondents might interpret the word differently, meaning the measurement might capture a general cultural grievance rather than specific opposition to gender equality policies.
The wording of the survey question also changed over the decades: it asked about “the women’s liberation movement” until 1986, then alternated between “the women’s movement” and “feminists” before settling on “feminists” in 2000, which matters when comparing modern results to historical data.
“An important caveat to the findings and their interpretation is that this research focuses exclusively on men,” Robnett explained. “It is entirely possible that anti-feminist sentiment has also increased among unmarried women without college degrees, but this competing explanation cannot be examined when the research only focuses on men.”
“The reason this matters is because the authors interpret their findings to mean that unmarried men without a college education are threatened by women’s progress and thus engaging in ‘mate-value backlash.’ This possibility is theoretically tenable, but should be directly tested through a study that includes both women and men before we can draw strong conclusions.”
Looking ahead, future research could explore exactly how political rhetoric might activate these latent insecurities. The authors speculate that Donald Trump’s specific style of politics tapped into existing anxieties among certain men, bringing those frustrations into the voting booth. Exploring the role of online communities and social media in amplifying these feelings could provide a fuller picture of how relationship dynamics shape national politics.
The study, “Backlashes to Gender Equality and Authoritarian Populism in the U.S.,” was authored by Stan Oklobdzija and Christopher Witko.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MateValueBacklash #AntiFeminism #TrumpEraPolitics #NeverMarriedMen #EconomicInsecurity #GenderEqualityBacklash #RightWingPopulism #DatingMarkets #PoliticalResearchQuarterly #MachismoAndPolitics
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: “Mate-value backlash” may help explain anti-feminist attitudes among some Trump-era men, researchers say
New research suggests that never-married men without a college degree have recently shown more anti-feminist attitudes than their college-educated peers, a trend that is associated with support for the Republican Party and Donald Trump. The authors argue this reflects a reaction rooted in romantic and economic insecurity, which they call “mate-value backlash,” rather than simply a desire to return to traditional gender roles. The study was published in Political Research Quarterly.
In recent years, political scientists have documented a global rise in right-wing populist movements, which tend to emphasize strong central power and anti-establishment rhetoric. A 2019 book outlined an influential theory that this political shift is largely a cultural backlash, where voters are reacting against progressive changes in social values. Along these lines, a study covered by PsyPost in 2019 indicated that supporters of Donald Trump scored higher on measures of modern sexism after the 2016 election.
At the same time, separate research has looked at the changing demographics of dating and marriage. A 2019 study found that when manufacturing jobs were lost to foreign competition, young men’s earnings fell relative to young women’s, and marriage rates declined. This decline in relationship prospects can have real-world consequences, as a 2021 study in Germany found that men who worried refugees would make it harder to find a female partner were more supportive of hate crimes against refugees.
The research, led by Stan Oklobdzija of the University of California, Riverside, and Christopher Witko of the University of California, Davis, aimed to connect these two lines of inquiry. The authors proposed that the political right is currently benefiting from a specific phenomenon they call “mate-value backlash.”
Mate-value refers to a person’s overall desirability as a romantic partner. According to the researchers, as women have gained economic independence and surpassed men in college attendance, women are less reliant on men for financial security. Men who lack a college degree now face steeper competition in both the job market and the dating pool. This perceived loss of status and romantic insecurity, the authors suggest, generates resentment toward feminism and women’s equality.
To test their hypothesis, the scientists analyzed data from the American National Election Studies, a long-running survey that tracks the political attitudes and behaviors of voters in the United States. They focused specifically on male respondents. The data was split into two timeframes: the period from 1970 to 2012, before Donald Trump entered presidential politics, and the period from 2016 to 2024, during which Trump was the Republican nominee.
The main measure used to gauge anti-feminist attitudes was a “feeling thermometer,” a survey tool where respondents rate their feelings toward a group on a scale from 0 to 100. In this case, respondents were asked to rate their warmth toward feminists. A lower score indicated greater antipathy or coldness, and the statistical models accounted for factors such as the respondent’s age, whether they identified as White, and their political party affiliation.
When looking at the historical data from 1970 to 2012, the researchers found that negative feelings toward feminists consistently predicted voting for Republican presidential candidates. However, during this 42-year stretch, never-married men without a college education did not generally show higher levels of anti-feminist hostility than other men. The only exception was in 1992, often called the “Year of the Woman,” a period marked by prominent debates about women’s place in politics.
In 2016, never-married men without a degree did not differ from their college-educated counterparts. But in the 2020 and 2024 surveys, never-married men without a bachelor’s degree reported substantially higher hostility toward feminists compared to never-married men with a college degree. Specifically, these men rated feminists about 10 points lower on the 100-point scale. The authors see this as consistent with mate-value backlash and suggest that Trump’s emergence may have activated these attitudes.
Additionally, this hostility toward feminists strongly predicted voting for Donald Trump among men overall in 2016, 2020, and 2024, even after controlling for party identification. The authors note that their estimates are likely underestimates, because these attitudes also shape party identity itself. The predictive power of these attitudes was even stronger in 2020 than it was in 2016.
These results are in line with a study covered by PsyPost in 2017, which found that higher endorsement of hostile attitudes toward women was linked to a greater likelihood of voting for Trump, though that previous research focused on a smaller sample of college undergraduates rather than a nationally representative survey. The findings also align with a study covered by PsyPost in 2026, which indicated that sexist attitudes strongly predict support for right-wing candidates.
“The findings from this research replicate a well established link between anti-feminist attitudes and conservative voting behavior,” Rachael Robnett, a professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and director of the Women’s Research Institute of Nevada, told PsyPost. Robnett, who was not involved in the study, noted that the results “extend existing work by demonstrating a rise in anti-feminist attitudes among unmarried men without college degrees, with this rise appearing to coincide with Donald Trump’s presidential terms.”
“The authors speculate that contemporary conservative rhetoric may have activated anti-feminist sentiment among unmarried [men] with lower levels of education,” Robnett added. “This speculation aligns with research that has focused on the manosphere, which is an eclectic group of online communities that often espouse ideals that are inconsistent with gender equality. Some of these communities also express overt antipathy toward women.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. Because the data is correlational, it cannot prove cause and effect. Additionally, the study measures negative feelings toward “feminists,” which is a broad and highly politicized term. Survey respondents might interpret the word differently, meaning the measurement might capture a general cultural grievance rather than specific opposition to gender equality policies.
The wording of the survey question also changed over the decades: it asked about “the women’s liberation movement” until 1986, then alternated between “the women’s movement” and “feminists” before settling on “feminists” in 2000, which matters when comparing modern results to historical data.
“An important caveat to the findings and their interpretation is that this research focuses exclusively on men,” Robnett explained. “It is entirely possible that anti-feminist sentiment has also increased among unmarried women without college degrees, but this competing explanation cannot be examined when the research only focuses on men.”
“The reason this matters is because the authors interpret their findings to mean that unmarried men without a college education are threatened by women’s progress and thus engaging in ‘mate-value backlash.’ This possibility is theoretically tenable, but should be directly tested through a study that includes both women and men before we can draw strong conclusions.”
Looking ahead, future research could explore exactly how political rhetoric might activate these latent insecurities. The authors speculate that Donald Trump’s specific style of politics tapped into existing anxieties among certain men, bringing those frustrations into the voting booth. Exploring the role of online communities and social media in amplifying these feelings could provide a fuller picture of how relationship dynamics shape national politics.
The study, “Backlashes to Gender Equality and Authoritarian Populism in the U.S.,” was authored by Stan Oklobdzija and Christopher Witko.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MateValueBacklash #AntiFeminism #TrumpEraPolitics #NeverMarriedMen #EconomicInsecurity #GenderEqualityBacklash #RightWingPopulism #DatingMarkets #PoliticalResearchQuarterly #MachismoAndPolitics
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: “Mate-value backlash” may help explain anti-feminist attitudes among some Trump-era men, researchers say
New research suggests that never-married men without a college degree have recently shown more anti-feminist attitudes than their college-educated peers, a trend that is associated with support for the Republican Party and Donald Trump. The authors argue this reflects a reaction rooted in romantic and economic insecurity, which they call “mate-value backlash,” rather than simply a desire to return to traditional gender roles. The study was published in Political Research Quarterly.
In recent years, political scientists have documented a global rise in right-wing populist movements, which tend to emphasize strong central power and anti-establishment rhetoric. A 2019 book outlined an influential theory that this political shift is largely a cultural backlash, where voters are reacting against progressive changes in social values. Along these lines, a study covered by PsyPost in 2019 indicated that supporters of Donald Trump scored higher on measures of modern sexism after the 2016 election.
At the same time, separate research has looked at the changing demographics of dating and marriage. A 2019 study found that when manufacturing jobs were lost to foreign competition, young men’s earnings fell relative to young women’s, and marriage rates declined. This decline in relationship prospects can have real-world consequences, as a 2021 study in Germany found that men who worried refugees would make it harder to find a female partner were more supportive of hate crimes against refugees.
The research, led by Stan Oklobdzija of the University of California, Riverside, and Christopher Witko of the University of California, Davis, aimed to connect these two lines of inquiry. The authors proposed that the political right is currently benefiting from a specific phenomenon they call “mate-value backlash.”
Mate-value refers to a person’s overall desirability as a romantic partner. According to the researchers, as women have gained economic independence and surpassed men in college attendance, women are less reliant on men for financial security. Men who lack a college degree now face steeper competition in both the job market and the dating pool. This perceived loss of status and romantic insecurity, the authors suggest, generates resentment toward feminism and women’s equality.
To test their hypothesis, the scientists analyzed data from the American National Election Studies, a long-running survey that tracks the political attitudes and behaviors of voters in the United States. They focused specifically on male respondents. The data was split into two timeframes: the period from 1970 to 2012, before Donald Trump entered presidential politics, and the period from 2016 to 2024, during which Trump was the Republican nominee.
The main measure used to gauge anti-feminist attitudes was a “feeling thermometer,” a survey tool where respondents rate their feelings toward a group on a scale from 0 to 100. In this case, respondents were asked to rate their warmth toward feminists. A lower score indicated greater antipathy or coldness, and the statistical models accounted for factors such as the respondent’s age, whether they identified as White, and their political party affiliation.
When looking at the historical data from 1970 to 2012, the researchers found that negative feelings toward feminists consistently predicted voting for Republican presidential candidates. However, during this 42-year stretch, never-married men without a college education did not generally show higher levels of anti-feminist hostility than other men. The only exception was in 1992, often called the “Year of the Woman,” a period marked by prominent debates about women’s place in politics.
In 2016, never-married men without a degree did not differ from their college-educated counterparts. But in the 2020 and 2024 surveys, never-married men without a bachelor’s degree reported substantially higher hostility toward feminists compared to never-married men with a college degree. Specifically, these men rated feminists about 10 points lower on the 100-point scale. The authors see this as consistent with mate-value backlash and suggest that Trump’s emergence may have activated these attitudes.
Additionally, this hostility toward feminists strongly predicted voting for Donald Trump among men overall in 2016, 2020, and 2024, even after controlling for party identification. The authors note that their estimates are likely underestimates, because these attitudes also shape party identity itself. The predictive power of these attitudes was even stronger in 2020 than it was in 2016.
These results are in line with a study covered by PsyPost in 2017, which found that higher endorsement of hostile attitudes toward women was linked to a greater likelihood of voting for Trump, though that previous research focused on a smaller sample of college undergraduates rather than a nationally representative survey. The findings also align with a study covered by PsyPost in 2026, which indicated that sexist attitudes strongly predict support for right-wing candidates.
“The findings from this research replicate a well established link between anti-feminist attitudes and conservative voting behavior,” Rachael Robnett, a professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and director of the Women’s Research Institute of Nevada, told PsyPost. Robnett, who was not involved in the study, noted that the results “extend existing work by demonstrating a rise in anti-feminist attitudes among unmarried men without college degrees, with this rise appearing to coincide with Donald Trump’s presidential terms.”
“The authors speculate that contemporary conservative rhetoric may have activated anti-feminist sentiment among unmarried [men] with lower levels of education,” Robnett added. “This speculation aligns with research that has focused on the manosphere, which is an eclectic group of online communities that often espouse ideals that are inconsistent with gender equality. Some of these communities also express overt antipathy toward women.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. Because the data is correlational, it cannot prove cause and effect. Additionally, the study measures negative feelings toward “feminists,” which is a broad and highly politicized term. Survey respondents might interpret the word differently, meaning the measurement might capture a general cultural grievance rather than specific opposition to gender equality policies.
The wording of the survey question also changed over the decades: it asked about “the women’s liberation movement” until 1986, then alternated between “the women’s movement” and “feminists” before settling on “feminists” in 2000, which matters when comparing modern results to historical data.
“An important caveat to the findings and their interpretation is that this research focuses exclusively on men,” Robnett explained. “It is entirely possible that anti-feminist sentiment has also increased among unmarried women without college degrees, but this competing explanation cannot be examined when the research only focuses on men.”
“The reason this matters is because the authors interpret their findings to mean that unmarried men without a college education are threatened by women’s progress and thus engaging in ‘mate-value backlash.’ This possibility is theoretically tenable, but should be directly tested through a study that includes both women and men before we can draw strong conclusions.”
Looking ahead, future research could explore exactly how political rhetoric might activate these latent insecurities. The authors speculate that Donald Trump’s specific style of politics tapped into existing anxieties among certain men, bringing those frustrations into the voting booth. Exploring the role of online communities and social media in amplifying these feelings could provide a fuller picture of how relationship dynamics shape national politics.
The study, “Backlashes to Gender Equality and Authoritarian Populism in the U.S.,” was authored by Stan Oklobdzija and Christopher Witko.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MateValueBacklash #AntiFeminism #TrumpEraPolitics #NeverMarriedMen #EconomicInsecurity #GenderEqualityBacklash #RightWingPopulism #DatingMarkets #PoliticalResearchQuarterly #MachismoAndPolitics
-
DATE: October 2, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: “Mate-value backlash” may help explain anti-feminist attitudes among some Trump-era men, researchers say
New research suggests that never-married men without a college degree have recently shown more anti-feminist attitudes than their college-educated peers, a trend that is associated with support for the Republican Party and Donald Trump. The authors argue this reflects a reaction rooted in romantic and economic insecurity, which they call “mate-value backlash,” rather than simply a desire to return to traditional gender roles. The study was published in Political Research Quarterly.
In recent years, political scientists have documented a global rise in right-wing populist movements, which tend to emphasize strong central power and anti-establishment rhetoric. A 2019 book outlined an influential theory that this political shift is largely a cultural backlash, where voters are reacting against progressive changes in social values. Along these lines, a study covered by PsyPost in 2019 indicated that supporters of Donald Trump scored higher on measures of modern sexism after the 2016 election.
At the same time, separate research has looked at the changing demographics of dating and marriage. A 2019 study found that when manufacturing jobs were lost to foreign competition, young men’s earnings fell relative to young women’s, and marriage rates declined. This decline in relationship prospects can have real-world consequences, as a 2021 study in Germany found that men who worried refugees would make it harder to find a female partner were more supportive of hate crimes against refugees.
The research, led by Stan Oklobdzija of the University of California, Riverside, and Christopher Witko of the University of California, Davis, aimed to connect these two lines of inquiry. The authors proposed that the political right is currently benefiting from a specific phenomenon they call “mate-value backlash.”
Mate-value refers to a person’s overall desirability as a romantic partner. According to the researchers, as women have gained economic independence and surpassed men in college attendance, women are less reliant on men for financial security. Men who lack a college degree now face steeper competition in both the job market and the dating pool. This perceived loss of status and romantic insecurity, the authors suggest, generates resentment toward feminism and women’s equality.
To test their hypothesis, the scientists analyzed data from the American National Election Studies, a long-running survey that tracks the political attitudes and behaviors of voters in the United States. They focused specifically on male respondents. The data was split into two timeframes: the period from 1970 to 2012, before Donald Trump entered presidential politics, and the period from 2016 to 2024, during which Trump was the Republican nominee.
The main measure used to gauge anti-feminist attitudes was a “feeling thermometer,” a survey tool where respondents rate their feelings toward a group on a scale from 0 to 100. In this case, respondents were asked to rate their warmth toward feminists. A lower score indicated greater antipathy or coldness, and the statistical models accounted for factors such as the respondent’s age, whether they identified as White, and their political party affiliation.
When looking at the historical data from 1970 to 2012, the researchers found that negative feelings toward feminists consistently predicted voting for Republican presidential candidates. However, during this 42-year stretch, never-married men without a college education did not generally show higher levels of anti-feminist hostility than other men. The only exception was in 1992, often called the “Year of the Woman,” a period marked by prominent debates about women’s place in politics.
In 2016, never-married men without a degree did not differ from their college-educated counterparts. But in the 2020 and 2024 surveys, never-married men without a bachelor’s degree reported substantially higher hostility toward feminists compared to never-married men with a college degree. Specifically, these men rated feminists about 10 points lower on the 100-point scale. The authors see this as consistent with mate-value backlash and suggest that Trump’s emergence may have activated these attitudes.
Additionally, this hostility toward feminists strongly predicted voting for Donald Trump among men overall in 2016, 2020, and 2024, even after controlling for party identification. The authors note that their estimates are likely underestimates, because these attitudes also shape party identity itself. The predictive power of these attitudes was even stronger in 2020 than it was in 2016.
These results are in line with a study covered by PsyPost in 2017, which found that higher endorsement of hostile attitudes toward women was linked to a greater likelihood of voting for Trump, though that previous research focused on a smaller sample of college undergraduates rather than a nationally representative survey. The findings also align with a study covered by PsyPost in 2026, which indicated that sexist attitudes strongly predict support for right-wing candidates.
“The findings from this research replicate a well established link between anti-feminist attitudes and conservative voting behavior,” Rachael Robnett, a professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and director of the Women’s Research Institute of Nevada, told PsyPost. Robnett, who was not involved in the study, noted that the results “extend existing work by demonstrating a rise in anti-feminist attitudes among unmarried men without college degrees, with this rise appearing to coincide with Donald Trump’s presidential terms.”
“The authors speculate that contemporary conservative rhetoric may have activated anti-feminist sentiment among unmarried [men] with lower levels of education,” Robnett added. “This speculation aligns with research that has focused on the manosphere, which is an eclectic group of online communities that often espouse ideals that are inconsistent with gender equality. Some of these communities also express overt antipathy toward women.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. Because the data is correlational, it cannot prove cause and effect. Additionally, the study measures negative feelings toward “feminists,” which is a broad and highly politicized term. Survey respondents might interpret the word differently, meaning the measurement might capture a general cultural grievance rather than specific opposition to gender equality policies.
The wording of the survey question also changed over the decades: it asked about “the women’s liberation movement” until 1986, then alternated between “the women’s movement” and “feminists” before settling on “feminists” in 2000, which matters when comparing modern results to historical data.
“An important caveat to the findings and their interpretation is that this research focuses exclusively on men,” Robnett explained. “It is entirely possible that anti-feminist sentiment has also increased among unmarried women without college degrees, but this competing explanation cannot be examined when the research only focuses on men.”
“The reason this matters is because the authors interpret their findings to mean that unmarried men without a college education are threatened by women’s progress and thus engaging in ‘mate-value backlash.’ This possibility is theoretically tenable, but should be directly tested through a study that includes both women and men before we can draw strong conclusions.”
Looking ahead, future research could explore exactly how political rhetoric might activate these latent insecurities. The authors speculate that Donald Trump’s specific style of politics tapped into existing anxieties among certain men, bringing those frustrations into the voting booth. Exploring the role of online communities and social media in amplifying these feelings could provide a fuller picture of how relationship dynamics shape national politics.
The study, “Backlashes to Gender Equality and Authoritarian Populism in the U.S.,” was authored by Stan Oklobdzija and Christopher Witko.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MateValueBacklash #AntiFeminism #TrumpEraPolitics #NeverMarriedMen #EconomicInsecurity #GenderEqualityBacklash #RightWingPopulism #DatingMarkets #PoliticalResearchQuarterly #MachismoAndPolitics
-
Higher daily step counts linked to better teenage mental health
Every extra walk to school, kickabout in the park or trip to the shops could be doing more…
#NewsBeep #News #Health #Adolescents #AU #Australia #Brain #Mentalhealth #Neuroscience #physicalactivity #psychiatry #Psychology #research #walking
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/912743/ -
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Childhood trauma is linked to suicidal thoughts and attempts in adults with depression and anxiety
An analysis of data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety found that among adults with depressive or anxiety disorders, those who experienced more childhood trauma were more likely to report recent suicidal thoughts and past suicide attempts. Personality traits, insomnia, and low social support statistically accounted for part of this link. The paper was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Suicide is a major global health problem, and people living with depression or anxiety are among those at the greatest risk. Experiencing abuse or other serious trauma during childhood can increase this risk further, sometimes many years after the original events. One explanation (called the diathesis-stress model) is that childhood trauma creates a lasting vulnerability that can interact with later stresses, such as mental illness, difficult life events, or lack of social support.
Childhood trauma may shape personality in ways that increase vulnerability, for example by contributing to hopelessness, aggression, neuroticism, or a reduced sense of control over one’s life. It may also affect a person’s social world, increasing the likelihood of loneliness, poor support, and repeated negative life experiences. Additionally, childhood trauma is associated with problems such as disturbed sleep, alcohol use, smoking, physical inactivity, and higher body weight. It may also alter biological stress systems, including inflammatory processes and the hormonal system, further affecting how the body responds to stress.
Study author Jasper X.M. Wiebenga and his colleagues set out to examine the association between childhood trauma and suicidal outcomes (suicidal ideation and suicide attempts), as well as various factors that might mediate this association. In other words, they were interested in identifying factors that may be affected by childhood trauma and that may, in turn, affect the risk that a person will start thinking about suicide or attempt suicide.
The researchers analyzed data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), a large, ongoing study designed to investigate depressive and anxiety disorders. They hypothesized that more severe childhood trauma would be associated both with a higher likelihood of having suicidal thoughts without having attempted suicide and with a higher likelihood of having attempted suicide.
The analysis used data collected between 2004 and 2007 from 1,572 individuals between 18 and 65 years of age who had been diagnosed with a depressive or anxiety disorder in the 12 months before enrolling in the study. Participants were recruited from across the Netherlands. Of these individuals, 24% had a depressive disorder without an anxiety disorder, 30% had an anxiety disorder without a depressive disorder, and 46% had both. Just over half (55%) reported experiencing childhood trauma. Participants’ average age was 41 years, and 67% were women.
To assess childhood trauma, the researchers used the Childhood Trauma Index, a structured interview about emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse before age 16, scored from 0 to 8 based on the number of trauma types and how often they occurred. Suicidal ideation in the past week was assessed with a shortened version of the Scale for Suicide Ideation, and lifetime suicide attempts were assessed with the question “Have you ever made a serious attempt to end your life, for instance by harming or poisoning yourself or by getting into an accident?”
Based on their answers, participants were divided into three groups: those with neither recent suicidal thoughts nor a past attempt (1,248 people), those with recent suicidal thoughts but no past attempt (231 people), and those with recent suicidal thoughts and a past attempt (93 people). People who had attempted suicide in the past but had no recent suicidal thoughts were left out of the analysis.
The researchers also used data on participants’ personality traits (the Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity-Revised, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, and the Pearlin Mastery Scale), negative life events (the Recent Life Events Questionnaire), social support, loneliness, lifestyle (alcohol consumption, smoking, sleep quality, physical activity, and body mass index), markers of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, measured from blood samples), and levels of the stress hormone cortisol (from saliva samples).
After controlling for age and sex, each one-point increase in childhood trauma score was associated with 51% higher odds of having recent suicidal thoughts without a past attempt, and 2.68 times higher odds of having recent suicidal thoughts along with a past suicide attempt. When the researchers compared participants with severe childhood trauma (a score of 4 or more) to those with no childhood trauma, the odds of recent suicidal thoughts without an attempt were 2.63 times higher. The odds of having recent suicidal thoughts and a past attempt were almost 10 times higher.
Further analyses tested each potential mediator separately. For both suicide outcomes, a number of factors showed significant indirect associations consistent with mediation: aggression, insomnia, lower social support, loneliness, neuroticism, lower extraversion, hopelessness, and a weaker sense of control over one’s life (people who feel that events in their life are outside their control were more likely to report suicidal thoughts).
Interestingly, higher levels of interleukin-6, a marker of systemic inflammation, also emerged as a potential mediator of the link between childhood trauma and suicide attempts, although it accounted for only about 3% of the association and was no longer significant once other factors were considered together. Other biological markers, including C-reactive protein and cortisol, were not significant mediators. Among lifestyle factors, only insomnia played a role; alcohol use, smoking, physical activity, and body weight were not significant mediators.
The researchers then entered the significant mediators into combined models, which test how much each factor contributes after accounting for the overlap among them. For recent suicidal thoughts without an attempt, neuroticism, lower extraversion, aggression, hopelessness, insomnia, and social support together accounted for about 66% of the association with childhood trauma. For suicidal thoughts with a past attempt, a weaker sense of control, aggression, insomnia, and social support accounted for about 39% of the association. In both cases, childhood trauma remained significantly linked to the suicide outcomes even after accounting for these factors.
“Altogether, CT [childhood trauma] was associated with both suicide outcomes, but SI+SA+ in particular. These associations were substantially attenuated in multiple-mediator models in which multiple personality traits, insomnia, and perceived social support showed significant indirect associations consistent with mediation after accounting for shared variance among variables,” the study authors concluded.
“Aggression, insomnia and social support statistically accounted for the link between CT and the outcomes SI+SA- and SI+SA+. Neuroticism, introversion, and hopelessness linked CT to SI+SA- in particular, whilst locus of control showed a significant indirect association consistent with mediation of the association between CT and SI+SA+. The findings point to potentially modifiable factors relevant for suicide prevention, especially aggression, insomnia and social support, that require further investigation in longitudinal studies.” (In the authors’ shorthand, SI+SA- refers to suicidal ideation without a suicide attempt, and SI+SA+ refers to suicidal ideation with a suicide attempt.)
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of factors associated with suicide attempts and suicidal ideation. However, it should be noted that the design of this study does not allow any causal inferences to be drawn from the results. The potential mediators were measured at the same time as suicidal thoughts, so the study cannot show whether they came before or after them. Additionally, childhood trauma was reported by participants as adults, leaving room for recall bias, although the authors note that research suggests such retrospective reports are generally reliable.
Many of the potential mediators were also correlated with one another, so the combined models capture each factor’s unique contribution rather than its full role. Finally, all participants had depressive or anxiety disorders, and the sample was predominantly Dutch and female, so the findings may not apply to the general population, to men, or to other cultures.
The paper, “Childhood trauma and suicide ideation and attempts: Examining the mediating role of psychosocial, personality, lifestyle and biological factors,” was authored by Jasper X.M. Wiebenga, Lili Lokhorst, Adriaan W. Hoogendoorn, Henriette D. Heering, Merijn Eikelenboom, Erik J. Giltay, Patricia van Oppen, and Brenda W.J.H. Penninx.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ChildhoodTrauma #SuicidalIdeation #SuicideAttempts #DepressionAnxiety #MentalHealthAwareness #Prevention #Insomnia #SocialSupport #Neuroticism #Inflammation
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Childhood trauma is linked to suicidal thoughts and attempts in adults with depression and anxiety
An analysis of data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety found that among adults with depressive or anxiety disorders, those who experienced more childhood trauma were more likely to report recent suicidal thoughts and past suicide attempts. Personality traits, insomnia, and low social support statistically accounted for part of this link. The paper was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Suicide is a major global health problem, and people living with depression or anxiety are among those at the greatest risk. Experiencing abuse or other serious trauma during childhood can increase this risk further, sometimes many years after the original events. One explanation (called the diathesis-stress model) is that childhood trauma creates a lasting vulnerability that can interact with later stresses, such as mental illness, difficult life events, or lack of social support.
Childhood trauma may shape personality in ways that increase vulnerability, for example by contributing to hopelessness, aggression, neuroticism, or a reduced sense of control over one’s life. It may also affect a person’s social world, increasing the likelihood of loneliness, poor support, and repeated negative life experiences. Additionally, childhood trauma is associated with problems such as disturbed sleep, alcohol use, smoking, physical inactivity, and higher body weight. It may also alter biological stress systems, including inflammatory processes and the hormonal system, further affecting how the body responds to stress.
Study author Jasper X.M. Wiebenga and his colleagues set out to examine the association between childhood trauma and suicidal outcomes (suicidal ideation and suicide attempts), as well as various factors that might mediate this association. In other words, they were interested in identifying factors that may be affected by childhood trauma and that may, in turn, affect the risk that a person will start thinking about suicide or attempt suicide.
The researchers analyzed data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), a large, ongoing study designed to investigate depressive and anxiety disorders. They hypothesized that more severe childhood trauma would be associated both with a higher likelihood of having suicidal thoughts without having attempted suicide and with a higher likelihood of having attempted suicide.
The analysis used data collected between 2004 and 2007 from 1,572 individuals between 18 and 65 years of age who had been diagnosed with a depressive or anxiety disorder in the 12 months before enrolling in the study. Participants were recruited from across the Netherlands. Of these individuals, 24% had a depressive disorder without an anxiety disorder, 30% had an anxiety disorder without a depressive disorder, and 46% had both. Just over half (55%) reported experiencing childhood trauma. Participants’ average age was 41 years, and 67% were women.
To assess childhood trauma, the researchers used the Childhood Trauma Index, a structured interview about emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse before age 16, scored from 0 to 8 based on the number of trauma types and how often they occurred. Suicidal ideation in the past week was assessed with a shortened version of the Scale for Suicide Ideation, and lifetime suicide attempts were assessed with the question “Have you ever made a serious attempt to end your life, for instance by harming or poisoning yourself or by getting into an accident?”
Based on their answers, participants were divided into three groups: those with neither recent suicidal thoughts nor a past attempt (1,248 people), those with recent suicidal thoughts but no past attempt (231 people), and those with recent suicidal thoughts and a past attempt (93 people). People who had attempted suicide in the past but had no recent suicidal thoughts were left out of the analysis.
The researchers also used data on participants’ personality traits (the Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity-Revised, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, and the Pearlin Mastery Scale), negative life events (the Recent Life Events Questionnaire), social support, loneliness, lifestyle (alcohol consumption, smoking, sleep quality, physical activity, and body mass index), markers of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, measured from blood samples), and levels of the stress hormone cortisol (from saliva samples).
After controlling for age and sex, each one-point increase in childhood trauma score was associated with 51% higher odds of having recent suicidal thoughts without a past attempt, and 2.68 times higher odds of having recent suicidal thoughts along with a past suicide attempt. When the researchers compared participants with severe childhood trauma (a score of 4 or more) to those with no childhood trauma, the odds of recent suicidal thoughts without an attempt were 2.63 times higher. The odds of having recent suicidal thoughts and a past attempt were almost 10 times higher.
Further analyses tested each potential mediator separately. For both suicide outcomes, a number of factors showed significant indirect associations consistent with mediation: aggression, insomnia, lower social support, loneliness, neuroticism, lower extraversion, hopelessness, and a weaker sense of control over one’s life (people who feel that events in their life are outside their control were more likely to report suicidal thoughts).
Interestingly, higher levels of interleukin-6, a marker of systemic inflammation, also emerged as a potential mediator of the link between childhood trauma and suicide attempts, although it accounted for only about 3% of the association and was no longer significant once other factors were considered together. Other biological markers, including C-reactive protein and cortisol, were not significant mediators. Among lifestyle factors, only insomnia played a role; alcohol use, smoking, physical activity, and body weight were not significant mediators.
The researchers then entered the significant mediators into combined models, which test how much each factor contributes after accounting for the overlap among them. For recent suicidal thoughts without an attempt, neuroticism, lower extraversion, aggression, hopelessness, insomnia, and social support together accounted for about 66% of the association with childhood trauma. For suicidal thoughts with a past attempt, a weaker sense of control, aggression, insomnia, and social support accounted for about 39% of the association. In both cases, childhood trauma remained significantly linked to the suicide outcomes even after accounting for these factors.
“Altogether, CT [childhood trauma] was associated with both suicide outcomes, but SI+SA+ in particular. These associations were substantially attenuated in multiple-mediator models in which multiple personality traits, insomnia, and perceived social support showed significant indirect associations consistent with mediation after accounting for shared variance among variables,” the study authors concluded.
“Aggression, insomnia and social support statistically accounted for the link between CT and the outcomes SI+SA- and SI+SA+. Neuroticism, introversion, and hopelessness linked CT to SI+SA- in particular, whilst locus of control showed a significant indirect association consistent with mediation of the association between CT and SI+SA+. The findings point to potentially modifiable factors relevant for suicide prevention, especially aggression, insomnia and social support, that require further investigation in longitudinal studies.” (In the authors’ shorthand, SI+SA- refers to suicidal ideation without a suicide attempt, and SI+SA+ refers to suicidal ideation with a suicide attempt.)
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of factors associated with suicide attempts and suicidal ideation. However, it should be noted that the design of this study does not allow any causal inferences to be drawn from the results. The potential mediators were measured at the same time as suicidal thoughts, so the study cannot show whether they came before or after them. Additionally, childhood trauma was reported by participants as adults, leaving room for recall bias, although the authors note that research suggests such retrospective reports are generally reliable.
Many of the potential mediators were also correlated with one another, so the combined models capture each factor’s unique contribution rather than its full role. Finally, all participants had depressive or anxiety disorders, and the sample was predominantly Dutch and female, so the findings may not apply to the general population, to men, or to other cultures.
The paper, “Childhood trauma and suicide ideation and attempts: Examining the mediating role of psychosocial, personality, lifestyle and biological factors,” was authored by Jasper X.M. Wiebenga, Lili Lokhorst, Adriaan W. Hoogendoorn, Henriette D. Heering, Merijn Eikelenboom, Erik J. Giltay, Patricia van Oppen, and Brenda W.J.H. Penninx.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ChildhoodTrauma #SuicidalIdeation #SuicideAttempts #DepressionAnxiety #MentalHealthAwareness #Prevention #Insomnia #SocialSupport #Neuroticism #Inflammation
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Childhood trauma is linked to suicidal thoughts and attempts in adults with depression and anxiety
An analysis of data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety found that among adults with depressive or anxiety disorders, those who experienced more childhood trauma were more likely to report recent suicidal thoughts and past suicide attempts. Personality traits, insomnia, and low social support statistically accounted for part of this link. The paper was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Suicide is a major global health problem, and people living with depression or anxiety are among those at the greatest risk. Experiencing abuse or other serious trauma during childhood can increase this risk further, sometimes many years after the original events. One explanation (called the diathesis-stress model) is that childhood trauma creates a lasting vulnerability that can interact with later stresses, such as mental illness, difficult life events, or lack of social support.
Childhood trauma may shape personality in ways that increase vulnerability, for example by contributing to hopelessness, aggression, neuroticism, or a reduced sense of control over one’s life. It may also affect a person’s social world, increasing the likelihood of loneliness, poor support, and repeated negative life experiences. Additionally, childhood trauma is associated with problems such as disturbed sleep, alcohol use, smoking, physical inactivity, and higher body weight. It may also alter biological stress systems, including inflammatory processes and the hormonal system, further affecting how the body responds to stress.
Study author Jasper X.M. Wiebenga and his colleagues set out to examine the association between childhood trauma and suicidal outcomes (suicidal ideation and suicide attempts), as well as various factors that might mediate this association. In other words, they were interested in identifying factors that may be affected by childhood trauma and that may, in turn, affect the risk that a person will start thinking about suicide or attempt suicide.
The researchers analyzed data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), a large, ongoing study designed to investigate depressive and anxiety disorders. They hypothesized that more severe childhood trauma would be associated both with a higher likelihood of having suicidal thoughts without having attempted suicide and with a higher likelihood of having attempted suicide.
The analysis used data collected between 2004 and 2007 from 1,572 individuals between 18 and 65 years of age who had been diagnosed with a depressive or anxiety disorder in the 12 months before enrolling in the study. Participants were recruited from across the Netherlands. Of these individuals, 24% had a depressive disorder without an anxiety disorder, 30% had an anxiety disorder without a depressive disorder, and 46% had both. Just over half (55%) reported experiencing childhood trauma. Participants’ average age was 41 years, and 67% were women.
To assess childhood trauma, the researchers used the Childhood Trauma Index, a structured interview about emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse before age 16, scored from 0 to 8 based on the number of trauma types and how often they occurred. Suicidal ideation in the past week was assessed with a shortened version of the Scale for Suicide Ideation, and lifetime suicide attempts were assessed with the question “Have you ever made a serious attempt to end your life, for instance by harming or poisoning yourself or by getting into an accident?”
Based on their answers, participants were divided into three groups: those with neither recent suicidal thoughts nor a past attempt (1,248 people), those with recent suicidal thoughts but no past attempt (231 people), and those with recent suicidal thoughts and a past attempt (93 people). People who had attempted suicide in the past but had no recent suicidal thoughts were left out of the analysis.
The researchers also used data on participants’ personality traits (the Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity-Revised, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, and the Pearlin Mastery Scale), negative life events (the Recent Life Events Questionnaire), social support, loneliness, lifestyle (alcohol consumption, smoking, sleep quality, physical activity, and body mass index), markers of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, measured from blood samples), and levels of the stress hormone cortisol (from saliva samples).
After controlling for age and sex, each one-point increase in childhood trauma score was associated with 51% higher odds of having recent suicidal thoughts without a past attempt, and 2.68 times higher odds of having recent suicidal thoughts along with a past suicide attempt. When the researchers compared participants with severe childhood trauma (a score of 4 or more) to those with no childhood trauma, the odds of recent suicidal thoughts without an attempt were 2.63 times higher. The odds of having recent suicidal thoughts and a past attempt were almost 10 times higher.
Further analyses tested each potential mediator separately. For both suicide outcomes, a number of factors showed significant indirect associations consistent with mediation: aggression, insomnia, lower social support, loneliness, neuroticism, lower extraversion, hopelessness, and a weaker sense of control over one’s life (people who feel that events in their life are outside their control were more likely to report suicidal thoughts).
Interestingly, higher levels of interleukin-6, a marker of systemic inflammation, also emerged as a potential mediator of the link between childhood trauma and suicide attempts, although it accounted for only about 3% of the association and was no longer significant once other factors were considered together. Other biological markers, including C-reactive protein and cortisol, were not significant mediators. Among lifestyle factors, only insomnia played a role; alcohol use, smoking, physical activity, and body weight were not significant mediators.
The researchers then entered the significant mediators into combined models, which test how much each factor contributes after accounting for the overlap among them. For recent suicidal thoughts without an attempt, neuroticism, lower extraversion, aggression, hopelessness, insomnia, and social support together accounted for about 66% of the association with childhood trauma. For suicidal thoughts with a past attempt, a weaker sense of control, aggression, insomnia, and social support accounted for about 39% of the association. In both cases, childhood trauma remained significantly linked to the suicide outcomes even after accounting for these factors.
“Altogether, CT [childhood trauma] was associated with both suicide outcomes, but SI+SA+ in particular. These associations were substantially attenuated in multiple-mediator models in which multiple personality traits, insomnia, and perceived social support showed significant indirect associations consistent with mediation after accounting for shared variance among variables,” the study authors concluded.
“Aggression, insomnia and social support statistically accounted for the link between CT and the outcomes SI+SA- and SI+SA+. Neuroticism, introversion, and hopelessness linked CT to SI+SA- in particular, whilst locus of control showed a significant indirect association consistent with mediation of the association between CT and SI+SA+. The findings point to potentially modifiable factors relevant for suicide prevention, especially aggression, insomnia and social support, that require further investigation in longitudinal studies.” (In the authors’ shorthand, SI+SA- refers to suicidal ideation without a suicide attempt, and SI+SA+ refers to suicidal ideation with a suicide attempt.)
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of factors associated with suicide attempts and suicidal ideation. However, it should be noted that the design of this study does not allow any causal inferences to be drawn from the results. The potential mediators were measured at the same time as suicidal thoughts, so the study cannot show whether they came before or after them. Additionally, childhood trauma was reported by participants as adults, leaving room for recall bias, although the authors note that research suggests such retrospective reports are generally reliable.
Many of the potential mediators were also correlated with one another, so the combined models capture each factor’s unique contribution rather than its full role. Finally, all participants had depressive or anxiety disorders, and the sample was predominantly Dutch and female, so the findings may not apply to the general population, to men, or to other cultures.
The paper, “Childhood trauma and suicide ideation and attempts: Examining the mediating role of psychosocial, personality, lifestyle and biological factors,” was authored by Jasper X.M. Wiebenga, Lili Lokhorst, Adriaan W. Hoogendoorn, Henriette D. Heering, Merijn Eikelenboom, Erik J. Giltay, Patricia van Oppen, and Brenda W.J.H. Penninx.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ChildhoodTrauma #SuicidalIdeation #SuicideAttempts #DepressionAnxiety #MentalHealthAwareness #Prevention #Insomnia #SocialSupport #Neuroticism #Inflammation
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 05:46PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
Federal Researchers Ramp Up AI for Faster #ClinicalTrials: @HHSGov Research Arm Backs Using #AI, Predictive Models and Automation to Speed Research https://t.co/rGHufbfs5n @ARPA_H
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/ under the title "Latest"
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Healthcare security & privacy posts not related to IT or infosec are at @HIPAABot . Even so, they mix in some infosec with the legal & regulatory information.
-------------------------------------------------
#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 05:46PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
Federal Researchers Ramp Up AI for Faster #ClinicalTrials: @HHSGov Research Arm Backs Using #AI, Predictive Models and Automation to Speed Research https://t.co/rGHufbfs5n @ARPA_H
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/ under the title "Latest"
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Healthcare security & privacy posts not related to IT or infosec are at @HIPAABot . Even so, they mix in some infosec with the legal & regulatory information.
-------------------------------------------------
#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 05:46PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
Federal Researchers Ramp Up AI for Faster #ClinicalTrials: @HHSGov Research Arm Backs Using #AI, Predictive Models and Automation to Speed Research https://t.co/rGHufbfs5n @ARPA_H
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/ under the title "Latest"
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Healthcare security & privacy posts not related to IT or infosec are at @HIPAABot . Even so, they mix in some infosec with the legal & regulatory information.
-------------------------------------------------
#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 04:30PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Americans’ support for political violence fell in 2026, but MAGA supporters remain the most likely to justify it
A recent nationally representative survey suggests that American public support for political violence decreased heading into the 2026 midterm elections, contrary to popular fears. The findings indicate that while partisan tensions remain high, about three-quarters of U.S. adults say political violence is never justified in general, and very few say they would be willing to commit it. The research was published as a preprint on SocArXiv, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Political violence involves the use of physical force to advance a political agenda. This can range from damaging property to threatening, injuring, or killing individuals for ideological reasons. Aside from the immediate physical harm, political violence has long-term effects on public mental health and social stability. As the 2026 midterm elections approached, many political observers and citizens alike expressed concern that a highly polarized environment might lead to a spike in violent behavior.
These fears are sometimes amplified by public opinion polls, but survey design can play a large role in how these attitudes are measured. A 2022 study suggested that poorly designed polling questions often inflate apparent support for partisan violence, pointing out that Americans’ actual willingness to commit physical harm is much narrower than some surveys imply.
To accurately track these attitudes over time, a research team led by Garen J. Wintemute, a distinguished professor of emergency medicine, the Baker-Teret Chair in Violence Prevention, and director of the Centers for Violence Prevention at the University of California, Davis, launched an annual, nationally representative survey project in 2022.
“Political violence poses a serious threat to the United States,” Wintemute told PsyPost. “We are seeking to understand factors associated with justification for and willingness to commit political violence.”
As part of this ongoing monitoring effort, a study covered by PsyPost in 2025 found that individuals who identify as “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) Republicans were more likely to view political violence as justified compared to other Americans, though they were not necessarily more willing to personally carry out such acts. With the 2026 midterms looming and several recent high-profile incidents of government-initiated violence in the news, chiefly in connection with mass deportation efforts, the researchers anticipated that public appetite for political violence might increase.
This expectation was bolstered by the fact that their 2025 survey had found an increase in justification for violence compared to 2024. They conducted the mid-2026 wave of their survey to test whether this sentiment continued to rise.
The researchers analyzed data from the fifth wave of their annual survey, which was administered online between May 15 and June 15, 2026. The sample included 7,752 adult participants drawn from the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, a probability-based panel designed to reflect the demographic makeup of the noninstitutionalized U.S. population.
The survey measured three main concepts: respondents’ beliefs about the potential for future civil war, their justification for using political violence, and their personal willingness to engage in it. For these questions, the survey explicitly defined violence as physical force strong enough that it could cause pain or injury to a person.
Respondents first indicated whether they felt violence was ever justified in general or to achieve any of 21 specific political goals. These goals included preserving a certain American way of life, stopping police violence, preventing voter fraud, or stopping illegal immigration. A new question in the 2026 survey asked those who said violence was “never justified” in general and for all 21 objectives to clarify their stance, checking to see if their rejection of violence was unconditional.
The subset of respondents who said violence was at least sometimes justified for at least one objective (about three-quarters of the sample) were then asked how willing they would be to personally damage property, threaten people, injure someone, or kill someone to advance a political objective. They were also asked about their willingness to target specific populations, such as elected officials, police officers, election workers, or members of an opposing political party. Finally, all participants were asked how likely they were to use a firearm in a situation where they felt political violence was justified.
The results point to a broad decline in support for political violence. Out of 53 survey items measuring anticipation of, justification for, and willingness to commit political violence, 51 showed small average decreases between mid-2025 and mid-2026, and 35 of these decreases were statistically significant.
“The general perception is that political violence is common and increasing,” Wintemute noted. “Neither of those things is true. And in our survey respondents, support for political violence fell from 2025 to 2026, across the political spectrum.”
In 2026, the share who said violence was usually or always justified for any single objective never exceeded 13 percent. But 35.8 percent said it was justified for at least one of the 21 objectives, down significantly from 38.7 percent in 2025. Additionally, among the nearly one-quarter of respondents who said violence was never justified for any of the listed objectives, over 91 percent clarified that their rejection was absolute and unconditional.
When it came to personal willingness to carry out violence, the numbers were even lower. Among the respondents who felt political violence was at least sometimes justified, only about 2 percent said they were “very or completely willing” to damage property, threaten, injure, or kill another person. Willingness to act in a group or as a lone actor also declined from the previous year.
When asked about firearms, 6.7 percent said it was very or extremely likely they would be armed in a situation where they felt political violence was justified, down from 9.1 percent. Only 1.5 percent said it was very or extremely likely they would shoot someone, and 1.1 percent said it was very or extremely likely they would threaten someone with a gun. All four firearm measures declined significantly from the previous year.
Only two measures rose: expectation of a civil war, which increased significantly (from 7.1 to 8.0 percent strongly agreeing), and the belief that one was needed to “set things right,” which edged up from 3.3 to 3.9 percent, a change that was not statistically significant.
The researchers also examined differences among political groups. MAGA Republicans and MAGA supporters who do not identify as Republicans tended to report higher levels of justification for political violence compared to Democrats and non-MAGA Republicans. For instance, 50.5 percent of MAGA Republicans and 52.5 percent of non-Republican MAGA supporters considered violence usually or always justified to advance at least one objective, compared with 35.8 percent overall. However, strong Democrats were the most supportive of violence “to remove Donald Trump from the presidency this year.”
Among respondents who considered violence justified, non-Republican MAGA supporters were more willing than others to commit violence against 12 of 14 target populations, ranking second behind strong Democrats for members of private armed militias and federal immigration agents. Declines in support occurred across the political spectrum overall, though changes within individual groups were mostly small. MAGA Republicans moved slightly in the other direction on several items about the potential need for violence and civil war.
“We found, as others have, that support for political violence is generally stronger on the political right than on the political left,” Wintemute explained. Noting that most respondents reject political violence in general, he added, “Willingness to commit political violence is another matter; it is rare across the board. The vast majority of respondents in our surveys reject political violence altogether, and most of those who consider it acceptable are not willing to become involved in it themselves.”
This dynamic mirrors the team’s earlier findings. In a separate study recently published in PLOS One, the researchers analyzed baseline data collected from the same survey project in 2022. They found that Republicans and conservatives were much more likely than Democrats and liberals to view political violence as justified for specific objectives.
James Druckman, a professor of political science at the University of Rochester who was not involved in the research, noted that this differs from much earlier work. “This contrasts with prior work that typically does not find differences across parties,” he told PsyPost. “The focus on various objectives also is novel.”
The 2022 data also revealed that this partisan gap disappeared when respondents were asked about their own violent intentions. Just as in the mid-2026 survey, fewer than 3 percent of people in 2022 were willing to threaten, injure, or kill someone for political purposes, with no meaningful differences between party affiliations. While strong Republicans in 2022 were more likely to anticipate being armed during a hypothetical political conflict, the actual willingness to use a weapon against another person remained exceptionally low across the board.
“They differentiate justification from willingness which is important, and show that very few people are willing to actually engage in violence,” Druckman noted. He added that the design of the 2022 study bolstered his confidence in the results: “I appreciate the high quality sample and inclusion of items on non-political violence prior to the political violence items.”
That survey asked about violence in nonpolitical situations, such as self-defense, before turning to political violence. “I also appreciate looking at self-defensive violence, showing it is more justifiable,” Druckman said.
These findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in 2024, which found a similar nationwide decrease in support for political violence and belief in an imminent civil war between 2022 and 2023. Together, the data suggest declining support for political violence, even during periods of intense political stress.
In a statement accompanying the research, the study authors emphasized the power of public norms. “These findings are clear,” they wrote. “Entrapment in a spiral of escalating political violence is not inevitable in the United States. Those who promote political violence should recognize that they do not have the public’s support and that promoting violence may exact a political cost.”
“We who reject political violence must make our rejection known to our families, friends, and larger social networks,” the researchers added. “A public climate of non-acceptance for violence can help reduce the likelihood of it occurring.”
As for the 2022 data, Druckman cautioned that public opinion is deeply tied to the specific moment it is measured. “It is important to contextualize this to 2022 and that Democrats held power and it was during the pandemic still and major economic downturns and a gun-buying spike,” he explained. “One has to think carefully about generalizing (as would be the case at any point in time). The objectives also leaned more in the directions of items Republicans may have stronger beliefs about.”
This raises “an interesting question,” Druckman added: “If this is all a function of the timing in context or psychological predispositions or some mix?”
There are also a few things to keep in mind when interpreting the mid-2026 findings. First, survey responses about hypothetical willingness to commit violence do not perfectly predict how people will behave in real life. Some respondents might overstate their willingness to fight for a cause, while others might underreport their aggressive intentions because they know violence is socially unacceptable.
Also, the survey only asked about willingness to commit violence to the subset of people who first agreed that violence could be justified. Because different political groups passed this initial filter at different rates, the follow-up comparisons about personal willingness are based on varied sample proportions.
Finally, the survey was fielded over a single month in mid-2026, a period that included a mass shooting at a San Diego mosque, the president’s proposal to compensate supporters who had committed political violence, and ongoing international conflicts. The authors also note that small overall changes in the data could potentially mask larger individual shifts that cancel each other out.
Moving forward, the research team hopes to translate these findings into proactive solutions. “Next year we hope to launch a randomized trial of an intervention to prevent political violence,” Wintemute said.
The study, “Decreased Support for Political Violence in the United States in Mid-2026: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey,” was authored by Garen J. Wintemute, Sonia L. Robinson, Daniel J. Tancredi, Krista Neumann, Shaina Sta. Cruz, Aaron B. Shev, Elizabeth A. Tomsich, Bradley Velasquez, Mona A. Wright, and Veronica A. Pear.
(Note: The article has been updated with quotes from James Druckman)
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PoliticalViolence #Midterms2026 #PublicOpinion #MAGA #PoliticalViolenceWhenJustified #ViolencePrevention #SurveyResearch #IpsosKnowledgePanel #PublicNorms #CivilDiscourse
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 04:30PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Americans’ support for political violence fell in 2026, but MAGA supporters remain the most likely to justify it
A recent nationally representative survey suggests that American public support for political violence decreased heading into the 2026 midterm elections, contrary to popular fears. The findings indicate that while partisan tensions remain high, about three-quarters of U.S. adults say political violence is never justified in general, and very few say they would be willing to commit it. The research was published as a preprint on SocArXiv, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Political violence involves the use of physical force to advance a political agenda. This can range from damaging property to threatening, injuring, or killing individuals for ideological reasons. Aside from the immediate physical harm, political violence has long-term effects on public mental health and social stability. As the 2026 midterm elections approached, many political observers and citizens alike expressed concern that a highly polarized environment might lead to a spike in violent behavior.
These fears are sometimes amplified by public opinion polls, but survey design can play a large role in how these attitudes are measured. A 2022 study suggested that poorly designed polling questions often inflate apparent support for partisan violence, pointing out that Americans’ actual willingness to commit physical harm is much narrower than some surveys imply.
To accurately track these attitudes over time, a research team led by Garen J. Wintemute, a distinguished professor of emergency medicine, the Baker-Teret Chair in Violence Prevention, and director of the Centers for Violence Prevention at the University of California, Davis, launched an annual, nationally representative survey project in 2022.
“Political violence poses a serious threat to the United States,” Wintemute told PsyPost. “We are seeking to understand factors associated with justification for and willingness to commit political violence.”
As part of this ongoing monitoring effort, a study covered by PsyPost in 2025 found that individuals who identify as “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) Republicans were more likely to view political violence as justified compared to other Americans, though they were not necessarily more willing to personally carry out such acts. With the 2026 midterms looming and several recent high-profile incidents of government-initiated violence in the news, chiefly in connection with mass deportation efforts, the researchers anticipated that public appetite for political violence might increase.
This expectation was bolstered by the fact that their 2025 survey had found an increase in justification for violence compared to 2024. They conducted the mid-2026 wave of their survey to test whether this sentiment continued to rise.
The researchers analyzed data from the fifth wave of their annual survey, which was administered online between May 15 and June 15, 2026. The sample included 7,752 adult participants drawn from the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, a probability-based panel designed to reflect the demographic makeup of the noninstitutionalized U.S. population.
The survey measured three main concepts: respondents’ beliefs about the potential for future civil war, their justification for using political violence, and their personal willingness to engage in it. For these questions, the survey explicitly defined violence as physical force strong enough that it could cause pain or injury to a person.
Respondents first indicated whether they felt violence was ever justified in general or to achieve any of 21 specific political goals. These goals included preserving a certain American way of life, stopping police violence, preventing voter fraud, or stopping illegal immigration. A new question in the 2026 survey asked those who said violence was “never justified” in general and for all 21 objectives to clarify their stance, checking to see if their rejection of violence was unconditional.
The subset of respondents who said violence was at least sometimes justified for at least one objective (about three-quarters of the sample) were then asked how willing they would be to personally damage property, threaten people, injure someone, or kill someone to advance a political objective. They were also asked about their willingness to target specific populations, such as elected officials, police officers, election workers, or members of an opposing political party. Finally, all participants were asked how likely they were to use a firearm in a situation where they felt political violence was justified.
The results point to a broad decline in support for political violence. Out of 53 survey items measuring anticipation of, justification for, and willingness to commit political violence, 51 showed small average decreases between mid-2025 and mid-2026, and 35 of these decreases were statistically significant.
“The general perception is that political violence is common and increasing,” Wintemute noted. “Neither of those things is true. And in our survey respondents, support for political violence fell from 2025 to 2026, across the political spectrum.”
In 2026, the share who said violence was usually or always justified for any single objective never exceeded 13 percent. But 35.8 percent said it was justified for at least one of the 21 objectives, down significantly from 38.7 percent in 2025. Additionally, among the nearly one-quarter of respondents who said violence was never justified for any of the listed objectives, over 91 percent clarified that their rejection was absolute and unconditional.
When it came to personal willingness to carry out violence, the numbers were even lower. Among the respondents who felt political violence was at least sometimes justified, only about 2 percent said they were “very or completely willing” to damage property, threaten, injure, or kill another person. Willingness to act in a group or as a lone actor also declined from the previous year.
When asked about firearms, 6.7 percent said it was very or extremely likely they would be armed in a situation where they felt political violence was justified, down from 9.1 percent. Only 1.5 percent said it was very or extremely likely they would shoot someone, and 1.1 percent said it was very or extremely likely they would threaten someone with a gun. All four firearm measures declined significantly from the previous year.
Only two measures rose: expectation of a civil war, which increased significantly (from 7.1 to 8.0 percent strongly agreeing), and the belief that one was needed to “set things right,” which edged up from 3.3 to 3.9 percent, a change that was not statistically significant.
The researchers also examined differences among political groups. MAGA Republicans and MAGA supporters who do not identify as Republicans tended to report higher levels of justification for political violence compared to Democrats and non-MAGA Republicans. For instance, 50.5 percent of MAGA Republicans and 52.5 percent of non-Republican MAGA supporters considered violence usually or always justified to advance at least one objective, compared with 35.8 percent overall. However, strong Democrats were the most supportive of violence “to remove Donald Trump from the presidency this year.”
Among respondents who considered violence justified, non-Republican MAGA supporters were more willing than others to commit violence against 12 of 14 target populations, ranking second behind strong Democrats for members of private armed militias and federal immigration agents. Declines in support occurred across the political spectrum overall, though changes within individual groups were mostly small. MAGA Republicans moved slightly in the other direction on several items about the potential need for violence and civil war.
“We found, as others have, that support for political violence is generally stronger on the political right than on the political left,” Wintemute explained. Noting that most respondents reject political violence in general, he added, “Willingness to commit political violence is another matter; it is rare across the board. The vast majority of respondents in our surveys reject political violence altogether, and most of those who consider it acceptable are not willing to become involved in it themselves.”
This dynamic mirrors the team’s earlier findings. In a separate study recently published in PLOS One, the researchers analyzed baseline data collected from the same survey project in 2022. They found that Republicans and conservatives were much more likely than Democrats and liberals to view political violence as justified for specific objectives.
James Druckman, a professor of political science at the University of Rochester who was not involved in the research, noted that this differs from much earlier work. “This contrasts with prior work that typically does not find differences across parties,” he told PsyPost. “The focus on various objectives also is novel.”
The 2022 data also revealed that this partisan gap disappeared when respondents were asked about their own violent intentions. Just as in the mid-2026 survey, fewer than 3 percent of people in 2022 were willing to threaten, injure, or kill someone for political purposes, with no meaningful differences between party affiliations. While strong Republicans in 2022 were more likely to anticipate being armed during a hypothetical political conflict, the actual willingness to use a weapon against another person remained exceptionally low across the board.
“They differentiate justification from willingness which is important, and show that very few people are willing to actually engage in violence,” Druckman noted. He added that the design of the 2022 study bolstered his confidence in the results: “I appreciate the high quality sample and inclusion of items on non-political violence prior to the political violence items.”
That survey asked about violence in nonpolitical situations, such as self-defense, before turning to political violence. “I also appreciate looking at self-defensive violence, showing it is more justifiable,” Druckman said.
These findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in 2024, which found a similar nationwide decrease in support for political violence and belief in an imminent civil war between 2022 and 2023. Together, the data suggest declining support for political violence, even during periods of intense political stress.
In a statement accompanying the research, the study authors emphasized the power of public norms. “These findings are clear,” they wrote. “Entrapment in a spiral of escalating political violence is not inevitable in the United States. Those who promote political violence should recognize that they do not have the public’s support and that promoting violence may exact a political cost.”
“We who reject political violence must make our rejection known to our families, friends, and larger social networks,” the researchers added. “A public climate of non-acceptance for violence can help reduce the likelihood of it occurring.”
As for the 2022 data, Druckman cautioned that public opinion is deeply tied to the specific moment it is measured. “It is important to contextualize this to 2022 and that Democrats held power and it was during the pandemic still and major economic downturns and a gun-buying spike,” he explained. “One has to think carefully about generalizing (as would be the case at any point in time). The objectives also leaned more in the directions of items Republicans may have stronger beliefs about.”
This raises “an interesting question,” Druckman added: “If this is all a function of the timing in context or psychological predispositions or some mix?”
There are also a few things to keep in mind when interpreting the mid-2026 findings. First, survey responses about hypothetical willingness to commit violence do not perfectly predict how people will behave in real life. Some respondents might overstate their willingness to fight for a cause, while others might underreport their aggressive intentions because they know violence is socially unacceptable.
Also, the survey only asked about willingness to commit violence to the subset of people who first agreed that violence could be justified. Because different political groups passed this initial filter at different rates, the follow-up comparisons about personal willingness are based on varied sample proportions.
Finally, the survey was fielded over a single month in mid-2026, a period that included a mass shooting at a San Diego mosque, the president’s proposal to compensate supporters who had committed political violence, and ongoing international conflicts. The authors also note that small overall changes in the data could potentially mask larger individual shifts that cancel each other out.
Moving forward, the research team hopes to translate these findings into proactive solutions. “Next year we hope to launch a randomized trial of an intervention to prevent political violence,” Wintemute said.
The study, “Decreased Support for Political Violence in the United States in Mid-2026: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey,” was authored by Garen J. Wintemute, Sonia L. Robinson, Daniel J. Tancredi, Krista Neumann, Shaina Sta. Cruz, Aaron B. Shev, Elizabeth A. Tomsich, Bradley Velasquez, Mona A. Wright, and Veronica A. Pear.
(Note: The article has been updated with quotes from James Druckman)
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PoliticalViolence #Midterms2026 #PublicOpinion #MAGA #PoliticalViolenceWhenJustified #ViolencePrevention #SurveyResearch #IpsosKnowledgePanel #PublicNorms #CivilDiscourse
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 04:30PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Americans’ support for political violence fell in 2026, but MAGA supporters remain the most likely to justify it
A recent nationally representative survey suggests that American public support for political violence decreased heading into the 2026 midterm elections, contrary to popular fears. The findings indicate that while partisan tensions remain high, about three-quarters of U.S. adults say political violence is never justified in general, and very few say they would be willing to commit it. The research was published as a preprint on SocArXiv, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Political violence involves the use of physical force to advance a political agenda. This can range from damaging property to threatening, injuring, or killing individuals for ideological reasons. Aside from the immediate physical harm, political violence has long-term effects on public mental health and social stability. As the 2026 midterm elections approached, many political observers and citizens alike expressed concern that a highly polarized environment might lead to a spike in violent behavior.
These fears are sometimes amplified by public opinion polls, but survey design can play a large role in how these attitudes are measured. A 2022 study suggested that poorly designed polling questions often inflate apparent support for partisan violence, pointing out that Americans’ actual willingness to commit physical harm is much narrower than some surveys imply.
To accurately track these attitudes over time, a research team led by Garen J. Wintemute, a distinguished professor of emergency medicine, the Baker-Teret Chair in Violence Prevention, and director of the Centers for Violence Prevention at the University of California, Davis, launched an annual, nationally representative survey project in 2022.
“Political violence poses a serious threat to the United States,” Wintemute told PsyPost. “We are seeking to understand factors associated with justification for and willingness to commit political violence.”
As part of this ongoing monitoring effort, a study covered by PsyPost in 2025 found that individuals who identify as “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) Republicans were more likely to view political violence as justified compared to other Americans, though they were not necessarily more willing to personally carry out such acts. With the 2026 midterms looming and several recent high-profile incidents of government-initiated violence in the news, chiefly in connection with mass deportation efforts, the researchers anticipated that public appetite for political violence might increase.
This expectation was bolstered by the fact that their 2025 survey had found an increase in justification for violence compared to 2024. They conducted the mid-2026 wave of their survey to test whether this sentiment continued to rise.
The researchers analyzed data from the fifth wave of their annual survey, which was administered online between May 15 and June 15, 2026. The sample included 7,752 adult participants drawn from the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, a probability-based panel designed to reflect the demographic makeup of the noninstitutionalized U.S. population.
The survey measured three main concepts: respondents’ beliefs about the potential for future civil war, their justification for using political violence, and their personal willingness to engage in it. For these questions, the survey explicitly defined violence as physical force strong enough that it could cause pain or injury to a person.
Respondents first indicated whether they felt violence was ever justified in general or to achieve any of 21 specific political goals. These goals included preserving a certain American way of life, stopping police violence, preventing voter fraud, or stopping illegal immigration. A new question in the 2026 survey asked those who said violence was “never justified” in general and for all 21 objectives to clarify their stance, checking to see if their rejection of violence was unconditional.
The subset of respondents who said violence was at least sometimes justified for at least one objective (about three-quarters of the sample) were then asked how willing they would be to personally damage property, threaten people, injure someone, or kill someone to advance a political objective. They were also asked about their willingness to target specific populations, such as elected officials, police officers, election workers, or members of an opposing political party. Finally, all participants were asked how likely they were to use a firearm in a situation where they felt political violence was justified.
The results point to a broad decline in support for political violence. Out of 53 survey items measuring anticipation of, justification for, and willingness to commit political violence, 51 showed small average decreases between mid-2025 and mid-2026, and 35 of these decreases were statistically significant.
“The general perception is that political violence is common and increasing,” Wintemute noted. “Neither of those things is true. And in our survey respondents, support for political violence fell from 2025 to 2026, across the political spectrum.”
In 2026, the share who said violence was usually or always justified for any single objective never exceeded 13 percent. But 35.8 percent said it was justified for at least one of the 21 objectives, down significantly from 38.7 percent in 2025. Additionally, among the nearly one-quarter of respondents who said violence was never justified for any of the listed objectives, over 91 percent clarified that their rejection was absolute and unconditional.
When it came to personal willingness to carry out violence, the numbers were even lower. Among the respondents who felt political violence was at least sometimes justified, only about 2 percent said they were “very or completely willing” to damage property, threaten, injure, or kill another person. Willingness to act in a group or as a lone actor also declined from the previous year.
When asked about firearms, 6.7 percent said it was very or extremely likely they would be armed in a situation where they felt political violence was justified, down from 9.1 percent. Only 1.5 percent said it was very or extremely likely they would shoot someone, and 1.1 percent said it was very or extremely likely they would threaten someone with a gun. All four firearm measures declined significantly from the previous year.
Only two measures rose: expectation of a civil war, which increased significantly (from 7.1 to 8.0 percent strongly agreeing), and the belief that one was needed to “set things right,” which edged up from 3.3 to 3.9 percent, a change that was not statistically significant.
The researchers also examined differences among political groups. MAGA Republicans and MAGA supporters who do not identify as Republicans tended to report higher levels of justification for political violence compared to Democrats and non-MAGA Republicans. For instance, 50.5 percent of MAGA Republicans and 52.5 percent of non-Republican MAGA supporters considered violence usually or always justified to advance at least one objective, compared with 35.8 percent overall. However, strong Democrats were the most supportive of violence “to remove Donald Trump from the presidency this year.”
Among respondents who considered violence justified, non-Republican MAGA supporters were more willing than others to commit violence against 12 of 14 target populations, ranking second behind strong Democrats for members of private armed militias and federal immigration agents. Declines in support occurred across the political spectrum overall, though changes within individual groups were mostly small. MAGA Republicans moved slightly in the other direction on several items about the potential need for violence and civil war.
“We found, as others have, that support for political violence is generally stronger on the political right than on the political left,” Wintemute explained. Noting that most respondents reject political violence in general, he added, “Willingness to commit political violence is another matter; it is rare across the board. The vast majority of respondents in our surveys reject political violence altogether, and most of those who consider it acceptable are not willing to become involved in it themselves.”
This dynamic mirrors the team’s earlier findings. In a separate study recently published in PLOS One, the researchers analyzed baseline data collected from the same survey project in 2022. They found that Republicans and conservatives were much more likely than Democrats and liberals to view political violence as justified for specific objectives.
James Druckman, a professor of political science at the University of Rochester who was not involved in the research, noted that this differs from much earlier work. “This contrasts with prior work that typically does not find differences across parties,” he told PsyPost. “The focus on various objectives also is novel.”
The 2022 data also revealed that this partisan gap disappeared when respondents were asked about their own violent intentions. Just as in the mid-2026 survey, fewer than 3 percent of people in 2022 were willing to threaten, injure, or kill someone for political purposes, with no meaningful differences between party affiliations. While strong Republicans in 2022 were more likely to anticipate being armed during a hypothetical political conflict, the actual willingness to use a weapon against another person remained exceptionally low across the board.
“They differentiate justification from willingness which is important, and show that very few people are willing to actually engage in violence,” Druckman noted. He added that the design of the 2022 study bolstered his confidence in the results: “I appreciate the high quality sample and inclusion of items on non-political violence prior to the political violence items.”
That survey asked about violence in nonpolitical situations, such as self-defense, before turning to political violence. “I also appreciate looking at self-defensive violence, showing it is more justifiable,” Druckman said.
These findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in 2024, which found a similar nationwide decrease in support for political violence and belief in an imminent civil war between 2022 and 2023. Together, the data suggest declining support for political violence, even during periods of intense political stress.
In a statement accompanying the research, the study authors emphasized the power of public norms. “These findings are clear,” they wrote. “Entrapment in a spiral of escalating political violence is not inevitable in the United States. Those who promote political violence should recognize that they do not have the public’s support and that promoting violence may exact a political cost.”
“We who reject political violence must make our rejection known to our families, friends, and larger social networks,” the researchers added. “A public climate of non-acceptance for violence can help reduce the likelihood of it occurring.”
As for the 2022 data, Druckman cautioned that public opinion is deeply tied to the specific moment it is measured. “It is important to contextualize this to 2022 and that Democrats held power and it was during the pandemic still and major economic downturns and a gun-buying spike,” he explained. “One has to think carefully about generalizing (as would be the case at any point in time). The objectives also leaned more in the directions of items Republicans may have stronger beliefs about.”
This raises “an interesting question,” Druckman added: “If this is all a function of the timing in context or psychological predispositions or some mix?”
There are also a few things to keep in mind when interpreting the mid-2026 findings. First, survey responses about hypothetical willingness to commit violence do not perfectly predict how people will behave in real life. Some respondents might overstate their willingness to fight for a cause, while others might underreport their aggressive intentions because they know violence is socially unacceptable.
Also, the survey only asked about willingness to commit violence to the subset of people who first agreed that violence could be justified. Because different political groups passed this initial filter at different rates, the follow-up comparisons about personal willingness are based on varied sample proportions.
Finally, the survey was fielded over a single month in mid-2026, a period that included a mass shooting at a San Diego mosque, the president’s proposal to compensate supporters who had committed political violence, and ongoing international conflicts. The authors also note that small overall changes in the data could potentially mask larger individual shifts that cancel each other out.
Moving forward, the research team hopes to translate these findings into proactive solutions. “Next year we hope to launch a randomized trial of an intervention to prevent political violence,” Wintemute said.
The study, “Decreased Support for Political Violence in the United States in Mid-2026: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey,” was authored by Garen J. Wintemute, Sonia L. Robinson, Daniel J. Tancredi, Krista Neumann, Shaina Sta. Cruz, Aaron B. Shev, Elizabeth A. Tomsich, Bradley Velasquez, Mona A. Wright, and Veronica A. Pear.
(Note: The article has been updated with quotes from James Druckman)
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PoliticalViolence #Midterms2026 #PublicOpinion #MAGA #PoliticalViolenceWhenJustified #ViolencePrevention #SurveyResearch #IpsosKnowledgePanel #PublicNorms #CivilDiscourse
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study identifies four unique migraine phenotypes using artificial intelligence
A recent study found that artificial intelligence algorithms can accurately identify people with migraines without relying on any information about their head pain. Published in the journal Neurology, the research suggests that migraines exist on a spectrum of distinct biological and clinical subtypes rather than as a single condition.
Migraine is a common neurological condition characterized by intense, pulsating head pain often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and sound. The condition frequently causes severe disruptions to daily life, limiting a person’s ability to work or engage in regular activities. The medical field currently diagnoses the disorder based entirely on a patient’s self-reported symptoms during clinical visits.
There are no established biological markers, such as a blood test or a specialized brain scan, to definitively confirm a migraine diagnosis. Because symptoms and treatment responses vary widely among patients, medical professionals debate whether migraine is a single uniform disease. Some researchers suspect it is a spectrum of related syndromes.
These varying syndromes likely result from combinations of genetic vulnerabilities and environmental factors. Previous research into the genetics of migraine has identified many associated DNA variants. However, adding up these individual genetic risks only explains a small portion of how the condition is inherited.
This gap in understanding suggests that genetic factors might interact with each other and with environmental triggers in ways that simple statistical models cannot easily capture. Antonios Danelakis, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, led a team to explore these hidden patterns in patient data. They hypothesized that advanced artificial intelligence could capture the full biological footprint of the condition.
To investigate this, the researchers conducted a large study using data from the Trøndelag Health Study in Norway. This massive public health initiative gathered extensive information through physical examinations, blood samples, and self-administered questionnaires. This initial analysis included 43,197 individuals who had provided genetic samples and completed the required health surveys. The participants were classified as either having migraines or being headache-free based on traditional medical criteria.
The team built predictive machine learning models to differentiate the migraine sufferers from the healthy controls. They trained these algorithms using genetic data and general clinical information. This clinical data included details about sleep patterns, cardiovascular health, mental health, socioeconomic status, and regular medication use.
The researchers intentionally excluded any data about the participants’ actual headaches from the computer models. They wanted to test whether the algorithms could detect a migraine diagnosis entirely through other biological and lifestyle markers. The algorithms were trained on one portion of the participants and then evaluated on a separate, unseen group to verify their accuracy.
A specific type of machine learning algorithm performed the best on the test group. The algorithm successfully identified individuals with migraines with a high degree of accuracy. This success indicated that the condition is associated with a wide constellation of clinical and biological markers outside of the head.
The researchers analyzed the algorithm to see which features were most predictive of a migraine diagnosis. The top factors included age, biological sex, neck pain, and nausea. Other highly predictive factors were sleepiness, blood pressure variations, and self-reported mental health status.
Adding genetic data to the clinical data provided only a marginal improvement in the algorithm’s accuracy. The researchers noted that rich clinical data likely already captures the physical manifestations of a person’s genetic risk. Because the clinical data reflects the downstream effects of DNA, the genetic information itself became slightly redundant for diagnostic purposes.
In the second phase of the research, the team conducted another large study focusing on 12,185 individuals who reported experiencing headaches. This time, they used unsupervised machine learning models. Instead of giving the algorithm traditional medical definitions to look for, they allowed the computer to find natural groupings in the data.
The researchers fed the algorithm the participants’ specific headache characteristics, along with the most predictive general health features identified in the first analysis. They used clustering algorithms to see how the patients grouped together mathematically based on shared data points. To better understand these mathematical groupings, the team used an advanced dimensional reduction technique that translated the highly complex data into two-dimensional visual maps.
The unsupervised models divided the participants into two main clusters. The first cluster contained 1,425 individuals, and the algorithm grouped them based on shared traits. When the researchers checked this group against traditional medical guidelines, they found that nearly all of these individuals met the official criteria for a migraine diagnosis.
The second cluster contained 10,760 individuals. Most of the people in this larger group (71%) had non-migraine headaches. This division demonstrated that the artificial intelligence could naturally separate migraine sufferers from other headache patients without being explicitly taught the medical rules.
The researchers then instructed the algorithm to break the migraine cluster down into smaller subgroups. They based this subclustering on the general health features like neck pain and mental health. This process revealed four distinct subtypes of migraine sufferers.
The first subtype consisted entirely of men. The second subtype was characterized by prominent neck pain and an absence of general stomach issues, possibly representing patients whose migraines have a strong connection to neck tension.
The third subtype featured widespread muscle and bone pain, combined with lower self-reported health and higher levels of anxiety and depression. The researchers suggested this group might represent a phenotype where the nervous system is highly reactive to pain. The fourth subtype fit the classic picture of a pulsating migraine but lacked the psychological and widespread physical pain symptoms seen in the third group.
To analyze genetic profiles, the team conducted genome-wide association studies comparing the data-driven migraine group with those labeled as having migraine by traditional criteria. This process scanned genetic variants across tens of thousands of participants to find DNA patterns linked to each group, and found a high degree of overlap in the identified risk loci. When the team compared genetic risk scores across the four subgroups, the machine learning-based genetic risk scores were distinctly different across the subclusters, supporting the idea that these clinical subgroups reflect genuine biological differences.
The study relied on self-reported questionnaires to determine the participants’ initial medical status. Self-reporting can lead to misclassification if participants misremember their symptoms or misunderstand the questions. For instance, people with infrequent migraines might have incorrectly answered negatively to questions about having headaches within the past year, falsely placing them in the healthy control group.
The clinical data was collected between 1995 and 2008. Lifestyle behaviors, mental health trends, and typical sleep patterns have likely shifted since that time, meaning the data might not perfectly reflect a modern population. The genotyping technology used during those years was also less comprehensive than modern laboratory platforms.
The identified relationships between clinical features and migraine subtypes are correlations. The findings do not mean that these general health features directly cause migraines, only that they tend to occur together in specific patterns. The researchers noted that these models need to be validated in entirely different populations before being used in standard medical practice.
Future research should investigate whether these newly identified migraine subtypes respond differently to specific medications. A deeper understanding of these categories could help doctors prescribe targeted treatments rather than relying on a trial-and-error approach. Scientists could also use wearable devices and smartphone applications to track patient symptoms in real time, providing even more detailed data for future algorithms.
The study, “Machine Diagnostics and Machine Phenotyping of Migraine: A HUNT Study,” was authored by Antonios Danelakis, Håkon Kvisle Abildsnes, Fahim Faisal, Marte-Helene Bjørk, Dominic Giles, Knut Hagen, Tjaṧa Kumelj, Manjit Matharu, Parashkev Nachev, Erling Tronvik, Bendik S. Winsvold, and Anker Stubberud.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MigraineSubtypes #AIMachineLearning #NeurologyResearch #MigrainePhenotypes #PersonalizedMedicine #HeadacheScience #GeneticsAndMigraine #WearableHealth #ClinicalDataInsights #HUNTStudy
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study identifies four unique migraine phenotypes using artificial intelligence
A recent study found that artificial intelligence algorithms can accurately identify people with migraines without relying on any information about their head pain. Published in the journal Neurology, the research suggests that migraines exist on a spectrum of distinct biological and clinical subtypes rather than as a single condition.
Migraine is a common neurological condition characterized by intense, pulsating head pain often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and sound. The condition frequently causes severe disruptions to daily life, limiting a person’s ability to work or engage in regular activities. The medical field currently diagnoses the disorder based entirely on a patient’s self-reported symptoms during clinical visits.
There are no established biological markers, such as a blood test or a specialized brain scan, to definitively confirm a migraine diagnosis. Because symptoms and treatment responses vary widely among patients, medical professionals debate whether migraine is a single uniform disease. Some researchers suspect it is a spectrum of related syndromes.
These varying syndromes likely result from combinations of genetic vulnerabilities and environmental factors. Previous research into the genetics of migraine has identified many associated DNA variants. However, adding up these individual genetic risks only explains a small portion of how the condition is inherited.
This gap in understanding suggests that genetic factors might interact with each other and with environmental triggers in ways that simple statistical models cannot easily capture. Antonios Danelakis, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, led a team to explore these hidden patterns in patient data. They hypothesized that advanced artificial intelligence could capture the full biological footprint of the condition.
To investigate this, the researchers conducted a large study using data from the Trøndelag Health Study in Norway. This massive public health initiative gathered extensive information through physical examinations, blood samples, and self-administered questionnaires. This initial analysis included 43,197 individuals who had provided genetic samples and completed the required health surveys. The participants were classified as either having migraines or being headache-free based on traditional medical criteria.
The team built predictive machine learning models to differentiate the migraine sufferers from the healthy controls. They trained these algorithms using genetic data and general clinical information. This clinical data included details about sleep patterns, cardiovascular health, mental health, socioeconomic status, and regular medication use.
The researchers intentionally excluded any data about the participants’ actual headaches from the computer models. They wanted to test whether the algorithms could detect a migraine diagnosis entirely through other biological and lifestyle markers. The algorithms were trained on one portion of the participants and then evaluated on a separate, unseen group to verify their accuracy.
A specific type of machine learning algorithm performed the best on the test group. The algorithm successfully identified individuals with migraines with a high degree of accuracy. This success indicated that the condition is associated with a wide constellation of clinical and biological markers outside of the head.
The researchers analyzed the algorithm to see which features were most predictive of a migraine diagnosis. The top factors included age, biological sex, neck pain, and nausea. Other highly predictive factors were sleepiness, blood pressure variations, and self-reported mental health status.
Adding genetic data to the clinical data provided only a marginal improvement in the algorithm’s accuracy. The researchers noted that rich clinical data likely already captures the physical manifestations of a person’s genetic risk. Because the clinical data reflects the downstream effects of DNA, the genetic information itself became slightly redundant for diagnostic purposes.
In the second phase of the research, the team conducted another large study focusing on 12,185 individuals who reported experiencing headaches. This time, they used unsupervised machine learning models. Instead of giving the algorithm traditional medical definitions to look for, they allowed the computer to find natural groupings in the data.
The researchers fed the algorithm the participants’ specific headache characteristics, along with the most predictive general health features identified in the first analysis. They used clustering algorithms to see how the patients grouped together mathematically based on shared data points. To better understand these mathematical groupings, the team used an advanced dimensional reduction technique that translated the highly complex data into two-dimensional visual maps.
The unsupervised models divided the participants into two main clusters. The first cluster contained 1,425 individuals, and the algorithm grouped them based on shared traits. When the researchers checked this group against traditional medical guidelines, they found that nearly all of these individuals met the official criteria for a migraine diagnosis.
The second cluster contained 10,760 individuals. Most of the people in this larger group (71%) had non-migraine headaches. This division demonstrated that the artificial intelligence could naturally separate migraine sufferers from other headache patients without being explicitly taught the medical rules.
The researchers then instructed the algorithm to break the migraine cluster down into smaller subgroups. They based this subclustering on the general health features like neck pain and mental health. This process revealed four distinct subtypes of migraine sufferers.
The first subtype consisted entirely of men. The second subtype was characterized by prominent neck pain and an absence of general stomach issues, possibly representing patients whose migraines have a strong connection to neck tension.
The third subtype featured widespread muscle and bone pain, combined with lower self-reported health and higher levels of anxiety and depression. The researchers suggested this group might represent a phenotype where the nervous system is highly reactive to pain. The fourth subtype fit the classic picture of a pulsating migraine but lacked the psychological and widespread physical pain symptoms seen in the third group.
To analyze genetic profiles, the team conducted genome-wide association studies comparing the data-driven migraine group with those labeled as having migraine by traditional criteria. This process scanned genetic variants across tens of thousands of participants to find DNA patterns linked to each group, and found a high degree of overlap in the identified risk loci. When the team compared genetic risk scores across the four subgroups, the machine learning-based genetic risk scores were distinctly different across the subclusters, supporting the idea that these clinical subgroups reflect genuine biological differences.
The study relied on self-reported questionnaires to determine the participants’ initial medical status. Self-reporting can lead to misclassification if participants misremember their symptoms or misunderstand the questions. For instance, people with infrequent migraines might have incorrectly answered negatively to questions about having headaches within the past year, falsely placing them in the healthy control group.
The clinical data was collected between 1995 and 2008. Lifestyle behaviors, mental health trends, and typical sleep patterns have likely shifted since that time, meaning the data might not perfectly reflect a modern population. The genotyping technology used during those years was also less comprehensive than modern laboratory platforms.
The identified relationships between clinical features and migraine subtypes are correlations. The findings do not mean that these general health features directly cause migraines, only that they tend to occur together in specific patterns. The researchers noted that these models need to be validated in entirely different populations before being used in standard medical practice.
Future research should investigate whether these newly identified migraine subtypes respond differently to specific medications. A deeper understanding of these categories could help doctors prescribe targeted treatments rather than relying on a trial-and-error approach. Scientists could also use wearable devices and smartphone applications to track patient symptoms in real time, providing even more detailed data for future algorithms.
The study, “Machine Diagnostics and Machine Phenotyping of Migraine: A HUNT Study,” was authored by Antonios Danelakis, Håkon Kvisle Abildsnes, Fahim Faisal, Marte-Helene Bjørk, Dominic Giles, Knut Hagen, Tjaṧa Kumelj, Manjit Matharu, Parashkev Nachev, Erling Tronvik, Bendik S. Winsvold, and Anker Stubberud.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MigraineSubtypes #AIMachineLearning #NeurologyResearch #MigrainePhenotypes #PersonalizedMedicine #HeadacheScience #GeneticsAndMigraine #WearableHealth #ClinicalDataInsights #HUNTStudy
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study identifies four unique migraine phenotypes using artificial intelligence
A recent study found that artificial intelligence algorithms can accurately identify people with migraines without relying on any information about their head pain. Published in the journal Neurology, the research suggests that migraines exist on a spectrum of distinct biological and clinical subtypes rather than as a single condition.
Migraine is a common neurological condition characterized by intense, pulsating head pain often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and sound. The condition frequently causes severe disruptions to daily life, limiting a person’s ability to work or engage in regular activities. The medical field currently diagnoses the disorder based entirely on a patient’s self-reported symptoms during clinical visits.
There are no established biological markers, such as a blood test or a specialized brain scan, to definitively confirm a migraine diagnosis. Because symptoms and treatment responses vary widely among patients, medical professionals debate whether migraine is a single uniform disease. Some researchers suspect it is a spectrum of related syndromes.
These varying syndromes likely result from combinations of genetic vulnerabilities and environmental factors. Previous research into the genetics of migraine has identified many associated DNA variants. However, adding up these individual genetic risks only explains a small portion of how the condition is inherited.
This gap in understanding suggests that genetic factors might interact with each other and with environmental triggers in ways that simple statistical models cannot easily capture. Antonios Danelakis, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, led a team to explore these hidden patterns in patient data. They hypothesized that advanced artificial intelligence could capture the full biological footprint of the condition.
To investigate this, the researchers conducted a large study using data from the Trøndelag Health Study in Norway. This massive public health initiative gathered extensive information through physical examinations, blood samples, and self-administered questionnaires. This initial analysis included 43,197 individuals who had provided genetic samples and completed the required health surveys. The participants were classified as either having migraines or being headache-free based on traditional medical criteria.
The team built predictive machine learning models to differentiate the migraine sufferers from the healthy controls. They trained these algorithms using genetic data and general clinical information. This clinical data included details about sleep patterns, cardiovascular health, mental health, socioeconomic status, and regular medication use.
The researchers intentionally excluded any data about the participants’ actual headaches from the computer models. They wanted to test whether the algorithms could detect a migraine diagnosis entirely through other biological and lifestyle markers. The algorithms were trained on one portion of the participants and then evaluated on a separate, unseen group to verify their accuracy.
A specific type of machine learning algorithm performed the best on the test group. The algorithm successfully identified individuals with migraines with a high degree of accuracy. This success indicated that the condition is associated with a wide constellation of clinical and biological markers outside of the head.
The researchers analyzed the algorithm to see which features were most predictive of a migraine diagnosis. The top factors included age, biological sex, neck pain, and nausea. Other highly predictive factors were sleepiness, blood pressure variations, and self-reported mental health status.
Adding genetic data to the clinical data provided only a marginal improvement in the algorithm’s accuracy. The researchers noted that rich clinical data likely already captures the physical manifestations of a person’s genetic risk. Because the clinical data reflects the downstream effects of DNA, the genetic information itself became slightly redundant for diagnostic purposes.
In the second phase of the research, the team conducted another large study focusing on 12,185 individuals who reported experiencing headaches. This time, they used unsupervised machine learning models. Instead of giving the algorithm traditional medical definitions to look for, they allowed the computer to find natural groupings in the data.
The researchers fed the algorithm the participants’ specific headache characteristics, along with the most predictive general health features identified in the first analysis. They used clustering algorithms to see how the patients grouped together mathematically based on shared data points. To better understand these mathematical groupings, the team used an advanced dimensional reduction technique that translated the highly complex data into two-dimensional visual maps.
The unsupervised models divided the participants into two main clusters. The first cluster contained 1,425 individuals, and the algorithm grouped them based on shared traits. When the researchers checked this group against traditional medical guidelines, they found that nearly all of these individuals met the official criteria for a migraine diagnosis.
The second cluster contained 10,760 individuals. Most of the people in this larger group (71%) had non-migraine headaches. This division demonstrated that the artificial intelligence could naturally separate migraine sufferers from other headache patients without being explicitly taught the medical rules.
The researchers then instructed the algorithm to break the migraine cluster down into smaller subgroups. They based this subclustering on the general health features like neck pain and mental health. This process revealed four distinct subtypes of migraine sufferers.
The first subtype consisted entirely of men. The second subtype was characterized by prominent neck pain and an absence of general stomach issues, possibly representing patients whose migraines have a strong connection to neck tension.
The third subtype featured widespread muscle and bone pain, combined with lower self-reported health and higher levels of anxiety and depression. The researchers suggested this group might represent a phenotype where the nervous system is highly reactive to pain. The fourth subtype fit the classic picture of a pulsating migraine but lacked the psychological and widespread physical pain symptoms seen in the third group.
To analyze genetic profiles, the team conducted genome-wide association studies comparing the data-driven migraine group with those labeled as having migraine by traditional criteria. This process scanned genetic variants across tens of thousands of participants to find DNA patterns linked to each group, and found a high degree of overlap in the identified risk loci. When the team compared genetic risk scores across the four subgroups, the machine learning-based genetic risk scores were distinctly different across the subclusters, supporting the idea that these clinical subgroups reflect genuine biological differences.
The study relied on self-reported questionnaires to determine the participants’ initial medical status. Self-reporting can lead to misclassification if participants misremember their symptoms or misunderstand the questions. For instance, people with infrequent migraines might have incorrectly answered negatively to questions about having headaches within the past year, falsely placing them in the healthy control group.
The clinical data was collected between 1995 and 2008. Lifestyle behaviors, mental health trends, and typical sleep patterns have likely shifted since that time, meaning the data might not perfectly reflect a modern population. The genotyping technology used during those years was also less comprehensive than modern laboratory platforms.
The identified relationships between clinical features and migraine subtypes are correlations. The findings do not mean that these general health features directly cause migraines, only that they tend to occur together in specific patterns. The researchers noted that these models need to be validated in entirely different populations before being used in standard medical practice.
Future research should investigate whether these newly identified migraine subtypes respond differently to specific medications. A deeper understanding of these categories could help doctors prescribe targeted treatments rather than relying on a trial-and-error approach. Scientists could also use wearable devices and smartphone applications to track patient symptoms in real time, providing even more detailed data for future algorithms.
The study, “Machine Diagnostics and Machine Phenotyping of Migraine: A HUNT Study,” was authored by Antonios Danelakis, Håkon Kvisle Abildsnes, Fahim Faisal, Marte-Helene Bjørk, Dominic Giles, Knut Hagen, Tjaṧa Kumelj, Manjit Matharu, Parashkev Nachev, Erling Tronvik, Bendik S. Winsvold, and Anker Stubberud.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MigraineSubtypes #AIMachineLearning #NeurologyResearch #MigrainePhenotypes #PersonalizedMedicine #HeadacheScience #GeneticsAndMigraine #WearableHealth #ClinicalDataInsights #HUNTStudy
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Early-life sugar restriction tied to better mental health in adulthood
URL: https://www.psypost.org/early-life-sugar-restriction-tied-to-better-mental-health-in-adulthood/
A recent study suggests that people exposed to post-war sugar rationing from conception through their second birthday had a lower risk of being diagnosed with anxiety and depression in adulthood. These findings provide evidence that early-life nutritional environments can have long-lasting effects on mental health. The research was published in Translational Psychiatry.
The research, led by Hana F. Navratilova and Nophar Geifman, who conducted the work at the University of Surrey, focused on a critical developmental window known as the first 1,000 days of life. Spanning from conception to a child’s second birthday, this is a period of rapid physical and brain growth. Nutrition during this specific time is thought to set the foundation for lifelong health and disease vulnerability.
To study the long-term effects of sugar intake during this period, scientists turned to a unique historical event. During and after World War II, the United Kingdom implemented strict food rationing, which included severe limits on sugar. Sugar rationing abruptly ended in September 1953, creating a natural experiment. People born in the years before this date spent some or all of their first 1,000 days under rationing, while those conceived afterward grew up with abundant access to sugar.
Previous research has used the end of post-war British sugar rationing to show that restricting sugar during the first 1,000 days of life was linked to a lower risk of dementia in older age, as detailed in a 2026 study. Similarly, a study covered by PsyPost in 2025 found that this same early-life restriction was associated with a lower risk of asthma and lung conditions in adulthood.
“We have been working on the effects of diet on health using the UK Biobank study that has data from over 500,000 volunteers for some time now, and in particular the effects of diet on mental health,” Nophar Geifman, a professor of health and biomedical informatics at the School of Health Sciences at the University of Surrey, told PsyPost. “We then came across the study from Gracner and colleagues, published in the leading scientific journal Science, that stated sugar rationing in utero and in early life (first 1000 days) was associated with decreased risk of diabetes and hypertension.”
“This is absolutely plausible, because fetal and infant nutrition is known to influence later metabolic disease risk,” added Geifman, who is also the Director of Informatics for the Veterinary Health Innovation Engine. “But what about mental health? We had access to all the data and a developed toolkit to ask the question and so Dr. Hana Navratilova, our colleague (who was a PhD candidate at the time), put in the hard miles to find the answer.”
Building on this research progression, Navratilova and colleagues tested whether this same early-life nutritional environment was associated with a lower risk of psychiatric conditions, specifically anxiety and depression. They also sought to look at brain structures and dietary preferences to understand how these associations might arise as a person ages.
The scientists analyzed data from 46,448 participants in the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database. These individuals were born between October 1951 and March 1956. The team divided the participants into different groups based on how many days of their early life coincided with the strict sugar rationing period.
For example, the longest-exposed group experienced rationing for about 1,000 days, starting in the womb and continuing up to 24 months of age. Other groups experienced shorter rationing windows, ranging from about 817 days down to 270 days. The primary comparison group consisted of participants conceived well after all food rationing ended in the United Kingdom, meaning they grew up with no restrictions on sugar.
The team tracked medical diagnoses of anxiety and depression using the participants’ linked health records. They also gathered questionnaire data from a subset of participants to gauge their preference for sweet foods and their actual daily sugar intake.
During an average follow-up of about 15.7 years, 2,776 participants were diagnosed with anxiety and 3,147 with depression overall. The results indicate a protective association between prolonged early-life sugar rationing and adult mental health. Participants exposed to the longest period of rationing had a 33% lower relative hazard of being diagnosed with anxiety in adulthood compared to the non-rationed group. In unadjusted terms, 5.79% of the longest-exposed group was diagnosed with anxiety during follow-up, compared with 6.28% in the non-rationed group.
“The size of the UK Biobank volunteer population means we can find a lot of people who experienced sugar rationing in early life,” Geifman explained. “That means our study is statistically quite powerful. Technically this means the so-called Hazard Ratio of sugar intake in the first 1000 days of life links very well to anxiety in later life.”
“This is subjectively pretty amazing, but also, it is a statistically sound conclusion,” Geifman added. “We set out to this work open-minded and as objectively as possible, but the significance of the link to anxiety was highly intriguing.”
Similar patterns emerged for depression. The 1,000-day rationing group had a 29% lower relative hazard of being diagnosed with depression. In unadjusted terms, 6.69% of this group received a diagnosis, compared with 7.23% in the highest-risk group, those conceived just after sugar rationing ended. Groups rationed for about 635 and 817 days also had lower risks for both conditions, while those rationed only in the womb or up to six months of age did not differ from the non-rationed group. This suggests that a longer period of early-life restriction may be needed for the association to appear.
The associations ran in the same direction for both men and women, though they appeared stronger in women. To verify their findings, the researchers checked for links to two conditions not expected to be affected by early sugar intake, type 1 diabetes and PTSD, and found none. They also found no association in a small group of participants born in Ireland, where sugar rationing ended in December 1951, though the authors note this check was too small to be conclusive.
Interestingly, the study found no major differences in the amount of sugar the participants consumed as adults. However, those exposed to the longest period of rationing did report a slightly lower preference for sweet foods, scoring an average of 5.82 out of 9, compared to 6.04 in the non-rationed group.
When the researchers adjusted their mathematical models to account for the participants’ adult sugar intake, the lower risk of anxiety remained, though the authors note this check relied on limited dietary data from a subset of participants. In contrast, the lower risk of depression weakened and became statistically non-significant. This shift suggests that an individual’s diet in adulthood might play a larger role in mediating their depression risk, whereas anxiety risk appears more deeply tied to early-life factors.
“We think that people who look at this study will hopefully recognize that wellness and mental health (especially anxiety) in later life can be influenced by diet in the first 1000 days of life,” Geifman said. “However, that isn’t to say that those first 1000 days are fatalistic, and current food choice of course can shape one’s health.”
Brain imaging analyses also pointed to structural differences linked to early diet. Analyzing brain scans from 5,990 participants, the researchers noted variations in the grey matter volume of certain brain regions. Grey matter is the tissue in the brain and spinal cord composed mostly of nerve cell bodies, which plays a major role in processing information.
While grey matter volume differed across the rationing groups in 80 of 139 measured regions, only 11 of these regions differed between most of the rationed groups and a never-rationed group conceived just after sugar rationing ended. These differences were particularly noted in the brainstem, which sits at the base of the brain and controls basic life functions, and the cerebellum, a structure at the back of the brain involved in movement and some cognitive processes.
The variation in these areas suggests that early-life sugar restriction might subtly influence how the nervous system develops. However, exploratory models did not support brain structure as a pathway linking rationing to lower anxiety.
The findings align with research covered by PsyPost earlier this year, which also linked higher sugar intake to greater odds of anxiety and depression. Similar patterns have been noted in a 2017 study linking sugar intake to later mood disorders, and in a 2024 study by the same Surrey team linking a preference for sweet foods to depression. However, a measurement caveat is needed when comparing these results. The previous studies primarily evaluated adult sugar intake or preferences alongside self-reported symptoms, whereas the new study focused on early-life sugar rationing and formal medical diagnoses decades later.
There are a few things to keep in mind when interpreting the new findings. The research relies on an observational, natural experiment, meaning it cannot confirm that sugar restriction directly caused the lower rates of anxiety and depression.
“This study is all about probabilities and potential risk,” Geifman told PsyPost. “Early-life sugar restriction was only associated with altered anxiety risk decades later, there is no attempt on our part to imply causality, i.e. that one leads to the other in all cases of high sugar intake in the first 1000 days of life.”
Other unmeasured historical factors, such as maternal stress during the post-war period or shifts in healthcare policies, might have influenced the outcomes. Rationing also changed families’ whole diets, not just sugar, meaning broader nutritional shifts could have played a role. Additionally, the medical records used to track anxiety and depression largely capture diagnoses made later in life. Mental health conditions were historically under-diagnosed, and many participants might have experienced symptoms in young adulthood that were never officially recorded in their health files.
Future research might explore the specific biological pathways involved in these associations. Scientists could investigate whether genetic predispositions interact with early-life nutrition to shape mental health, or look closer at inflammatory markers in the body to understand exactly how diet translates to psychological resilience.
“We will continue with follow-up studies when more data on primary health care is available from UK Biobank, and for example, when proteomic data is available for all participants and we can explore associations with biomarkers,” Geifman added.
Geifman also thanked the study’s participants. “Just to thank all of the UK Biobank volunteers, your selfless actions are making a difference to human health,” Geifman concluded.
The study, “Dietary sugar exposure in early life and risk of adult mental health disorders: UK Biobank cohort study,” was authored by Hana F. Navratilova, Anthony D. Whetton, and Nophar Geifman.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/early-life-sugar-restriction-tied-to-better-mental-health-in-adulthood/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EarlyLifeSugarRestriction #MentalHealth #AnxietyAndDepression #DietAndBrainDevelopment #1000Days #UKBiobank #NutritionalEpigenetics #ChildNutrition #SugarRationing #PublicHealthResearch
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Early-life sugar restriction tied to better mental health in adulthood
URL: https://www.psypost.org/early-life-sugar-restriction-tied-to-better-mental-health-in-adulthood/
A recent study suggests that people exposed to post-war sugar rationing from conception through their second birthday had a lower risk of being diagnosed with anxiety and depression in adulthood. These findings provide evidence that early-life nutritional environments can have long-lasting effects on mental health. The research was published in Translational Psychiatry.
The research, led by Hana F. Navratilova and Nophar Geifman, who conducted the work at the University of Surrey, focused on a critical developmental window known as the first 1,000 days of life. Spanning from conception to a child’s second birthday, this is a period of rapid physical and brain growth. Nutrition during this specific time is thought to set the foundation for lifelong health and disease vulnerability.
To study the long-term effects of sugar intake during this period, scientists turned to a unique historical event. During and after World War II, the United Kingdom implemented strict food rationing, which included severe limits on sugar. Sugar rationing abruptly ended in September 1953, creating a natural experiment. People born in the years before this date spent some or all of their first 1,000 days under rationing, while those conceived afterward grew up with abundant access to sugar.
Previous research has used the end of post-war British sugar rationing to show that restricting sugar during the first 1,000 days of life was linked to a lower risk of dementia in older age, as detailed in a 2026 study. Similarly, a study covered by PsyPost in 2025 found that this same early-life restriction was associated with a lower risk of asthma and lung conditions in adulthood.
“We have been working on the effects of diet on health using the UK Biobank study that has data from over 500,000 volunteers for some time now, and in particular the effects of diet on mental health,” Nophar Geifman, a professor of health and biomedical informatics at the School of Health Sciences at the University of Surrey, told PsyPost. “We then came across the study from Gracner and colleagues, published in the leading scientific journal Science, that stated sugar rationing in utero and in early life (first 1000 days) was associated with decreased risk of diabetes and hypertension.”
“This is absolutely plausible, because fetal and infant nutrition is known to influence later metabolic disease risk,” added Geifman, who is also the Director of Informatics for the Veterinary Health Innovation Engine. “But what about mental health? We had access to all the data and a developed toolkit to ask the question and so Dr. Hana Navratilova, our colleague (who was a PhD candidate at the time), put in the hard miles to find the answer.”
Building on this research progression, Navratilova and colleagues tested whether this same early-life nutritional environment was associated with a lower risk of psychiatric conditions, specifically anxiety and depression. They also sought to look at brain structures and dietary preferences to understand how these associations might arise as a person ages.
The scientists analyzed data from 46,448 participants in the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database. These individuals were born between October 1951 and March 1956. The team divided the participants into different groups based on how many days of their early life coincided with the strict sugar rationing period.
For example, the longest-exposed group experienced rationing for about 1,000 days, starting in the womb and continuing up to 24 months of age. Other groups experienced shorter rationing windows, ranging from about 817 days down to 270 days. The primary comparison group consisted of participants conceived well after all food rationing ended in the United Kingdom, meaning they grew up with no restrictions on sugar.
The team tracked medical diagnoses of anxiety and depression using the participants’ linked health records. They also gathered questionnaire data from a subset of participants to gauge their preference for sweet foods and their actual daily sugar intake.
During an average follow-up of about 15.7 years, 2,776 participants were diagnosed with anxiety and 3,147 with depression overall. The results indicate a protective association between prolonged early-life sugar rationing and adult mental health. Participants exposed to the longest period of rationing had a 33% lower relative hazard of being diagnosed with anxiety in adulthood compared to the non-rationed group. In unadjusted terms, 5.79% of the longest-exposed group was diagnosed with anxiety during follow-up, compared with 6.28% in the non-rationed group.
“The size of the UK Biobank volunteer population means we can find a lot of people who experienced sugar rationing in early life,” Geifman explained. “That means our study is statistically quite powerful. Technically this means the so-called Hazard Ratio of sugar intake in the first 1000 days of life links very well to anxiety in later life.”
“This is subjectively pretty amazing, but also, it is a statistically sound conclusion,” Geifman added. “We set out to this work open-minded and as objectively as possible, but the significance of the link to anxiety was highly intriguing.”
Similar patterns emerged for depression. The 1,000-day rationing group had a 29% lower relative hazard of being diagnosed with depression. In unadjusted terms, 6.69% of this group received a diagnosis, compared with 7.23% in the highest-risk group, those conceived just after sugar rationing ended. Groups rationed for about 635 and 817 days also had lower risks for both conditions, while those rationed only in the womb or up to six months of age did not differ from the non-rationed group. This suggests that a longer period of early-life restriction may be needed for the association to appear.
The associations ran in the same direction for both men and women, though they appeared stronger in women. To verify their findings, the researchers checked for links to two conditions not expected to be affected by early sugar intake, type 1 diabetes and PTSD, and found none. They also found no association in a small group of participants born in Ireland, where sugar rationing ended in December 1951, though the authors note this check was too small to be conclusive.
Interestingly, the study found no major differences in the amount of sugar the participants consumed as adults. However, those exposed to the longest period of rationing did report a slightly lower preference for sweet foods, scoring an average of 5.82 out of 9, compared to 6.04 in the non-rationed group.
When the researchers adjusted their mathematical models to account for the participants’ adult sugar intake, the lower risk of anxiety remained, though the authors note this check relied on limited dietary data from a subset of participants. In contrast, the lower risk of depression weakened and became statistically non-significant. This shift suggests that an individual’s diet in adulthood might play a larger role in mediating their depression risk, whereas anxiety risk appears more deeply tied to early-life factors.
“We think that people who look at this study will hopefully recognize that wellness and mental health (especially anxiety) in later life can be influenced by diet in the first 1000 days of life,” Geifman said. “However, that isn’t to say that those first 1000 days are fatalistic, and current food choice of course can shape one’s health.”
Brain imaging analyses also pointed to structural differences linked to early diet. Analyzing brain scans from 5,990 participants, the researchers noted variations in the grey matter volume of certain brain regions. Grey matter is the tissue in the brain and spinal cord composed mostly of nerve cell bodies, which plays a major role in processing information.
While grey matter volume differed across the rationing groups in 80 of 139 measured regions, only 11 of these regions differed between most of the rationed groups and a never-rationed group conceived just after sugar rationing ended. These differences were particularly noted in the brainstem, which sits at the base of the brain and controls basic life functions, and the cerebellum, a structure at the back of the brain involved in movement and some cognitive processes.
The variation in these areas suggests that early-life sugar restriction might subtly influence how the nervous system develops. However, exploratory models did not support brain structure as a pathway linking rationing to lower anxiety.
The findings align with research covered by PsyPost earlier this year, which also linked higher sugar intake to greater odds of anxiety and depression. Similar patterns have been noted in a 2017 study linking sugar intake to later mood disorders, and in a 2024 study by the same Surrey team linking a preference for sweet foods to depression. However, a measurement caveat is needed when comparing these results. The previous studies primarily evaluated adult sugar intake or preferences alongside self-reported symptoms, whereas the new study focused on early-life sugar rationing and formal medical diagnoses decades later.
There are a few things to keep in mind when interpreting the new findings. The research relies on an observational, natural experiment, meaning it cannot confirm that sugar restriction directly caused the lower rates of anxiety and depression.
“This study is all about probabilities and potential risk,” Geifman told PsyPost. “Early-life sugar restriction was only associated with altered anxiety risk decades later, there is no attempt on our part to imply causality, i.e. that one leads to the other in all cases of high sugar intake in the first 1000 days of life.”
Other unmeasured historical factors, such as maternal stress during the post-war period or shifts in healthcare policies, might have influenced the outcomes. Rationing also changed families’ whole diets, not just sugar, meaning broader nutritional shifts could have played a role. Additionally, the medical records used to track anxiety and depression largely capture diagnoses made later in life. Mental health conditions were historically under-diagnosed, and many participants might have experienced symptoms in young adulthood that were never officially recorded in their health files.
Future research might explore the specific biological pathways involved in these associations. Scientists could investigate whether genetic predispositions interact with early-life nutrition to shape mental health, or look closer at inflammatory markers in the body to understand exactly how diet translates to psychological resilience.
“We will continue with follow-up studies when more data on primary health care is available from UK Biobank, and for example, when proteomic data is available for all participants and we can explore associations with biomarkers,” Geifman added.
Geifman also thanked the study’s participants. “Just to thank all of the UK Biobank volunteers, your selfless actions are making a difference to human health,” Geifman concluded.
The study, “Dietary sugar exposure in early life and risk of adult mental health disorders: UK Biobank cohort study,” was authored by Hana F. Navratilova, Anthony D. Whetton, and Nophar Geifman.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/early-life-sugar-restriction-tied-to-better-mental-health-in-adulthood/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EarlyLifeSugarRestriction #MentalHealth #AnxietyAndDepression #DietAndBrainDevelopment #1000Days #UKBiobank #NutritionalEpigenetics #ChildNutrition #SugarRationing #PublicHealthResearch
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Early-life sugar restriction tied to better mental health in adulthood
URL: https://www.psypost.org/early-life-sugar-restriction-tied-to-better-mental-health-in-adulthood/
A recent study suggests that people exposed to post-war sugar rationing from conception through their second birthday had a lower risk of being diagnosed with anxiety and depression in adulthood. These findings provide evidence that early-life nutritional environments can have long-lasting effects on mental health. The research was published in Translational Psychiatry.
The research, led by Hana F. Navratilova and Nophar Geifman, who conducted the work at the University of Surrey, focused on a critical developmental window known as the first 1,000 days of life. Spanning from conception to a child’s second birthday, this is a period of rapid physical and brain growth. Nutrition during this specific time is thought to set the foundation for lifelong health and disease vulnerability.
To study the long-term effects of sugar intake during this period, scientists turned to a unique historical event. During and after World War II, the United Kingdom implemented strict food rationing, which included severe limits on sugar. Sugar rationing abruptly ended in September 1953, creating a natural experiment. People born in the years before this date spent some or all of their first 1,000 days under rationing, while those conceived afterward grew up with abundant access to sugar.
Previous research has used the end of post-war British sugar rationing to show that restricting sugar during the first 1,000 days of life was linked to a lower risk of dementia in older age, as detailed in a 2026 study. Similarly, a study covered by PsyPost in 2025 found that this same early-life restriction was associated with a lower risk of asthma and lung conditions in adulthood.
“We have been working on the effects of diet on health using the UK Biobank study that has data from over 500,000 volunteers for some time now, and in particular the effects of diet on mental health,” Nophar Geifman, a professor of health and biomedical informatics at the School of Health Sciences at the University of Surrey, told PsyPost. “We then came across the study from Gracner and colleagues, published in the leading scientific journal Science, that stated sugar rationing in utero and in early life (first 1000 days) was associated with decreased risk of diabetes and hypertension.”
“This is absolutely plausible, because fetal and infant nutrition is known to influence later metabolic disease risk,” added Geifman, who is also the Director of Informatics for the Veterinary Health Innovation Engine. “But what about mental health? We had access to all the data and a developed toolkit to ask the question and so Dr. Hana Navratilova, our colleague (who was a PhD candidate at the time), put in the hard miles to find the answer.”
Building on this research progression, Navratilova and colleagues tested whether this same early-life nutritional environment was associated with a lower risk of psychiatric conditions, specifically anxiety and depression. They also sought to look at brain structures and dietary preferences to understand how these associations might arise as a person ages.
The scientists analyzed data from 46,448 participants in the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database. These individuals were born between October 1951 and March 1956. The team divided the participants into different groups based on how many days of their early life coincided with the strict sugar rationing period.
For example, the longest-exposed group experienced rationing for about 1,000 days, starting in the womb and continuing up to 24 months of age. Other groups experienced shorter rationing windows, ranging from about 817 days down to 270 days. The primary comparison group consisted of participants conceived well after all food rationing ended in the United Kingdom, meaning they grew up with no restrictions on sugar.
The team tracked medical diagnoses of anxiety and depression using the participants’ linked health records. They also gathered questionnaire data from a subset of participants to gauge their preference for sweet foods and their actual daily sugar intake.
During an average follow-up of about 15.7 years, 2,776 participants were diagnosed with anxiety and 3,147 with depression overall. The results indicate a protective association between prolonged early-life sugar rationing and adult mental health. Participants exposed to the longest period of rationing had a 33% lower relative hazard of being diagnosed with anxiety in adulthood compared to the non-rationed group. In unadjusted terms, 5.79% of the longest-exposed group was diagnosed with anxiety during follow-up, compared with 6.28% in the non-rationed group.
“The size of the UK Biobank volunteer population means we can find a lot of people who experienced sugar rationing in early life,” Geifman explained. “That means our study is statistically quite powerful. Technically this means the so-called Hazard Ratio of sugar intake in the first 1000 days of life links very well to anxiety in later life.”
“This is subjectively pretty amazing, but also, it is a statistically sound conclusion,” Geifman added. “We set out to this work open-minded and as objectively as possible, but the significance of the link to anxiety was highly intriguing.”
Similar patterns emerged for depression. The 1,000-day rationing group had a 29% lower relative hazard of being diagnosed with depression. In unadjusted terms, 6.69% of this group received a diagnosis, compared with 7.23% in the highest-risk group, those conceived just after sugar rationing ended. Groups rationed for about 635 and 817 days also had lower risks for both conditions, while those rationed only in the womb or up to six months of age did not differ from the non-rationed group. This suggests that a longer period of early-life restriction may be needed for the association to appear.
The associations ran in the same direction for both men and women, though they appeared stronger in women. To verify their findings, the researchers checked for links to two conditions not expected to be affected by early sugar intake, type 1 diabetes and PTSD, and found none. They also found no association in a small group of participants born in Ireland, where sugar rationing ended in December 1951, though the authors note this check was too small to be conclusive.
Interestingly, the study found no major differences in the amount of sugar the participants consumed as adults. However, those exposed to the longest period of rationing did report a slightly lower preference for sweet foods, scoring an average of 5.82 out of 9, compared to 6.04 in the non-rationed group.
When the researchers adjusted their mathematical models to account for the participants’ adult sugar intake, the lower risk of anxiety remained, though the authors note this check relied on limited dietary data from a subset of participants. In contrast, the lower risk of depression weakened and became statistically non-significant. This shift suggests that an individual’s diet in adulthood might play a larger role in mediating their depression risk, whereas anxiety risk appears more deeply tied to early-life factors.
“We think that people who look at this study will hopefully recognize that wellness and mental health (especially anxiety) in later life can be influenced by diet in the first 1000 days of life,” Geifman said. “However, that isn’t to say that those first 1000 days are fatalistic, and current food choice of course can shape one’s health.”
Brain imaging analyses also pointed to structural differences linked to early diet. Analyzing brain scans from 5,990 participants, the researchers noted variations in the grey matter volume of certain brain regions. Grey matter is the tissue in the brain and spinal cord composed mostly of nerve cell bodies, which plays a major role in processing information.
While grey matter volume differed across the rationing groups in 80 of 139 measured regions, only 11 of these regions differed between most of the rationed groups and a never-rationed group conceived just after sugar rationing ended. These differences were particularly noted in the brainstem, which sits at the base of the brain and controls basic life functions, and the cerebellum, a structure at the back of the brain involved in movement and some cognitive processes.
The variation in these areas suggests that early-life sugar restriction might subtly influence how the nervous system develops. However, exploratory models did not support brain structure as a pathway linking rationing to lower anxiety.
The findings align with research covered by PsyPost earlier this year, which also linked higher sugar intake to greater odds of anxiety and depression. Similar patterns have been noted in a 2017 study linking sugar intake to later mood disorders, and in a 2024 study by the same Surrey team linking a preference for sweet foods to depression. However, a measurement caveat is needed when comparing these results. The previous studies primarily evaluated adult sugar intake or preferences alongside self-reported symptoms, whereas the new study focused on early-life sugar rationing and formal medical diagnoses decades later.
There are a few things to keep in mind when interpreting the new findings. The research relies on an observational, natural experiment, meaning it cannot confirm that sugar restriction directly caused the lower rates of anxiety and depression.
“This study is all about probabilities and potential risk,” Geifman told PsyPost. “Early-life sugar restriction was only associated with altered anxiety risk decades later, there is no attempt on our part to imply causality, i.e. that one leads to the other in all cases of high sugar intake in the first 1000 days of life.”
Other unmeasured historical factors, such as maternal stress during the post-war period or shifts in healthcare policies, might have influenced the outcomes. Rationing also changed families’ whole diets, not just sugar, meaning broader nutritional shifts could have played a role. Additionally, the medical records used to track anxiety and depression largely capture diagnoses made later in life. Mental health conditions were historically under-diagnosed, and many participants might have experienced symptoms in young adulthood that were never officially recorded in their health files.
Future research might explore the specific biological pathways involved in these associations. Scientists could investigate whether genetic predispositions interact with early-life nutrition to shape mental health, or look closer at inflammatory markers in the body to understand exactly how diet translates to psychological resilience.
“We will continue with follow-up studies when more data on primary health care is available from UK Biobank, and for example, when proteomic data is available for all participants and we can explore associations with biomarkers,” Geifman added.
Geifman also thanked the study’s participants. “Just to thank all of the UK Biobank volunteers, your selfless actions are making a difference to human health,” Geifman concluded.
The study, “Dietary sugar exposure in early life and risk of adult mental health disorders: UK Biobank cohort study,” was authored by Hana F. Navratilova, Anthony D. Whetton, and Nophar Geifman.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/early-life-sugar-restriction-tied-to-better-mental-health-in-adulthood/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EarlyLifeSugarRestriction #MentalHealth #AnxietyAndDepression #DietAndBrainDevelopment #1000Days #UKBiobank #NutritionalEpigenetics #ChildNutrition #SugarRationing #PublicHealthResearch
-
TRIGGER WARNING: Military Psychology
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 12:06PM
SOURCE: CONSORTIUM FOR DEFENSE PSYCHOLOGYDirect article link at end of text block below.
Funded by the VA Office of Suicide Prevention, Safeguard Veterans is a one-year pilot research program designed to unite community partners to strengthen the existing web of care surrounding our veterans. Read the full blog, "Safeguard Project Update..." https://t.co/EmMt14URjL
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found at https://deploymentpsych.org/.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #military #militarypsych #militarypsychology #militarycounseling #APA #Division19 #militaryhealth #DeploymentPsychology #DefensePsychology #ConsortiumForDefensePsychology #UniformServicesUniversity
-
TRIGGER WARNING: Military Psychology
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 12:06PM
SOURCE: CONSORTIUM FOR DEFENSE PSYCHOLOGYDirect article link at end of text block below.
Funded by the VA Office of Suicide Prevention, Safeguard Veterans is a one-year pilot research program designed to unite community partners to strengthen the existing web of care surrounding our veterans. Read the full blog, "Safeguard Project Update..." https://t.co/EmMt14URjL
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found at https://deploymentpsych.org/.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #military #militarypsych #militarypsychology #militarycounseling #APA #Division19 #militaryhealth #DeploymentPsychology #DefensePsychology #ConsortiumForDefensePsychology #UniformServicesUniversity
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People found not guilty by reason of insanity show a surprisingly mixed criminal risk profile
People who experience severe mental health conditions are frequently overrepresented in the criminal justice system, but their psychiatric symptoms alone do not always explain their legal troubles. A recent study found that standard criminal risk factors, such as antisocial attitudes and having friends involved in crime, are strongly linked to whether a psychiatric patient has been involved in the legal system. The research was published in Law and Human Behavior.
In the past, intervention programs aimed at reducing repeat offenses among people with mental illness focused almost entirely on treating psychiatric symptoms. These medical interventions routinely failed to keep people out of jail. Researchers began to realize that most people with mental illness do not commit crimes because of hallucinations or delusions.
Instead, their criminal behavior is closely linked to the same risk factors that drive crime in the general population. In the fields of criminology and psychology, experts often refer to the central eight criminogenic risk factors. These include a history of antisocial behavior, antisocial personality traits, antisocial friends, substance abuse, family or marital problems, school or work difficulties, a lack of positive recreational activities, and criminal attitudes.
Researchers have consistently found that these non-clinical factors outperform traditional mental health variables in predicting criminal behavior. This means that mental illness alone does not necessarily increase an individual’s risk of breaking the law. Instead, some people with mental illness happen to have co-occurring antisocial tendencies that lead to legal trouble.
While this pattern holds true for general psychiatric patients, a unique subset of individuals occupies a gray area between the mental health and legal systems. These are patients who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity. In these specific cases, a court has determined that the person is not legally responsible for a crime because a mental disease or defect impaired their actions at the time of the offense.
Because their crimes are legally attributed to mental illness, one might assume these individuals lack the general criminal risk factors seen in other offenders. To test this idea, psychology researchers Angelea Bolaños, Faith Scanlon, and their colleagues set out to compare different groups of psychiatric patients. They wanted to see how insanity acquittees stacked up against other patients in terms of criminal attitudes, social support, and psychiatric distress.
The researchers gathered data from 349 participants across three distinct groups. The first group consisted of 74 psychiatric patients who had a history of misdemeanor or felony convictions. The second group included 68 psychiatric patients who had no history of criminal involvement. Both of these groups were recruited from a short-term, private inpatient psychiatric hospital in Texas.
The third group was made up of 207 forensic patients residing in the California state hospital system. These individuals had been found not guilty by reason of insanity and were institutionalized for mandatory psychiatric treatment. To compare the groups, the research team administered a series of self-report questionnaires designed to measure attitudes toward crime, social support networks, and current mental health.
One survey assessed general criminal tendencies, conduct problems, and antisocial personality traits. Another measured the participants’ number of criminal friends and their level of agreement with antisocial attitudes, such as feelings of entitlement or the belief that violence is justified. A third questionnaire evaluated how much support the participants felt they received from family, friends, and romantic partners.
Finally, the participants completed an inventory that measured the severity of their current psychiatric symptoms over the previous week. This included looking at markers for anxiety, depression, and paranoia. The researchers then used statistical models to see if the combination of these traits could accurately distinguish the three types of patients from one another based solely on their survey answers.
The team discovered that patients with mental illness and a history of typical criminal involvement scored the highest on almost all indicators of criminal risk. This group reported having the most criminal associates and the strongest antisocial attitudes. They also reported the lowest levels of perceived positive social support from their families and friends.
The patients found not guilty by reason of insanity presented a more mixed profile. They showed some shared criminal risk factors with the traditional criminal group, scoring higher on general criminal tendencies than the patients with no legal history. However, they did not display the same elevated levels of antisocial attitudes as the group with typical legal involvement.
When it came to social networks, the insanity acquittees actually resembled the patients with no criminal history. Both of these groups reported feeling a comparable level of social support. The researchers suggest that friends and family might remain more supportive of someone whose crime is attributed to a mental health crisis, compared to someone who engages in standard criminal behavior.
In an unexpected twist regarding psychiatric symptoms, the insanity acquittees reported the lowest severity of current mental health distress among all three groups. The researchers suspect this is due to the nature of their hospitalizations. The Texas patients were in a short-term, acute crisis facility, while the California forensic patients had likely been living in a stable, long-term therapeutic environment for an extended period, allowing their symptoms to subside.
Overall, the data showed that criminal risk factors and social support metrics successfully sorted roughly two thirds to three quarters of the participants into their correct legal categories. This predictive accuracy reinforces the idea that criminal attitudes and social environments are defining features of justice-involved populations. The results highlight the need for treatment programs to target these specific criminal risk factors alongside standard psychiatric care.
For example, specialized rehabilitation programs exist to address the concurrent mental health and criminal needs of people in the justice system. Providing this kind of dual-focused therapy could assist forensic patients in developing necessary life skills to optimize their recovery. Preparing these patients for eventual release requires treating the whole person, rather than viewing them solely through a psychiatric lens.
While the study offers a detailed look at forensic and non-forensic patients, the research design relies on data collected at a single point in time. This cross-sectional approach prevents researchers from determining exactly how a person’s mental illness and criminal behavior evolved over time. It is impossible to know whether a patient’s antisocial attitudes developed before or after their psychiatric symptoms began.
The reliance on self-reported questionnaires also introduces the possibility of response bias. Participants might have underreported their antisocial attitudes or exaggerated their mental health symptoms based on what they thought the researchers wanted to hear. Corroborating these self-reports with official legal records or clinician observations in future studies could yield a more comprehensive picture of their behavior.
The sample composition limits how broadly the results can be applied to the general population. The patients from the Texas hospital lacked demographic diversity, being predominantly White and male. Comparing patients across two different states also introduces variations in how different legal systems define and handle insanity acquittals, meaning a patient in California might be treated differently than one in Texas.
A final complication is that 85 percent of the forensic patients in the California sample had additional criminal convictions on top of the charges that led to their insanity acquittals. This high rate of prior criminal behavior blurs the boundary between the strictly psychiatric and the strictly criminal groups. Future investigations could separate insanity acquittees based on their past criminal histories to better understand this unique population.
The study, “Psychiatric Symptoms and Criminogenic Risk in People With Mental Illness: Comparing Patients Across Forensic and Nonforensic Settings,” was authored by Angelea D. Bolaños, Faith Scanlon, Robert D. Morgan, Sean M. Mitchell, and Darci Delgado.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MentalHealthAndCrime #CriminogenicRisk #InsanityAcquittees #ForensicPsychology #CriminalAttitudes #SocialSupportMatters #MentalIllnessAndCriminalJustice #CriminalBehaviorFactors #JusticeSystemResearch #PsychiatricSymptomsVsRisk
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People found not guilty by reason of insanity show a surprisingly mixed criminal risk profile
People who experience severe mental health conditions are frequently overrepresented in the criminal justice system, but their psychiatric symptoms alone do not always explain their legal troubles. A recent study found that standard criminal risk factors, such as antisocial attitudes and having friends involved in crime, are strongly linked to whether a psychiatric patient has been involved in the legal system. The research was published in Law and Human Behavior.
In the past, intervention programs aimed at reducing repeat offenses among people with mental illness focused almost entirely on treating psychiatric symptoms. These medical interventions routinely failed to keep people out of jail. Researchers began to realize that most people with mental illness do not commit crimes because of hallucinations or delusions.
Instead, their criminal behavior is closely linked to the same risk factors that drive crime in the general population. In the fields of criminology and psychology, experts often refer to the central eight criminogenic risk factors. These include a history of antisocial behavior, antisocial personality traits, antisocial friends, substance abuse, family or marital problems, school or work difficulties, a lack of positive recreational activities, and criminal attitudes.
Researchers have consistently found that these non-clinical factors outperform traditional mental health variables in predicting criminal behavior. This means that mental illness alone does not necessarily increase an individual’s risk of breaking the law. Instead, some people with mental illness happen to have co-occurring antisocial tendencies that lead to legal trouble.
While this pattern holds true for general psychiatric patients, a unique subset of individuals occupies a gray area between the mental health and legal systems. These are patients who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity. In these specific cases, a court has determined that the person is not legally responsible for a crime because a mental disease or defect impaired their actions at the time of the offense.
Because their crimes are legally attributed to mental illness, one might assume these individuals lack the general criminal risk factors seen in other offenders. To test this idea, psychology researchers Angelea Bolaños, Faith Scanlon, and their colleagues set out to compare different groups of psychiatric patients. They wanted to see how insanity acquittees stacked up against other patients in terms of criminal attitudes, social support, and psychiatric distress.
The researchers gathered data from 349 participants across three distinct groups. The first group consisted of 74 psychiatric patients who had a history of misdemeanor or felony convictions. The second group included 68 psychiatric patients who had no history of criminal involvement. Both of these groups were recruited from a short-term, private inpatient psychiatric hospital in Texas.
The third group was made up of 207 forensic patients residing in the California state hospital system. These individuals had been found not guilty by reason of insanity and were institutionalized for mandatory psychiatric treatment. To compare the groups, the research team administered a series of self-report questionnaires designed to measure attitudes toward crime, social support networks, and current mental health.
One survey assessed general criminal tendencies, conduct problems, and antisocial personality traits. Another measured the participants’ number of criminal friends and their level of agreement with antisocial attitudes, such as feelings of entitlement or the belief that violence is justified. A third questionnaire evaluated how much support the participants felt they received from family, friends, and romantic partners.
Finally, the participants completed an inventory that measured the severity of their current psychiatric symptoms over the previous week. This included looking at markers for anxiety, depression, and paranoia. The researchers then used statistical models to see if the combination of these traits could accurately distinguish the three types of patients from one another based solely on their survey answers.
The team discovered that patients with mental illness and a history of typical criminal involvement scored the highest on almost all indicators of criminal risk. This group reported having the most criminal associates and the strongest antisocial attitudes. They also reported the lowest levels of perceived positive social support from their families and friends.
The patients found not guilty by reason of insanity presented a more mixed profile. They showed some shared criminal risk factors with the traditional criminal group, scoring higher on general criminal tendencies than the patients with no legal history. However, they did not display the same elevated levels of antisocial attitudes as the group with typical legal involvement.
When it came to social networks, the insanity acquittees actually resembled the patients with no criminal history. Both of these groups reported feeling a comparable level of social support. The researchers suggest that friends and family might remain more supportive of someone whose crime is attributed to a mental health crisis, compared to someone who engages in standard criminal behavior.
In an unexpected twist regarding psychiatric symptoms, the insanity acquittees reported the lowest severity of current mental health distress among all three groups. The researchers suspect this is due to the nature of their hospitalizations. The Texas patients were in a short-term, acute crisis facility, while the California forensic patients had likely been living in a stable, long-term therapeutic environment for an extended period, allowing their symptoms to subside.
Overall, the data showed that criminal risk factors and social support metrics successfully sorted roughly two thirds to three quarters of the participants into their correct legal categories. This predictive accuracy reinforces the idea that criminal attitudes and social environments are defining features of justice-involved populations. The results highlight the need for treatment programs to target these specific criminal risk factors alongside standard psychiatric care.
For example, specialized rehabilitation programs exist to address the concurrent mental health and criminal needs of people in the justice system. Providing this kind of dual-focused therapy could assist forensic patients in developing necessary life skills to optimize their recovery. Preparing these patients for eventual release requires treating the whole person, rather than viewing them solely through a psychiatric lens.
While the study offers a detailed look at forensic and non-forensic patients, the research design relies on data collected at a single point in time. This cross-sectional approach prevents researchers from determining exactly how a person’s mental illness and criminal behavior evolved over time. It is impossible to know whether a patient’s antisocial attitudes developed before or after their psychiatric symptoms began.
The reliance on self-reported questionnaires also introduces the possibility of response bias. Participants might have underreported their antisocial attitudes or exaggerated their mental health symptoms based on what they thought the researchers wanted to hear. Corroborating these self-reports with official legal records or clinician observations in future studies could yield a more comprehensive picture of their behavior.
The sample composition limits how broadly the results can be applied to the general population. The patients from the Texas hospital lacked demographic diversity, being predominantly White and male. Comparing patients across two different states also introduces variations in how different legal systems define and handle insanity acquittals, meaning a patient in California might be treated differently than one in Texas.
A final complication is that 85 percent of the forensic patients in the California sample had additional criminal convictions on top of the charges that led to their insanity acquittals. This high rate of prior criminal behavior blurs the boundary between the strictly psychiatric and the strictly criminal groups. Future investigations could separate insanity acquittees based on their past criminal histories to better understand this unique population.
The study, “Psychiatric Symptoms and Criminogenic Risk in People With Mental Illness: Comparing Patients Across Forensic and Nonforensic Settings,” was authored by Angelea D. Bolaños, Faith Scanlon, Robert D. Morgan, Sean M. Mitchell, and Darci Delgado.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MentalHealthAndCrime #CriminogenicRisk #InsanityAcquittees #ForensicPsychology #CriminalAttitudes #SocialSupportMatters #MentalIllnessAndCriminalJustice #CriminalBehaviorFactors #JusticeSystemResearch #PsychiatricSymptomsVsRisk
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People found not guilty by reason of insanity show a surprisingly mixed criminal risk profile
People who experience severe mental health conditions are frequently overrepresented in the criminal justice system, but their psychiatric symptoms alone do not always explain their legal troubles. A recent study found that standard criminal risk factors, such as antisocial attitudes and having friends involved in crime, are strongly linked to whether a psychiatric patient has been involved in the legal system. The research was published in Law and Human Behavior.
In the past, intervention programs aimed at reducing repeat offenses among people with mental illness focused almost entirely on treating psychiatric symptoms. These medical interventions routinely failed to keep people out of jail. Researchers began to realize that most people with mental illness do not commit crimes because of hallucinations or delusions.
Instead, their criminal behavior is closely linked to the same risk factors that drive crime in the general population. In the fields of criminology and psychology, experts often refer to the central eight criminogenic risk factors. These include a history of antisocial behavior, antisocial personality traits, antisocial friends, substance abuse, family or marital problems, school or work difficulties, a lack of positive recreational activities, and criminal attitudes.
Researchers have consistently found that these non-clinical factors outperform traditional mental health variables in predicting criminal behavior. This means that mental illness alone does not necessarily increase an individual’s risk of breaking the law. Instead, some people with mental illness happen to have co-occurring antisocial tendencies that lead to legal trouble.
While this pattern holds true for general psychiatric patients, a unique subset of individuals occupies a gray area between the mental health and legal systems. These are patients who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity. In these specific cases, a court has determined that the person is not legally responsible for a crime because a mental disease or defect impaired their actions at the time of the offense.
Because their crimes are legally attributed to mental illness, one might assume these individuals lack the general criminal risk factors seen in other offenders. To test this idea, psychology researchers Angelea Bolaños, Faith Scanlon, and their colleagues set out to compare different groups of psychiatric patients. They wanted to see how insanity acquittees stacked up against other patients in terms of criminal attitudes, social support, and psychiatric distress.
The researchers gathered data from 349 participants across three distinct groups. The first group consisted of 74 psychiatric patients who had a history of misdemeanor or felony convictions. The second group included 68 psychiatric patients who had no history of criminal involvement. Both of these groups were recruited from a short-term, private inpatient psychiatric hospital in Texas.
The third group was made up of 207 forensic patients residing in the California state hospital system. These individuals had been found not guilty by reason of insanity and were institutionalized for mandatory psychiatric treatment. To compare the groups, the research team administered a series of self-report questionnaires designed to measure attitudes toward crime, social support networks, and current mental health.
One survey assessed general criminal tendencies, conduct problems, and antisocial personality traits. Another measured the participants’ number of criminal friends and their level of agreement with antisocial attitudes, such as feelings of entitlement or the belief that violence is justified. A third questionnaire evaluated how much support the participants felt they received from family, friends, and romantic partners.
Finally, the participants completed an inventory that measured the severity of their current psychiatric symptoms over the previous week. This included looking at markers for anxiety, depression, and paranoia. The researchers then used statistical models to see if the combination of these traits could accurately distinguish the three types of patients from one another based solely on their survey answers.
The team discovered that patients with mental illness and a history of typical criminal involvement scored the highest on almost all indicators of criminal risk. This group reported having the most criminal associates and the strongest antisocial attitudes. They also reported the lowest levels of perceived positive social support from their families and friends.
The patients found not guilty by reason of insanity presented a more mixed profile. They showed some shared criminal risk factors with the traditional criminal group, scoring higher on general criminal tendencies than the patients with no legal history. However, they did not display the same elevated levels of antisocial attitudes as the group with typical legal involvement.
When it came to social networks, the insanity acquittees actually resembled the patients with no criminal history. Both of these groups reported feeling a comparable level of social support. The researchers suggest that friends and family might remain more supportive of someone whose crime is attributed to a mental health crisis, compared to someone who engages in standard criminal behavior.
In an unexpected twist regarding psychiatric symptoms, the insanity acquittees reported the lowest severity of current mental health distress among all three groups. The researchers suspect this is due to the nature of their hospitalizations. The Texas patients were in a short-term, acute crisis facility, while the California forensic patients had likely been living in a stable, long-term therapeutic environment for an extended period, allowing their symptoms to subside.
Overall, the data showed that criminal risk factors and social support metrics successfully sorted roughly two thirds to three quarters of the participants into their correct legal categories. This predictive accuracy reinforces the idea that criminal attitudes and social environments are defining features of justice-involved populations. The results highlight the need for treatment programs to target these specific criminal risk factors alongside standard psychiatric care.
For example, specialized rehabilitation programs exist to address the concurrent mental health and criminal needs of people in the justice system. Providing this kind of dual-focused therapy could assist forensic patients in developing necessary life skills to optimize their recovery. Preparing these patients for eventual release requires treating the whole person, rather than viewing them solely through a psychiatric lens.
While the study offers a detailed look at forensic and non-forensic patients, the research design relies on data collected at a single point in time. This cross-sectional approach prevents researchers from determining exactly how a person’s mental illness and criminal behavior evolved over time. It is impossible to know whether a patient’s antisocial attitudes developed before or after their psychiatric symptoms began.
The reliance on self-reported questionnaires also introduces the possibility of response bias. Participants might have underreported their antisocial attitudes or exaggerated their mental health symptoms based on what they thought the researchers wanted to hear. Corroborating these self-reports with official legal records or clinician observations in future studies could yield a more comprehensive picture of their behavior.
The sample composition limits how broadly the results can be applied to the general population. The patients from the Texas hospital lacked demographic diversity, being predominantly White and male. Comparing patients across two different states also introduces variations in how different legal systems define and handle insanity acquittals, meaning a patient in California might be treated differently than one in Texas.
A final complication is that 85 percent of the forensic patients in the California sample had additional criminal convictions on top of the charges that led to their insanity acquittals. This high rate of prior criminal behavior blurs the boundary between the strictly psychiatric and the strictly criminal groups. Future investigations could separate insanity acquittees based on their past criminal histories to better understand this unique population.
The study, “Psychiatric Symptoms and Criminogenic Risk in People With Mental Illness: Comparing Patients Across Forensic and Nonforensic Settings,” was authored by Angelea D. Bolaños, Faith Scanlon, Robert D. Morgan, Sean M. Mitchell, and Darci Delgado.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MentalHealthAndCrime #CriminogenicRisk #InsanityAcquittees #ForensicPsychology #CriminalAttitudes #SocialSupportMatters #MentalIllnessAndCriminalJustice #CriminalBehaviorFactors #JusticeSystemResearch #PsychiatricSymptomsVsRisk
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 11:46AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Our October theme: PTSD.
If you are interested in being featured in a future Special Report/print issue, submit to our content series! https://t.co/n2wLYmqmrF https://t.co/4xnWlMLQQl
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news".
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #PTSD #MentalHealthAwareness #OctoberTheme #SpecialReport #ContentSeries
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 11:46AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Our October theme: PTSD.
If you are interested in being featured in a future Special Report/print issue, submit to our content series! https://t.co/n2wLYmqmrF https://t.co/4xnWlMLQQl
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news".
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #PTSD #MentalHealthAwareness #OctoberTheme #SpecialReport #ContentSeries
-
DATE: October 1, 2026 at 11:46AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Our October theme: PTSD.
If you are interested in being featured in a future Special Report/print issue, submit to our content series! https://t.co/n2wLYmqmrF https://t.co/4xnWlMLQQl
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news".
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #PTSD #MentalHealthAwareness #OctoberTheme #SpecialReport #ContentSeries