#psychotherapy — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #psychotherapy, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: September 18, 2026 at 04:31PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
@DARPA Seeks #AI Tools to Transform Battlefield #Medical Care https://t.co/i3WS7udUkW
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
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DATE: September 18, 2026 at 04:31PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
@DARPA Seeks #AI Tools to Transform Battlefield #Medical Care https://t.co/i3WS7udUkW
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
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DATE: September 18, 2026 at 04:31PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
@DARPA Seeks #AI Tools to Transform Battlefield #Medical Care https://t.co/i3WS7udUkW
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
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DATE: September 18, 2026 at 04:31PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
@DARPA Seeks #AI Tools to Transform Battlefield #Medical Care https://t.co/i3WS7udUkW
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
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DATE: September 18, 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: Watering plants lowers blood pressure and anxiety in older adults
URL: https://www.psypost.org/watering-plants-lowers-blood-pressure-and-anxiety-in-older-adults/
Watering indoor plants for just 10 minutes can lower blood pressure and boost feelings of relaxation in older adults. A recent trial compared this simple gardening task to playing a computer card game and found that tending to plants provided measurable physical and mental health benefits. The research was published in the Hong Kong Journal of Occupational Therapy.
As people age, maintaining mental and physical health often requires engaging in structured leisure activities. Occupational therapists frequently recommend non-pharmacological interventions to help older adults manage stress and preserve their motor skills. One popular approach is horticultural therapy, a practice that incorporates gardening tasks to promote holistic well-being. Interacting with plants provides sensory stimulation and offers a gentle form of physical exercise.
Past research has linked gardening to improved self-esteem, better hand coordination, and reduced feelings of isolation in older populations. To measure these benefits, scientists have traditionally relied on self-reported surveys or basic physical metrics like heart rate monitors. Recent advances in wearable technology now allow researchers to directly monitor electrical brain activity during these tasks.
Researchers Li Xiaoyi of the Henan Institute of Science and Technology and Ahmad Hassan of Tongji University wanted to observe exactly how the brain and body respond to a brief gardening exercise. Working with colleagues Jiang Tao and Zhang Deshun, they designed an experiment to compare plant care with a digital leisure activity. They hypothesized that interacting with live plants would yield unique physiological benefits.
The researchers recruited 100 older women living in a nursing care facility in Shanghai, China. The participants had an average age of 68 and were in good physical health with no cognitive impairments. The experiment took place in a quiet, temperature-controlled room to minimize outside distractions and maintain a consistent environment.
The team set up a crossover trial, an experimental design where all participants eventually complete both activities being tested. On the first day, half of the women spent 10 minutes watering 15 small indoor potted plants by hand. The other half spent 10 minutes playing a digital game of Klondike Solitaire on a computer. The following day, the two groups switched tasks.
Before and after each session, the researchers measured the participants’ blood pressure using a standard blood pressure cuff. They also utilized an electroencephalogram, commonly known as an EEG, to continuously record brain activity. Participants wore a specialized headband equipped with dry sensors that rest on the forehead. These sensors detect the faint electrical signals produced by brain cells communicating with one another.
The headset specifically monitored the frontal lobe, a brain region heavily involved in attention, memory, and emotional regulation. The researchers focused their analysis on two distinct types of brain frequencies: alpha waves and beta waves. Alpha waves are relatively slow electrical patterns that typically appear when a person is in a relaxed, peaceful state. Beta waves are faster and generally emerge when a person is actively concentrating, alert, or anxious.
Alongside the physical sensors, the participants completed two standardized questionnaires to assess their subjective emotional states. One survey measured their current anxiety levels using a numerical scale. The other asked them to rate their immediate feelings between opposing concepts, such as feeling comfortable versus uncomfortable.
The physiological data revealed distinct physical responses to the two activities. Watering the indoor plants prompted immediate drops in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Systolic pressure measures the force of blood against artery walls during a heartbeat, while diastolic pressure measures the resting force between beats. A reduction in both metrics indicates a calming effect on the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary bodily functions.
Playing the computer game did not produce these relaxing physical changes. The heart rate of the participants remained relatively stable across both activities, showing no statistical difference in pulse. The most notable differences emerged in the electrical activity of the brain.
During the first few minutes of the plant-watering task, the women experienced a surge in alpha wave activity. This initial spike suggests that interacting with the plants fostered immediate mental relaxation. During the same period, their high beta wave activity also increased, pointing to a state of heightened attentiveness.
Experiencing both increased alpha and beta waves suggests the participants were in a state of alert relaxation. They were calm but fully engaged with the task of watering the plants. In contrast, the women who played the computer game showed decreased alpha and beta activity. This opposing brainwave pattern is often associated with mental fatigue, boredom, or stress.
Across the entire 10-minute session, the overall increase in alpha waves for the gardening group was not statistically significant. However, the overall beta wave increase remained substantial for the duration of the task. The EEG headsets also calculated a proprietary meditation score, which rose notably during the plant-watering task compared to the computer game.
The subjective survey results mirrored the objective physical measurements. After tending to the plants, participants reported lower overall anxiety scores on their questionnaires. They also rated themselves as feeling much more comfortable, natural, and relaxed than they did after playing the computer game.
While the results highlight the potential benefits of brief interactions with nature, the study design has limitations. The experiment only tested a single 10-minute session using one specific type of indoor potted plant. The effects of longer gardening sessions, different types of plants, or outdoor environments remain unknown.
The demographic makeup of the study was also highly specific, focusing entirely on a single group. All participants were older women living in one nursing facility in China. The psychological and physical responses to gardening might differ across different age groups, genders, and cultural backgrounds. Future trials involving diverse populations would help clarify how broadly these benefits apply to the general public.
The study, “Psychological and physiological benefits of horticultural therapy for Chinese older adults,” was authored by Li Xiaoyi, Ahmad Hassan, Jiang Tao, and Zhang Deshun.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/watering-plants-lowers-blood-pressure-and-anxiety-in-older-adults/
-------------------------------------------------
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 #horticulturaltherapy #indoorplants #bloodpressure #anxietyrelief #olderadults #gardeningbenefits #mindbodyconnection #alphawaves #betawaves #wellbeing
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DATE: September 18, 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: Watering plants lowers blood pressure and anxiety in older adults
URL: https://www.psypost.org/watering-plants-lowers-blood-pressure-and-anxiety-in-older-adults/
Watering indoor plants for just 10 minutes can lower blood pressure and boost feelings of relaxation in older adults. A recent trial compared this simple gardening task to playing a computer card game and found that tending to plants provided measurable physical and mental health benefits. The research was published in the Hong Kong Journal of Occupational Therapy.
As people age, maintaining mental and physical health often requires engaging in structured leisure activities. Occupational therapists frequently recommend non-pharmacological interventions to help older adults manage stress and preserve their motor skills. One popular approach is horticultural therapy, a practice that incorporates gardening tasks to promote holistic well-being. Interacting with plants provides sensory stimulation and offers a gentle form of physical exercise.
Past research has linked gardening to improved self-esteem, better hand coordination, and reduced feelings of isolation in older populations. To measure these benefits, scientists have traditionally relied on self-reported surveys or basic physical metrics like heart rate monitors. Recent advances in wearable technology now allow researchers to directly monitor electrical brain activity during these tasks.
Researchers Li Xiaoyi of the Henan Institute of Science and Technology and Ahmad Hassan of Tongji University wanted to observe exactly how the brain and body respond to a brief gardening exercise. Working with colleagues Jiang Tao and Zhang Deshun, they designed an experiment to compare plant care with a digital leisure activity. They hypothesized that interacting with live plants would yield unique physiological benefits.
The researchers recruited 100 older women living in a nursing care facility in Shanghai, China. The participants had an average age of 68 and were in good physical health with no cognitive impairments. The experiment took place in a quiet, temperature-controlled room to minimize outside distractions and maintain a consistent environment.
The team set up a crossover trial, an experimental design where all participants eventually complete both activities being tested. On the first day, half of the women spent 10 minutes watering 15 small indoor potted plants by hand. The other half spent 10 minutes playing a digital game of Klondike Solitaire on a computer. The following day, the two groups switched tasks.
Before and after each session, the researchers measured the participants’ blood pressure using a standard blood pressure cuff. They also utilized an electroencephalogram, commonly known as an EEG, to continuously record brain activity. Participants wore a specialized headband equipped with dry sensors that rest on the forehead. These sensors detect the faint electrical signals produced by brain cells communicating with one another.
The headset specifically monitored the frontal lobe, a brain region heavily involved in attention, memory, and emotional regulation. The researchers focused their analysis on two distinct types of brain frequencies: alpha waves and beta waves. Alpha waves are relatively slow electrical patterns that typically appear when a person is in a relaxed, peaceful state. Beta waves are faster and generally emerge when a person is actively concentrating, alert, or anxious.
Alongside the physical sensors, the participants completed two standardized questionnaires to assess their subjective emotional states. One survey measured their current anxiety levels using a numerical scale. The other asked them to rate their immediate feelings between opposing concepts, such as feeling comfortable versus uncomfortable.
The physiological data revealed distinct physical responses to the two activities. Watering the indoor plants prompted immediate drops in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Systolic pressure measures the force of blood against artery walls during a heartbeat, while diastolic pressure measures the resting force between beats. A reduction in both metrics indicates a calming effect on the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary bodily functions.
Playing the computer game did not produce these relaxing physical changes. The heart rate of the participants remained relatively stable across both activities, showing no statistical difference in pulse. The most notable differences emerged in the electrical activity of the brain.
During the first few minutes of the plant-watering task, the women experienced a surge in alpha wave activity. This initial spike suggests that interacting with the plants fostered immediate mental relaxation. During the same period, their high beta wave activity also increased, pointing to a state of heightened attentiveness.
Experiencing both increased alpha and beta waves suggests the participants were in a state of alert relaxation. They were calm but fully engaged with the task of watering the plants. In contrast, the women who played the computer game showed decreased alpha and beta activity. This opposing brainwave pattern is often associated with mental fatigue, boredom, or stress.
Across the entire 10-minute session, the overall increase in alpha waves for the gardening group was not statistically significant. However, the overall beta wave increase remained substantial for the duration of the task. The EEG headsets also calculated a proprietary meditation score, which rose notably during the plant-watering task compared to the computer game.
The subjective survey results mirrored the objective physical measurements. After tending to the plants, participants reported lower overall anxiety scores on their questionnaires. They also rated themselves as feeling much more comfortable, natural, and relaxed than they did after playing the computer game.
While the results highlight the potential benefits of brief interactions with nature, the study design has limitations. The experiment only tested a single 10-minute session using one specific type of indoor potted plant. The effects of longer gardening sessions, different types of plants, or outdoor environments remain unknown.
The demographic makeup of the study was also highly specific, focusing entirely on a single group. All participants were older women living in one nursing facility in China. The psychological and physical responses to gardening might differ across different age groups, genders, and cultural backgrounds. Future trials involving diverse populations would help clarify how broadly these benefits apply to the general public.
The study, “Psychological and physiological benefits of horticultural therapy for Chinese older adults,” was authored by Li Xiaoyi, Ahmad Hassan, Jiang Tao, and Zhang Deshun.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/watering-plants-lowers-blood-pressure-and-anxiety-in-older-adults/
-------------------------------------------------
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 #horticulturaltherapy #indoorplants #bloodpressure #anxietyrelief #olderadults #gardeningbenefits #mindbodyconnection #alphawaves #betawaves #wellbeing
-
DATE: September 18, 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: Watering plants lowers blood pressure and anxiety in older adults
URL: https://www.psypost.org/watering-plants-lowers-blood-pressure-and-anxiety-in-older-adults/
Watering indoor plants for just 10 minutes can lower blood pressure and boost feelings of relaxation in older adults. A recent trial compared this simple gardening task to playing a computer card game and found that tending to plants provided measurable physical and mental health benefits. The research was published in the Hong Kong Journal of Occupational Therapy.
As people age, maintaining mental and physical health often requires engaging in structured leisure activities. Occupational therapists frequently recommend non-pharmacological interventions to help older adults manage stress and preserve their motor skills. One popular approach is horticultural therapy, a practice that incorporates gardening tasks to promote holistic well-being. Interacting with plants provides sensory stimulation and offers a gentle form of physical exercise.
Past research has linked gardening to improved self-esteem, better hand coordination, and reduced feelings of isolation in older populations. To measure these benefits, scientists have traditionally relied on self-reported surveys or basic physical metrics like heart rate monitors. Recent advances in wearable technology now allow researchers to directly monitor electrical brain activity during these tasks.
Researchers Li Xiaoyi of the Henan Institute of Science and Technology and Ahmad Hassan of Tongji University wanted to observe exactly how the brain and body respond to a brief gardening exercise. Working with colleagues Jiang Tao and Zhang Deshun, they designed an experiment to compare plant care with a digital leisure activity. They hypothesized that interacting with live plants would yield unique physiological benefits.
The researchers recruited 100 older women living in a nursing care facility in Shanghai, China. The participants had an average age of 68 and were in good physical health with no cognitive impairments. The experiment took place in a quiet, temperature-controlled room to minimize outside distractions and maintain a consistent environment.
The team set up a crossover trial, an experimental design where all participants eventually complete both activities being tested. On the first day, half of the women spent 10 minutes watering 15 small indoor potted plants by hand. The other half spent 10 minutes playing a digital game of Klondike Solitaire on a computer. The following day, the two groups switched tasks.
Before and after each session, the researchers measured the participants’ blood pressure using a standard blood pressure cuff. They also utilized an electroencephalogram, commonly known as an EEG, to continuously record brain activity. Participants wore a specialized headband equipped with dry sensors that rest on the forehead. These sensors detect the faint electrical signals produced by brain cells communicating with one another.
The headset specifically monitored the frontal lobe, a brain region heavily involved in attention, memory, and emotional regulation. The researchers focused their analysis on two distinct types of brain frequencies: alpha waves and beta waves. Alpha waves are relatively slow electrical patterns that typically appear when a person is in a relaxed, peaceful state. Beta waves are faster and generally emerge when a person is actively concentrating, alert, or anxious.
Alongside the physical sensors, the participants completed two standardized questionnaires to assess their subjective emotional states. One survey measured their current anxiety levels using a numerical scale. The other asked them to rate their immediate feelings between opposing concepts, such as feeling comfortable versus uncomfortable.
The physiological data revealed distinct physical responses to the two activities. Watering the indoor plants prompted immediate drops in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Systolic pressure measures the force of blood against artery walls during a heartbeat, while diastolic pressure measures the resting force between beats. A reduction in both metrics indicates a calming effect on the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary bodily functions.
Playing the computer game did not produce these relaxing physical changes. The heart rate of the participants remained relatively stable across both activities, showing no statistical difference in pulse. The most notable differences emerged in the electrical activity of the brain.
During the first few minutes of the plant-watering task, the women experienced a surge in alpha wave activity. This initial spike suggests that interacting with the plants fostered immediate mental relaxation. During the same period, their high beta wave activity also increased, pointing to a state of heightened attentiveness.
Experiencing both increased alpha and beta waves suggests the participants were in a state of alert relaxation. They were calm but fully engaged with the task of watering the plants. In contrast, the women who played the computer game showed decreased alpha and beta activity. This opposing brainwave pattern is often associated with mental fatigue, boredom, or stress.
Across the entire 10-minute session, the overall increase in alpha waves for the gardening group was not statistically significant. However, the overall beta wave increase remained substantial for the duration of the task. The EEG headsets also calculated a proprietary meditation score, which rose notably during the plant-watering task compared to the computer game.
The subjective survey results mirrored the objective physical measurements. After tending to the plants, participants reported lower overall anxiety scores on their questionnaires. They also rated themselves as feeling much more comfortable, natural, and relaxed than they did after playing the computer game.
While the results highlight the potential benefits of brief interactions with nature, the study design has limitations. The experiment only tested a single 10-minute session using one specific type of indoor potted plant. The effects of longer gardening sessions, different types of plants, or outdoor environments remain unknown.
The demographic makeup of the study was also highly specific, focusing entirely on a single group. All participants were older women living in one nursing facility in China. The psychological and physical responses to gardening might differ across different age groups, genders, and cultural backgrounds. Future trials involving diverse populations would help clarify how broadly these benefits apply to the general public.
The study, “Psychological and physiological benefits of horticultural therapy for Chinese older adults,” was authored by Li Xiaoyi, Ahmad Hassan, Jiang Tao, and Zhang Deshun.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/watering-plants-lowers-blood-pressure-and-anxiety-in-older-adults/
-------------------------------------------------
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 #horticulturaltherapy #indoorplants #bloodpressure #anxietyrelief #olderadults #gardeningbenefits #mindbodyconnection #alphawaves #betawaves #wellbeing
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DATE: September 18, 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: Lithium supplementation does not slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, meta-analysis finds
A recent meta-analysis evaluating the cognitive effects of lithium supplementation in older adults found that the mineral does not slow cognitive decline in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment. The research provides evidence that commonly prescribed forms of lithium are not effective at preserving memory and thinking skills in this population. The findings were published in the Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive condition of the brain where brain cells gradually degrade and die, leading to worsening memory, confusion, and an inability to perform daily tasks. The disease is characterized by the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain, namely amyloid-beta plaques and tau tangles, which disrupt cell communication and cause inflammation. Before a person develops full Alzheimer’s disease, they often experience mild cognitive impairment, an intermediate stage of memory loss that is noticeable but does not completely disrupt everyday life. Finding treatments that can halt or slow this progression from early memory loss to severe dementia is a major priority in medical science.
One substance that has attracted attention as a potential treatment is lithium. Lithium is a naturally occurring mineral that is most commonly formulated as a medication, such as lithium carbonate, to stabilize mood in people with bipolar disorder. In recent years, laboratory experiments have suggested that lithium might also protect brain cells from the damage seen in Alzheimer’s disease by blocking specific enzymes that lead to protein buildup.
A series of small clinical trials and earlier pooled reviews yielded mixed evidence on whether lithium can actually slow cognitive decline in humans. For example, a 2009 clinical trial investigated whether a short course of lithium could alter disease markers and slow mental decline in patients with Alzheimer’s, but it found no major benefit.
A few years later, a 2011 clinical trial indicated that long-term, low-dose lithium treatment helped stabilize memory and thinking in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Trying to make sense of these varying outcomes, a 2015 meta-analysis combined the results of these early clinical trials, yielding intriguing but still inconclusive evidence about the mineral’s protective effects.
This conflicting background set the stage for an updated analysis of lithium’s therapeutic value in Alzheimer’s disease. The research team, led by Taro Kishi of the Fujita Health University School of Medicine, wanted to incorporate the most recent clinical trials into a single, comprehensive statistical model to see if lithium offers any reliable cognitive benefits for people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.
To explore this question, the scientists utilized a meta-analysis, which is a statistical method that pools data from multiple independent studies to identify broader trends that a single study might miss. The researchers searched major scientific databases for randomized, placebo-controlled trials that tested lithium supplementation in individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease. In these types of trials, one group of patients receives the active medication while another receives an inactive dummy pill, allowing researchers to isolate the effects of the drug.
The final analysis included six clinical trials with a total of 435 participants. Two of the trials focused exclusively on patients with mild cognitive impairment, while the others included patients with various stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The length of the studies varied, with some tracking patients for just 10 weeks and others following them for up to two years. The types of lithium used in these trials were mostly inorganic salts, predominantly lithium carbonate, though some used lithium sulfate or lithium gluconate.
To measure cognitive changes, the original studies used standardized tests such as the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale and the Mini-Mental State Examination. These tools are questionnaires and tasks designed to evaluate memory, language, attention, and basic problem-solving skills. The research team compared the cognitive test scores of the patients who took lithium with those who took a placebo to determine if the mineral slowed their rate of mental decline.
The researchers found that lithium supplementation was not better than a placebo at preserving cognitive function. When combining the data from all six studies, the difference in cognitive test scores between the lithium group and the placebo group was not statistically significant. The patients taking lithium experienced a similar rate of memory and thinking decline as those who did not receive the treatment.
The team also looked at secondary outcomes, including behavioral symptoms like agitation and aggression, which are common in advancing Alzheimer’s disease. Once again, the results were not statistically significant; lithium did not improve behavioral symptoms better than a placebo. Similarly, the rates of people dropping out of the studies or experiencing adverse side effects were roughly equal between the lithium and placebo groups.
To ensure they were not missing specific scenarios where lithium might work, the scientists performed several subgroup analyses. They checked whether the results differed depending on the patient’s diagnosis, the length of the study, the dose of lithium, or the specific formulation used. In all of these categories, lithium consistently failed to show an advantage over the placebo.
These findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in May 2026, which found that lithium chloride treatment reduced harmful protein activity and altered brain signaling. However, the new meta-analysis evaluated clinical cognitive outcomes in human patients rather than molecular and cellular changes in laboratory cell cultures.
The results also offer interesting context for another study covered by PsyPost in September 2025. That study, which used mouse models rather than human clinical trials, found that treatment with a specific organic salt called lithium orotate prevented harmful protein accumulation and improved memory. While those animal and cellular studies suggest lithium has biological effects on Alzheimer’s mechanisms, the new study indicates that the specific inorganic lithium salts commonly used in human clinical trials, such as lithium carbonate, do not translate into measurable cognitive benefits for human patients.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. The meta-analysis was based on a relatively small number of studies and a modest total of 435 participants, which limits the statistical power of the analysis. A larger pool of data might be needed to detect very subtle effects. There are also a few things to keep in mind regarding the participants themselves. In the older trials, patients with mild cognitive impairment were diagnosed based on clinical symptoms rather than modern biological markers like brain scans or spinal fluid tests. This means some participants might have had memory issues caused by conditions other than early Alzheimer’s disease.
Additionally, the patients in these trials were often taking standard anti-dementia medications alongside the lithium or placebo. The types and combinations of these medications varied across the studies, which might have influenced the outcomes. Finally, the analysis focused heavily on inorganic lithium salts like lithium carbonate and lithium sulfate. Some researchers suggest that organic salts like lithium orotate might enter brain cells more efficiently and with fewer side effects, but human clinical trials testing lithium orotate for Alzheimer’s disease are currently lacking.
The study, “Lithium for Alzheimer’s disease: Insights from a meta-analysis,” was authored by Taro Kishi, Shinji Matsunaga, Youichi Saito, and Nakao Iwata.
-------------------------------------------------
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 #LithiumAlzheimersNo Benefit #AlzheimersDisease #CognitiveDecline #MildCognitiveImpairment #LithiumSupplementation #NeuroscienceResearch #ClinicalTrials #MetaAnalysis #AlzheimersTreatment #BrainHealth
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DATE: September 18, 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: Lithium supplementation does not slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, meta-analysis finds
A recent meta-analysis evaluating the cognitive effects of lithium supplementation in older adults found that the mineral does not slow cognitive decline in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment. The research provides evidence that commonly prescribed forms of lithium are not effective at preserving memory and thinking skills in this population. The findings were published in the Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive condition of the brain where brain cells gradually degrade and die, leading to worsening memory, confusion, and an inability to perform daily tasks. The disease is characterized by the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain, namely amyloid-beta plaques and tau tangles, which disrupt cell communication and cause inflammation. Before a person develops full Alzheimer’s disease, they often experience mild cognitive impairment, an intermediate stage of memory loss that is noticeable but does not completely disrupt everyday life. Finding treatments that can halt or slow this progression from early memory loss to severe dementia is a major priority in medical science.
One substance that has attracted attention as a potential treatment is lithium. Lithium is a naturally occurring mineral that is most commonly formulated as a medication, such as lithium carbonate, to stabilize mood in people with bipolar disorder. In recent years, laboratory experiments have suggested that lithium might also protect brain cells from the damage seen in Alzheimer’s disease by blocking specific enzymes that lead to protein buildup.
A series of small clinical trials and earlier pooled reviews yielded mixed evidence on whether lithium can actually slow cognitive decline in humans. For example, a 2009 clinical trial investigated whether a short course of lithium could alter disease markers and slow mental decline in patients with Alzheimer’s, but it found no major benefit.
A few years later, a 2011 clinical trial indicated that long-term, low-dose lithium treatment helped stabilize memory and thinking in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Trying to make sense of these varying outcomes, a 2015 meta-analysis combined the results of these early clinical trials, yielding intriguing but still inconclusive evidence about the mineral’s protective effects.
This conflicting background set the stage for an updated analysis of lithium’s therapeutic value in Alzheimer’s disease. The research team, led by Taro Kishi of the Fujita Health University School of Medicine, wanted to incorporate the most recent clinical trials into a single, comprehensive statistical model to see if lithium offers any reliable cognitive benefits for people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.
To explore this question, the scientists utilized a meta-analysis, which is a statistical method that pools data from multiple independent studies to identify broader trends that a single study might miss. The researchers searched major scientific databases for randomized, placebo-controlled trials that tested lithium supplementation in individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease. In these types of trials, one group of patients receives the active medication while another receives an inactive dummy pill, allowing researchers to isolate the effects of the drug.
The final analysis included six clinical trials with a total of 435 participants. Two of the trials focused exclusively on patients with mild cognitive impairment, while the others included patients with various stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The length of the studies varied, with some tracking patients for just 10 weeks and others following them for up to two years. The types of lithium used in these trials were mostly inorganic salts, predominantly lithium carbonate, though some used lithium sulfate or lithium gluconate.
To measure cognitive changes, the original studies used standardized tests such as the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale and the Mini-Mental State Examination. These tools are questionnaires and tasks designed to evaluate memory, language, attention, and basic problem-solving skills. The research team compared the cognitive test scores of the patients who took lithium with those who took a placebo to determine if the mineral slowed their rate of mental decline.
The researchers found that lithium supplementation was not better than a placebo at preserving cognitive function. When combining the data from all six studies, the difference in cognitive test scores between the lithium group and the placebo group was not statistically significant. The patients taking lithium experienced a similar rate of memory and thinking decline as those who did not receive the treatment.
The team also looked at secondary outcomes, including behavioral symptoms like agitation and aggression, which are common in advancing Alzheimer’s disease. Once again, the results were not statistically significant; lithium did not improve behavioral symptoms better than a placebo. Similarly, the rates of people dropping out of the studies or experiencing adverse side effects were roughly equal between the lithium and placebo groups.
To ensure they were not missing specific scenarios where lithium might work, the scientists performed several subgroup analyses. They checked whether the results differed depending on the patient’s diagnosis, the length of the study, the dose of lithium, or the specific formulation used. In all of these categories, lithium consistently failed to show an advantage over the placebo.
These findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in May 2026, which found that lithium chloride treatment reduced harmful protein activity and altered brain signaling. However, the new meta-analysis evaluated clinical cognitive outcomes in human patients rather than molecular and cellular changes in laboratory cell cultures.
The results also offer interesting context for another study covered by PsyPost in September 2025. That study, which used mouse models rather than human clinical trials, found that treatment with a specific organic salt called lithium orotate prevented harmful protein accumulation and improved memory. While those animal and cellular studies suggest lithium has biological effects on Alzheimer’s mechanisms, the new study indicates that the specific inorganic lithium salts commonly used in human clinical trials, such as lithium carbonate, do not translate into measurable cognitive benefits for human patients.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. The meta-analysis was based on a relatively small number of studies and a modest total of 435 participants, which limits the statistical power of the analysis. A larger pool of data might be needed to detect very subtle effects. There are also a few things to keep in mind regarding the participants themselves. In the older trials, patients with mild cognitive impairment were diagnosed based on clinical symptoms rather than modern biological markers like brain scans or spinal fluid tests. This means some participants might have had memory issues caused by conditions other than early Alzheimer’s disease.
Additionally, the patients in these trials were often taking standard anti-dementia medications alongside the lithium or placebo. The types and combinations of these medications varied across the studies, which might have influenced the outcomes. Finally, the analysis focused heavily on inorganic lithium salts like lithium carbonate and lithium sulfate. Some researchers suggest that organic salts like lithium orotate might enter brain cells more efficiently and with fewer side effects, but human clinical trials testing lithium orotate for Alzheimer’s disease are currently lacking.
The study, “Lithium for Alzheimer’s disease: Insights from a meta-analysis,” was authored by Taro Kishi, Shinji Matsunaga, Youichi Saito, and Nakao Iwata.
-------------------------------------------------
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #LithiumAlzheimersNo Benefit #AlzheimersDisease #CognitiveDecline #MildCognitiveImpairment #LithiumSupplementation #NeuroscienceResearch #ClinicalTrials #MetaAnalysis #AlzheimersTreatment #BrainHealth
-
DATE: September 18, 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: Lithium supplementation does not slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, meta-analysis finds
A recent meta-analysis evaluating the cognitive effects of lithium supplementation in older adults found that the mineral does not slow cognitive decline in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment. The research provides evidence that commonly prescribed forms of lithium are not effective at preserving memory and thinking skills in this population. The findings were published in the Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive condition of the brain where brain cells gradually degrade and die, leading to worsening memory, confusion, and an inability to perform daily tasks. The disease is characterized by the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain, namely amyloid-beta plaques and tau tangles, which disrupt cell communication and cause inflammation. Before a person develops full Alzheimer’s disease, they often experience mild cognitive impairment, an intermediate stage of memory loss that is noticeable but does not completely disrupt everyday life. Finding treatments that can halt or slow this progression from early memory loss to severe dementia is a major priority in medical science.
One substance that has attracted attention as a potential treatment is lithium. Lithium is a naturally occurring mineral that is most commonly formulated as a medication, such as lithium carbonate, to stabilize mood in people with bipolar disorder. In recent years, laboratory experiments have suggested that lithium might also protect brain cells from the damage seen in Alzheimer’s disease by blocking specific enzymes that lead to protein buildup.
A series of small clinical trials and earlier pooled reviews yielded mixed evidence on whether lithium can actually slow cognitive decline in humans. For example, a 2009 clinical trial investigated whether a short course of lithium could alter disease markers and slow mental decline in patients with Alzheimer’s, but it found no major benefit.
A few years later, a 2011 clinical trial indicated that long-term, low-dose lithium treatment helped stabilize memory and thinking in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Trying to make sense of these varying outcomes, a 2015 meta-analysis combined the results of these early clinical trials, yielding intriguing but still inconclusive evidence about the mineral’s protective effects.
This conflicting background set the stage for an updated analysis of lithium’s therapeutic value in Alzheimer’s disease. The research team, led by Taro Kishi of the Fujita Health University School of Medicine, wanted to incorporate the most recent clinical trials into a single, comprehensive statistical model to see if lithium offers any reliable cognitive benefits for people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.
To explore this question, the scientists utilized a meta-analysis, which is a statistical method that pools data from multiple independent studies to identify broader trends that a single study might miss. The researchers searched major scientific databases for randomized, placebo-controlled trials that tested lithium supplementation in individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease. In these types of trials, one group of patients receives the active medication while another receives an inactive dummy pill, allowing researchers to isolate the effects of the drug.
The final analysis included six clinical trials with a total of 435 participants. Two of the trials focused exclusively on patients with mild cognitive impairment, while the others included patients with various stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The length of the studies varied, with some tracking patients for just 10 weeks and others following them for up to two years. The types of lithium used in these trials were mostly inorganic salts, predominantly lithium carbonate, though some used lithium sulfate or lithium gluconate.
To measure cognitive changes, the original studies used standardized tests such as the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale and the Mini-Mental State Examination. These tools are questionnaires and tasks designed to evaluate memory, language, attention, and basic problem-solving skills. The research team compared the cognitive test scores of the patients who took lithium with those who took a placebo to determine if the mineral slowed their rate of mental decline.
The researchers found that lithium supplementation was not better than a placebo at preserving cognitive function. When combining the data from all six studies, the difference in cognitive test scores between the lithium group and the placebo group was not statistically significant. The patients taking lithium experienced a similar rate of memory and thinking decline as those who did not receive the treatment.
The team also looked at secondary outcomes, including behavioral symptoms like agitation and aggression, which are common in advancing Alzheimer’s disease. Once again, the results were not statistically significant; lithium did not improve behavioral symptoms better than a placebo. Similarly, the rates of people dropping out of the studies or experiencing adverse side effects were roughly equal between the lithium and placebo groups.
To ensure they were not missing specific scenarios where lithium might work, the scientists performed several subgroup analyses. They checked whether the results differed depending on the patient’s diagnosis, the length of the study, the dose of lithium, or the specific formulation used. In all of these categories, lithium consistently failed to show an advantage over the placebo.
These findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in May 2026, which found that lithium chloride treatment reduced harmful protein activity and altered brain signaling. However, the new meta-analysis evaluated clinical cognitive outcomes in human patients rather than molecular and cellular changes in laboratory cell cultures.
The results also offer interesting context for another study covered by PsyPost in September 2025. That study, which used mouse models rather than human clinical trials, found that treatment with a specific organic salt called lithium orotate prevented harmful protein accumulation and improved memory. While those animal and cellular studies suggest lithium has biological effects on Alzheimer’s mechanisms, the new study indicates that the specific inorganic lithium salts commonly used in human clinical trials, such as lithium carbonate, do not translate into measurable cognitive benefits for human patients.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. The meta-analysis was based on a relatively small number of studies and a modest total of 435 participants, which limits the statistical power of the analysis. A larger pool of data might be needed to detect very subtle effects. There are also a few things to keep in mind regarding the participants themselves. In the older trials, patients with mild cognitive impairment were diagnosed based on clinical symptoms rather than modern biological markers like brain scans or spinal fluid tests. This means some participants might have had memory issues caused by conditions other than early Alzheimer’s disease.
Additionally, the patients in these trials were often taking standard anti-dementia medications alongside the lithium or placebo. The types and combinations of these medications varied across the studies, which might have influenced the outcomes. Finally, the analysis focused heavily on inorganic lithium salts like lithium carbonate and lithium sulfate. Some researchers suggest that organic salts like lithium orotate might enter brain cells more efficiently and with fewer side effects, but human clinical trials testing lithium orotate for Alzheimer’s disease are currently lacking.
The study, “Lithium for Alzheimer’s disease: Insights from a meta-analysis,” was authored by Taro Kishi, Shinji Matsunaga, Youichi Saito, and Nakao Iwata.
-------------------------------------------------
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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 #LithiumAlzheimersNo Benefit #AlzheimersDisease #CognitiveDecline #MildCognitiveImpairment #LithiumSupplementation #NeuroscienceResearch #ClinicalTrials #MetaAnalysis #AlzheimersTreatment #BrainHealth
-
DATE: September 18, 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: Weight-loss drug semaglutide accelerates recovery from brain inflammation in mice
The diabetes and weight-loss drug semaglutide can calm inflammation in the brain by coordinating a response across multiple types of cells. The findings suggest the medication might help protect against cognitive decline by reversing cellular changes associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The research was published in Nature Communications.
Inflammation in the brain, or neuroinflammation, is a natural defense mechanism that protects neural tissue from injury and infection. In a healthy system, this response is brief and highly controlled. When this inflammatory response becomes chronic or dysregulated, it contributes to neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Genetics research points to immune pathways as major drivers of cognitive decline over time. At the same time, metabolic conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes independently increase the risk of developing dementia. To explore the bridge between metabolism and brain health, scientists are investigating a class of medications called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists.
Originally developed to treat diabetes and obesity, drugs like semaglutide mimic a natural hormone that regulates blood sugar and appetite. Clinical observations indicate that patients taking these medications might experience lower rates of dementia. However, researchers do not entirely understand how these drugs alter the cellular environment of the brain to provide a protective effect.
To understand the cellular mechanics behind this process, researchers Dylan M. Belmont-Rausch, Mette Q. Ludwig, and Marie A. Bentsen led a team to map how semaglutide alters the brain during an inflammatory event. The researchers first established a controlled model of brain inflammation. They injected male mice with lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial component that reliably triggers a strong immune response.
Before the inflammatory challenge, a subset of the animals received a daily dose of semaglutide for two weeks. By examining brain tissue under a microscope at different intervals, the team tracked the activity of microglia and astrocytes. Microglia act as the primary immune cells of the central nervous system, patrolling for damage and clearing cellular debris, while astrocytes help support neuronal health.
The microscopic analysis showed that semaglutide did not block the initial spike in microglial activity immediately following the bacterial trigger. Instead, the medication accelerated the recovery process. Eleven days after the inflammatory event, the mice treated with semaglutide showed reduced microglial activation in the hippocampus, a brain region central to learning and memory.
To uncover the genetic instructions driving this recovery, the researchers analyzed the RNA inside individual cell nuclei from the hippocampus. RNA carries the genetic blueprints that dictate how a cell behaves. By isolating thousands of individual nuclei and reading these blueprints, the team could tell exactly which cellular programs were turned on or off over time.
Following the bacterial challenge, the mice experienced a rush of neutrophils into the hippocampus. Neutrophils are white blood cells that usually circulate in the bloodstream to fight infections. Under normal conditions, they rarely enter healthy brain tissue, but the bacterial component caused them to breach this boundary.
Semaglutide treatment completely prevented these white blood cells from infiltrating the brain. Blood tests revealed that the medication also suppressed the release of inflammatory signaling proteins in the rest of the body. At the same time, the drug maintained the body’s levels of proteins that naturally reduce inflammation, promoting a state of immune tolerance.
Within the brain tissue itself, semaglutide reversed inflammatory genetic changes in several non-neuronal cells. This included the microglia, as well as endothelial cells that line blood vessels and pericytes that help maintain the structural integrity of the blood-brain barrier. The researchers mapped the transcription factor networks that act as master switches for these cellular programs.
The bacterial trigger activated networks related to immune defense and cellular shape changes, instructing the cells to mount a defense. The medication systematically deactivated these specific networks in the vascular and immune cells. By tracking an established set of maintenance genes, the researchers observed that the drug helped the microglia return to their baseline, resting state much faster than they would have naturally.
The team then investigated the dorsal vagal complex, a region in the brainstem that acts as a communication hub between the gut and the brain. They applied the same single-nucleus RNA sequencing technique to tissue from this area. Just as in the hippocampus, the bacterial component altered the behavior of non-neuronal cells, and semaglutide countered these changes.
The researchers identified a specific group of neurons in the brainstem that feature receptors for the medication. When exposed to semaglutide, these neurons activated genes responsible for producing anti-inflammatory chemical messengers. These neurons also produce signaling molecules associated with the body’s natural opioid and adrenaline systems.
Non-neuronal cells like microglia and endothelial cells do not possess their own receptors for the drug. The researchers suspect these brainstem neurons act as intermediaries. The neurons detect the medication and then relay protective signals to the rest of the brain’s immune and vascular systems to stand down the immune response.
To evaluate the relevance of these animal findings to human health, the researchers cross-referenced their genetic data with large databases of human DNA. They compared the genetic activity seen in the mice with genes known to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in humans. The inflammatory response in the mice activated many of the exact same genes associated with human Alzheimer’s risk.
Semaglutide treatment successfully dialed down the activity of these disease-linked genes in the mice. The researchers also compared their results to postmortem brain tissue from human patients. The cellular signatures from the medicated mice countered the genetic patterns typically seen in advanced stages of human cognitive decline.
The current experiments utilized exclusively male mice, meaning the results might not fully translate to females due to hormonal differences in immune responses. The mice were also young and healthy prior to the study, which does not entirely capture the gradual aging processes involved in chronic human neurodegeneration.
The researchers measured genetic instructions and cellular markers but did not track the animals’ behavior or memory performance. Future studies will need to explore whether the cellular recovery promoted by the medication translates into measurable improvements in cognitive function. The precise communication pathways between the brainstem neurons and the broader immune system also require further mapping.
The study, “Semaglutide attenuates neuroinflammation in male mice,” was authored by Dylan M. Belmont-Rausch, Mette Q. Ludwig, Marie A. Bentsen, Stine N. Hansen, Anna Secher, Dorte Holst, Jaime Moreno, Vivek Das, Kristoffer L. Egerod, Anne-Mette Bjerregaard, Kristoffer Niss, Sarah Bau, Charles Pyke, Kevin Dalgaard, Myrte Merkestein, Franziska Wichern, Charlotte Thim Hansen, Joseph Polex-Wolf, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, and Tune H. Pers.
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SemaglutideNeuroinflammation #BrainHealth #NeurodegenerationProtection #Glp1RA #CognitiveDeclinePrevention #MicrogliaEndothelialCells #NeutrophilInfiltrationSuppressed #NeuroinflammatoryGenes #BrainGutAxis #NatureCommunicationsResearch
-
DATE: September 18, 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: Weight-loss drug semaglutide accelerates recovery from brain inflammation in mice
The diabetes and weight-loss drug semaglutide can calm inflammation in the brain by coordinating a response across multiple types of cells. The findings suggest the medication might help protect against cognitive decline by reversing cellular changes associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The research was published in Nature Communications.
Inflammation in the brain, or neuroinflammation, is a natural defense mechanism that protects neural tissue from injury and infection. In a healthy system, this response is brief and highly controlled. When this inflammatory response becomes chronic or dysregulated, it contributes to neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Genetics research points to immune pathways as major drivers of cognitive decline over time. At the same time, metabolic conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes independently increase the risk of developing dementia. To explore the bridge between metabolism and brain health, scientists are investigating a class of medications called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists.
Originally developed to treat diabetes and obesity, drugs like semaglutide mimic a natural hormone that regulates blood sugar and appetite. Clinical observations indicate that patients taking these medications might experience lower rates of dementia. However, researchers do not entirely understand how these drugs alter the cellular environment of the brain to provide a protective effect.
To understand the cellular mechanics behind this process, researchers Dylan M. Belmont-Rausch, Mette Q. Ludwig, and Marie A. Bentsen led a team to map how semaglutide alters the brain during an inflammatory event. The researchers first established a controlled model of brain inflammation. They injected male mice with lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial component that reliably triggers a strong immune response.
Before the inflammatory challenge, a subset of the animals received a daily dose of semaglutide for two weeks. By examining brain tissue under a microscope at different intervals, the team tracked the activity of microglia and astrocytes. Microglia act as the primary immune cells of the central nervous system, patrolling for damage and clearing cellular debris, while astrocytes help support neuronal health.
The microscopic analysis showed that semaglutide did not block the initial spike in microglial activity immediately following the bacterial trigger. Instead, the medication accelerated the recovery process. Eleven days after the inflammatory event, the mice treated with semaglutide showed reduced microglial activation in the hippocampus, a brain region central to learning and memory.
To uncover the genetic instructions driving this recovery, the researchers analyzed the RNA inside individual cell nuclei from the hippocampus. RNA carries the genetic blueprints that dictate how a cell behaves. By isolating thousands of individual nuclei and reading these blueprints, the team could tell exactly which cellular programs were turned on or off over time.
Following the bacterial challenge, the mice experienced a rush of neutrophils into the hippocampus. Neutrophils are white blood cells that usually circulate in the bloodstream to fight infections. Under normal conditions, they rarely enter healthy brain tissue, but the bacterial component caused them to breach this boundary.
Semaglutide treatment completely prevented these white blood cells from infiltrating the brain. Blood tests revealed that the medication also suppressed the release of inflammatory signaling proteins in the rest of the body. At the same time, the drug maintained the body’s levels of proteins that naturally reduce inflammation, promoting a state of immune tolerance.
Within the brain tissue itself, semaglutide reversed inflammatory genetic changes in several non-neuronal cells. This included the microglia, as well as endothelial cells that line blood vessels and pericytes that help maintain the structural integrity of the blood-brain barrier. The researchers mapped the transcription factor networks that act as master switches for these cellular programs.
The bacterial trigger activated networks related to immune defense and cellular shape changes, instructing the cells to mount a defense. The medication systematically deactivated these specific networks in the vascular and immune cells. By tracking an established set of maintenance genes, the researchers observed that the drug helped the microglia return to their baseline, resting state much faster than they would have naturally.
The team then investigated the dorsal vagal complex, a region in the brainstem that acts as a communication hub between the gut and the brain. They applied the same single-nucleus RNA sequencing technique to tissue from this area. Just as in the hippocampus, the bacterial component altered the behavior of non-neuronal cells, and semaglutide countered these changes.
The researchers identified a specific group of neurons in the brainstem that feature receptors for the medication. When exposed to semaglutide, these neurons activated genes responsible for producing anti-inflammatory chemical messengers. These neurons also produce signaling molecules associated with the body’s natural opioid and adrenaline systems.
Non-neuronal cells like microglia and endothelial cells do not possess their own receptors for the drug. The researchers suspect these brainstem neurons act as intermediaries. The neurons detect the medication and then relay protective signals to the rest of the brain’s immune and vascular systems to stand down the immune response.
To evaluate the relevance of these animal findings to human health, the researchers cross-referenced their genetic data with large databases of human DNA. They compared the genetic activity seen in the mice with genes known to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in humans. The inflammatory response in the mice activated many of the exact same genes associated with human Alzheimer’s risk.
Semaglutide treatment successfully dialed down the activity of these disease-linked genes in the mice. The researchers also compared their results to postmortem brain tissue from human patients. The cellular signatures from the medicated mice countered the genetic patterns typically seen in advanced stages of human cognitive decline.
The current experiments utilized exclusively male mice, meaning the results might not fully translate to females due to hormonal differences in immune responses. The mice were also young and healthy prior to the study, which does not entirely capture the gradual aging processes involved in chronic human neurodegeneration.
The researchers measured genetic instructions and cellular markers but did not track the animals’ behavior or memory performance. Future studies will need to explore whether the cellular recovery promoted by the medication translates into measurable improvements in cognitive function. The precise communication pathways between the brainstem neurons and the broader immune system also require further mapping.
The study, “Semaglutide attenuates neuroinflammation in male mice,” was authored by Dylan M. Belmont-Rausch, Mette Q. Ludwig, Marie A. Bentsen, Stine N. Hansen, Anna Secher, Dorte Holst, Jaime Moreno, Vivek Das, Kristoffer L. Egerod, Anne-Mette Bjerregaard, Kristoffer Niss, Sarah Bau, Charles Pyke, Kevin Dalgaard, Myrte Merkestein, Franziska Wichern, Charlotte Thim Hansen, Joseph Polex-Wolf, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, and Tune H. Pers.
-------------------------------------------------
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 #SemaglutideNeuroinflammation #BrainHealth #NeurodegenerationProtection #Glp1RA #CognitiveDeclinePrevention #MicrogliaEndothelialCells #NeutrophilInfiltrationSuppressed #NeuroinflammatoryGenes #BrainGutAxis #NatureCommunicationsResearch
-
DATE: September 18, 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: Weight-loss drug semaglutide accelerates recovery from brain inflammation in mice
The diabetes and weight-loss drug semaglutide can calm inflammation in the brain by coordinating a response across multiple types of cells. The findings suggest the medication might help protect against cognitive decline by reversing cellular changes associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The research was published in Nature Communications.
Inflammation in the brain, or neuroinflammation, is a natural defense mechanism that protects neural tissue from injury and infection. In a healthy system, this response is brief and highly controlled. When this inflammatory response becomes chronic or dysregulated, it contributes to neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Genetics research points to immune pathways as major drivers of cognitive decline over time. At the same time, metabolic conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes independently increase the risk of developing dementia. To explore the bridge between metabolism and brain health, scientists are investigating a class of medications called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists.
Originally developed to treat diabetes and obesity, drugs like semaglutide mimic a natural hormone that regulates blood sugar and appetite. Clinical observations indicate that patients taking these medications might experience lower rates of dementia. However, researchers do not entirely understand how these drugs alter the cellular environment of the brain to provide a protective effect.
To understand the cellular mechanics behind this process, researchers Dylan M. Belmont-Rausch, Mette Q. Ludwig, and Marie A. Bentsen led a team to map how semaglutide alters the brain during an inflammatory event. The researchers first established a controlled model of brain inflammation. They injected male mice with lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial component that reliably triggers a strong immune response.
Before the inflammatory challenge, a subset of the animals received a daily dose of semaglutide for two weeks. By examining brain tissue under a microscope at different intervals, the team tracked the activity of microglia and astrocytes. Microglia act as the primary immune cells of the central nervous system, patrolling for damage and clearing cellular debris, while astrocytes help support neuronal health.
The microscopic analysis showed that semaglutide did not block the initial spike in microglial activity immediately following the bacterial trigger. Instead, the medication accelerated the recovery process. Eleven days after the inflammatory event, the mice treated with semaglutide showed reduced microglial activation in the hippocampus, a brain region central to learning and memory.
To uncover the genetic instructions driving this recovery, the researchers analyzed the RNA inside individual cell nuclei from the hippocampus. RNA carries the genetic blueprints that dictate how a cell behaves. By isolating thousands of individual nuclei and reading these blueprints, the team could tell exactly which cellular programs were turned on or off over time.
Following the bacterial challenge, the mice experienced a rush of neutrophils into the hippocampus. Neutrophils are white blood cells that usually circulate in the bloodstream to fight infections. Under normal conditions, they rarely enter healthy brain tissue, but the bacterial component caused them to breach this boundary.
Semaglutide treatment completely prevented these white blood cells from infiltrating the brain. Blood tests revealed that the medication also suppressed the release of inflammatory signaling proteins in the rest of the body. At the same time, the drug maintained the body’s levels of proteins that naturally reduce inflammation, promoting a state of immune tolerance.
Within the brain tissue itself, semaglutide reversed inflammatory genetic changes in several non-neuronal cells. This included the microglia, as well as endothelial cells that line blood vessels and pericytes that help maintain the structural integrity of the blood-brain barrier. The researchers mapped the transcription factor networks that act as master switches for these cellular programs.
The bacterial trigger activated networks related to immune defense and cellular shape changes, instructing the cells to mount a defense. The medication systematically deactivated these specific networks in the vascular and immune cells. By tracking an established set of maintenance genes, the researchers observed that the drug helped the microglia return to their baseline, resting state much faster than they would have naturally.
The team then investigated the dorsal vagal complex, a region in the brainstem that acts as a communication hub between the gut and the brain. They applied the same single-nucleus RNA sequencing technique to tissue from this area. Just as in the hippocampus, the bacterial component altered the behavior of non-neuronal cells, and semaglutide countered these changes.
The researchers identified a specific group of neurons in the brainstem that feature receptors for the medication. When exposed to semaglutide, these neurons activated genes responsible for producing anti-inflammatory chemical messengers. These neurons also produce signaling molecules associated with the body’s natural opioid and adrenaline systems.
Non-neuronal cells like microglia and endothelial cells do not possess their own receptors for the drug. The researchers suspect these brainstem neurons act as intermediaries. The neurons detect the medication and then relay protective signals to the rest of the brain’s immune and vascular systems to stand down the immune response.
To evaluate the relevance of these animal findings to human health, the researchers cross-referenced their genetic data with large databases of human DNA. They compared the genetic activity seen in the mice with genes known to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in humans. The inflammatory response in the mice activated many of the exact same genes associated with human Alzheimer’s risk.
Semaglutide treatment successfully dialed down the activity of these disease-linked genes in the mice. The researchers also compared their results to postmortem brain tissue from human patients. The cellular signatures from the medicated mice countered the genetic patterns typically seen in advanced stages of human cognitive decline.
The current experiments utilized exclusively male mice, meaning the results might not fully translate to females due to hormonal differences in immune responses. The mice were also young and healthy prior to the study, which does not entirely capture the gradual aging processes involved in chronic human neurodegeneration.
The researchers measured genetic instructions and cellular markers but did not track the animals’ behavior or memory performance. Future studies will need to explore whether the cellular recovery promoted by the medication translates into measurable improvements in cognitive function. The precise communication pathways between the brainstem neurons and the broader immune system also require further mapping.
The study, “Semaglutide attenuates neuroinflammation in male mice,” was authored by Dylan M. Belmont-Rausch, Mette Q. Ludwig, Marie A. Bentsen, Stine N. Hansen, Anna Secher, Dorte Holst, Jaime Moreno, Vivek Das, Kristoffer L. Egerod, Anne-Mette Bjerregaard, Kristoffer Niss, Sarah Bau, Charles Pyke, Kevin Dalgaard, Myrte Merkestein, Franziska Wichern, Charlotte Thim Hansen, Joseph Polex-Wolf, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, and Tune H. Pers.
-------------------------------------------------
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 #SemaglutideNeuroinflammation #BrainHealth #NeurodegenerationProtection #Glp1RA #CognitiveDeclinePrevention #MicrogliaEndothelialCells #NeutrophilInfiltrationSuppressed #NeuroinflammatoryGenes #BrainGutAxis #NatureCommunicationsResearch
-
DATE: September 18, 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: Dark personality traits predict support for violence by both Israel and Hamas
Recent psychology research indicates that while most people base their support for political violence on their personal ideological beliefs, individuals with high levels of psychopathy and sadism tend to endorse violence across the board. A new study examining attitudes toward the Israel-Hamas conflict suggests that these specific dark personality traits are linked to support for violent actions committed by both sides. The findings were published in Personality and Individual Differences.
In the study of political psychology, a common assumption is that people evaluate violence based on their group identity and political worldview. This means individuals usually justify violence when it is committed by a group they agree with, while firmly rejecting similar violent actions when committed by opposing groups. In highly polarized situations like the conflict between Israel and Hamas, this translates to an actor-specific view of violence. An individual might support the military actions of one side, but it is unusual for them to endorse violence from both sides simultaneously.
The author of the new study, Tobias Greitemeyer of the University of Innsbruck, wanted to explore whether certain personality characteristics override this partisan loyalty. He focused on the Dark Tetrad, a grouping of four socially aversive personality traits. These traits include narcissism, which involves grandiosity and entitlement; Machiavellianism, characterized by manipulative and cynical behavior; psychopathy, marked by callousness, low empathy, and impulsive thrill-seeking; and sadism, which involves deriving pleasure from the suffering of others.
Previous investigations have linked these traits to various forms of hostility. For instance, a 2024 study covered by PsyPost indicated that higher scores on dark personality traits were associated with higher levels of antisemitism, showing how these characteristics can shape views on Middle Eastern geopolitics. Other research, such as a 2015 study on consumer attitudes, has shown that dark personality traits are related to a concept called moral disengagement. Moral disengagement refers to the mental gymnastics people use to justify harmful behavior, allowing them to ignore their own moral standards without feeling guilty.
To test how these traits relate to attitudes toward the Israel-Hamas conflict, Greitemeyer conducted two separate online studies. The first study recruited 257 German-speaking participants, mostly from Austria and Germany. The participants completed a standardized questionnaire measuring their levels of the Dark Tetrad traits, as well as measures of their political orientation, their general attitudes toward war and peace, and their specific support for violent actions carried out by Israel and Hamas.
The results provided evidence for the traditional view that political violence is generally actor-specific. Support for violence by Israel and support for violence by Hamas were negatively correlated, indicating that participants who endorsed violence by one actor were less likely to endorse violence by the other. Older participants tended to show more support for Israeli actions and less support for Hamas actions. Men reported more support for Israeli military actions than women did, but there was no difference between men and women regarding support for Hamas.
When looking at personality, however, a different pattern emerged. Psychopathy and sadism were positively associated with support for violent actions by both Israel and Hamas. Individuals scoring higher in these two traits showed a generalized acceptance of violence, regardless of which side was responsible. This generalized support remained present even when the researcher accounted for the participants’ political ideologies. Narcissism and Machiavellianism, on the other hand, did not show this consistent, cross-actor support for violence.
A second study was conducted with 470 United Kingdom citizens to see if these findings would hold up in a larger sample and to explore potential psychological mechanisms. In addition to measuring the Dark Tetrad traits and support for violence by Israel and Hamas, participants completed assessments for two other variables. One was their interest in militarism, which captures a fascination with weapons, special forces, and martial arts. The other was their propensity for moral disengagement.
The second study mirrored the findings of the first. Once again, support for Israel and Hamas was negatively correlated overall, but psychopathy and sadism reliably predicted an endorsement of violence by both actors. Narcissism was only linked to support for Hamas, and Machiavellianism showed no reliable association with support for either side.
The data also indicated that interest in militarism and moral disengagement helped explain the connection between dark personality traits and support for violence, though only partially. Both militarism and moral disengagement acted as mediating factors for why psychopathy and sadism predicted support for Israeli violent actions. However, neither of these psychological mechanisms explained the link between the dark traits and support for Hamas’s violent actions, suggesting that different cognitive pathways might be at play depending on the specific actor involved.
“This confirms the work of earlier research and slightly extends it by explicitly showing that individuals scoring high on dark personality traits (especially on psychopathy and sadism) tend to exhibit support for political violence of multiple conflicted and even directly opposing groups,” said Tomislav Pavlović, a researcher working on the MOTIKA project, which focuses on understanding drivers and barriers to peaceful and violent collective action, who was not involved in the study.
“As earlier research demonstrated, individuals scoring high on dark personality traits also tend to exhibit more favorable attitudes toward violence in general,” Pavlović told PsyPost. “From this perspective, it is not surprising that individuals showing stronger support for violence as a general method of achieving goals also see it as a more acceptable method of achieving political goals.”
“The findings of this paper could be taken as an extension of existing research, indicating that endorsement of political violence is not related only to political beliefs and social identity (ideological partisanship), but also to individual differences in dark personality traits,” said Anja Wertag, a researcher at the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences in Croatia who was also not involved in the work. She told PsyPost the study highlights “the importance of integrating personality and political psychology perspectives in investigating violence endorsement.”
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in July 2024, which indicated that psychopathy strongly predicted support for military violence against civilians among Russian residents. The results also align with another 2024 study showing that higher psychopathy is associated with greater attitudinal support for politically motivated violence across multiple countries. Additionally, the conclusions echo a 2021 study that linked psychopathic traits to support for violent social change, regardless of whether that violence was endorsed by left-wing or right-wing groups.
But as with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind regarding this study. The data rely on self-reported questionnaires, meaning participants might have altered their answers to appear more socially acceptable, especially on sensitive political topics. The samples were also non-representative groups of internet users from Europe, which limits how broadly the findings can be applied to the general public or to populations directly involved in the conflict.
“It is important to note that the Dark Tetrad traits explained only a modest amount of the variance in support for Israeli and Hamas violent actions – ranging from 5 to 8%,” Wertag noted. She added that because “all Dark Tetrad traits are multidimensional and the current study used only a brief measure to assess them, future research should include broader measures of dark traits to enable a clearer view of the relations between different aspects of the dark traits and violence endorsement.”
Pavlović pointed out another geographical limitation regarding the samples. “Finally, it is worth mentioning that none of the samples were from Israel or Gaza,” he said. “Therefore, (at least) the majority of participants perceive the conflict from the perspective of relatively neutral bystanders. We cannot tell whether these results would be replicated had the study been conducted on participants whose nations are involved in conflict.”
The cross-sectional design of the studies also means the research cannot determine cause and effect. It is possible that consuming media about political violence alters a person’s psychological state, rather than personality traits alone driving their political attitudes. Future research could investigate whether these patterns hold true in other geopolitical conflicts and explore other psychological mechanisms, such as a lack of empathic concern for victims, that might bridge the gap between dark personality traits and support for war.
“While dark personality traits and support for political violence are correlated, this relationship may reflect a third underlying variable (such as experience of violence),” Pavlović explained. “Furthermore, support for political violence should not be equated with actual participation in violent acts.”
Wertag agreed, warning against leaping to broad conclusions. “I am concerned about a possible overinterpretation of the results regarding the link between violence endorsement, regardless of the side, and psychopathy and sadism due to the above-mentioned methodological constraints,” she said. “The results also do not imply that personality traits are more important than political orientation; they simply highlight that both matter. Finally, the results say nothing about the actual tendency toward violent behavior.”
The study, “When darkness overrides partisanship: Psychopathy and sadism predict support for violence on both sides of the Israel–Hamas conflict,” was authored by Tobias Greitemeyer.
-------------------------------------------------
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-
DATE: September 18, 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: Dark personality traits predict support for violence by both Israel and Hamas
Recent psychology research indicates that while most people base their support for political violence on their personal ideological beliefs, individuals with high levels of psychopathy and sadism tend to endorse violence across the board. A new study examining attitudes toward the Israel-Hamas conflict suggests that these specific dark personality traits are linked to support for violent actions committed by both sides. The findings were published in Personality and Individual Differences.
In the study of political psychology, a common assumption is that people evaluate violence based on their group identity and political worldview. This means individuals usually justify violence when it is committed by a group they agree with, while firmly rejecting similar violent actions when committed by opposing groups. In highly polarized situations like the conflict between Israel and Hamas, this translates to an actor-specific view of violence. An individual might support the military actions of one side, but it is unusual for them to endorse violence from both sides simultaneously.
The author of the new study, Tobias Greitemeyer of the University of Innsbruck, wanted to explore whether certain personality characteristics override this partisan loyalty. He focused on the Dark Tetrad, a grouping of four socially aversive personality traits. These traits include narcissism, which involves grandiosity and entitlement; Machiavellianism, characterized by manipulative and cynical behavior; psychopathy, marked by callousness, low empathy, and impulsive thrill-seeking; and sadism, which involves deriving pleasure from the suffering of others.
Previous investigations have linked these traits to various forms of hostility. For instance, a 2024 study covered by PsyPost indicated that higher scores on dark personality traits were associated with higher levels of antisemitism, showing how these characteristics can shape views on Middle Eastern geopolitics. Other research, such as a 2015 study on consumer attitudes, has shown that dark personality traits are related to a concept called moral disengagement. Moral disengagement refers to the mental gymnastics people use to justify harmful behavior, allowing them to ignore their own moral standards without feeling guilty.
To test how these traits relate to attitudes toward the Israel-Hamas conflict, Greitemeyer conducted two separate online studies. The first study recruited 257 German-speaking participants, mostly from Austria and Germany. The participants completed a standardized questionnaire measuring their levels of the Dark Tetrad traits, as well as measures of their political orientation, their general attitudes toward war and peace, and their specific support for violent actions carried out by Israel and Hamas.
The results provided evidence for the traditional view that political violence is generally actor-specific. Support for violence by Israel and support for violence by Hamas were negatively correlated, indicating that participants who endorsed violence by one actor were less likely to endorse violence by the other. Older participants tended to show more support for Israeli actions and less support for Hamas actions. Men reported more support for Israeli military actions than women did, but there was no difference between men and women regarding support for Hamas.
When looking at personality, however, a different pattern emerged. Psychopathy and sadism were positively associated with support for violent actions by both Israel and Hamas. Individuals scoring higher in these two traits showed a generalized acceptance of violence, regardless of which side was responsible. This generalized support remained present even when the researcher accounted for the participants’ political ideologies. Narcissism and Machiavellianism, on the other hand, did not show this consistent, cross-actor support for violence.
A second study was conducted with 470 United Kingdom citizens to see if these findings would hold up in a larger sample and to explore potential psychological mechanisms. In addition to measuring the Dark Tetrad traits and support for violence by Israel and Hamas, participants completed assessments for two other variables. One was their interest in militarism, which captures a fascination with weapons, special forces, and martial arts. The other was their propensity for moral disengagement.
The second study mirrored the findings of the first. Once again, support for Israel and Hamas was negatively correlated overall, but psychopathy and sadism reliably predicted an endorsement of violence by both actors. Narcissism was only linked to support for Hamas, and Machiavellianism showed no reliable association with support for either side.
The data also indicated that interest in militarism and moral disengagement helped explain the connection between dark personality traits and support for violence, though only partially. Both militarism and moral disengagement acted as mediating factors for why psychopathy and sadism predicted support for Israeli violent actions. However, neither of these psychological mechanisms explained the link between the dark traits and support for Hamas’s violent actions, suggesting that different cognitive pathways might be at play depending on the specific actor involved.
“This confirms the work of earlier research and slightly extends it by explicitly showing that individuals scoring high on dark personality traits (especially on psychopathy and sadism) tend to exhibit support for political violence of multiple conflicted and even directly opposing groups,” said Tomislav Pavlović, a researcher working on the MOTIKA project, which focuses on understanding drivers and barriers to peaceful and violent collective action, who was not involved in the study.
“As earlier research demonstrated, individuals scoring high on dark personality traits also tend to exhibit more favorable attitudes toward violence in general,” Pavlović told PsyPost. “From this perspective, it is not surprising that individuals showing stronger support for violence as a general method of achieving goals also see it as a more acceptable method of achieving political goals.”
“The findings of this paper could be taken as an extension of existing research, indicating that endorsement of political violence is not related only to political beliefs and social identity (ideological partisanship), but also to individual differences in dark personality traits,” said Anja Wertag, a researcher at the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences in Croatia who was also not involved in the work. She told PsyPost the study highlights “the importance of integrating personality and political psychology perspectives in investigating violence endorsement.”
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in July 2024, which indicated that psychopathy strongly predicted support for military violence against civilians among Russian residents. The results also align with another 2024 study showing that higher psychopathy is associated with greater attitudinal support for politically motivated violence across multiple countries. Additionally, the conclusions echo a 2021 study that linked psychopathic traits to support for violent social change, regardless of whether that violence was endorsed by left-wing or right-wing groups.
But as with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind regarding this study. The data rely on self-reported questionnaires, meaning participants might have altered their answers to appear more socially acceptable, especially on sensitive political topics. The samples were also non-representative groups of internet users from Europe, which limits how broadly the findings can be applied to the general public or to populations directly involved in the conflict.
“It is important to note that the Dark Tetrad traits explained only a modest amount of the variance in support for Israeli and Hamas violent actions – ranging from 5 to 8%,” Wertag noted. She added that because “all Dark Tetrad traits are multidimensional and the current study used only a brief measure to assess them, future research should include broader measures of dark traits to enable a clearer view of the relations between different aspects of the dark traits and violence endorsement.”
Pavlović pointed out another geographical limitation regarding the samples. “Finally, it is worth mentioning that none of the samples were from Israel or Gaza,” he said. “Therefore, (at least) the majority of participants perceive the conflict from the perspective of relatively neutral bystanders. We cannot tell whether these results would be replicated had the study been conducted on participants whose nations are involved in conflict.”
The cross-sectional design of the studies also means the research cannot determine cause and effect. It is possible that consuming media about political violence alters a person’s psychological state, rather than personality traits alone driving their political attitudes. Future research could investigate whether these patterns hold true in other geopolitical conflicts and explore other psychological mechanisms, such as a lack of empathic concern for victims, that might bridge the gap between dark personality traits and support for war.
“While dark personality traits and support for political violence are correlated, this relationship may reflect a third underlying variable (such as experience of violence),” Pavlović explained. “Furthermore, support for political violence should not be equated with actual participation in violent acts.”
Wertag agreed, warning against leaping to broad conclusions. “I am concerned about a possible overinterpretation of the results regarding the link between violence endorsement, regardless of the side, and psychopathy and sadism due to the above-mentioned methodological constraints,” she said. “The results also do not imply that personality traits are more important than political orientation; they simply highlight that both matter. Finally, the results say nothing about the actual tendency toward violent behavior.”
The study, “When darkness overrides partisanship: Psychopathy and sadism predict support for violence on both sides of the Israel–Hamas conflict,” was authored by Tobias Greitemeyer.
-------------------------------------------------
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 #DarkTriad #Psychopathy #Sadism #IsraelHamas #PoliticalViolence #MoralDisengagement #Militarism #PersonalityPsychology #ConflictResearch #ViolenceEndorsement
-
DATE: September 18, 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: Dark personality traits predict support for violence by both Israel and Hamas
Recent psychology research indicates that while most people base their support for political violence on their personal ideological beliefs, individuals with high levels of psychopathy and sadism tend to endorse violence across the board. A new study examining attitudes toward the Israel-Hamas conflict suggests that these specific dark personality traits are linked to support for violent actions committed by both sides. The findings were published in Personality and Individual Differences.
In the study of political psychology, a common assumption is that people evaluate violence based on their group identity and political worldview. This means individuals usually justify violence when it is committed by a group they agree with, while firmly rejecting similar violent actions when committed by opposing groups. In highly polarized situations like the conflict between Israel and Hamas, this translates to an actor-specific view of violence. An individual might support the military actions of one side, but it is unusual for them to endorse violence from both sides simultaneously.
The author of the new study, Tobias Greitemeyer of the University of Innsbruck, wanted to explore whether certain personality characteristics override this partisan loyalty. He focused on the Dark Tetrad, a grouping of four socially aversive personality traits. These traits include narcissism, which involves grandiosity and entitlement; Machiavellianism, characterized by manipulative and cynical behavior; psychopathy, marked by callousness, low empathy, and impulsive thrill-seeking; and sadism, which involves deriving pleasure from the suffering of others.
Previous investigations have linked these traits to various forms of hostility. For instance, a 2024 study covered by PsyPost indicated that higher scores on dark personality traits were associated with higher levels of antisemitism, showing how these characteristics can shape views on Middle Eastern geopolitics. Other research, such as a 2015 study on consumer attitudes, has shown that dark personality traits are related to a concept called moral disengagement. Moral disengagement refers to the mental gymnastics people use to justify harmful behavior, allowing them to ignore their own moral standards without feeling guilty.
To test how these traits relate to attitudes toward the Israel-Hamas conflict, Greitemeyer conducted two separate online studies. The first study recruited 257 German-speaking participants, mostly from Austria and Germany. The participants completed a standardized questionnaire measuring their levels of the Dark Tetrad traits, as well as measures of their political orientation, their general attitudes toward war and peace, and their specific support for violent actions carried out by Israel and Hamas.
The results provided evidence for the traditional view that political violence is generally actor-specific. Support for violence by Israel and support for violence by Hamas were negatively correlated, indicating that participants who endorsed violence by one actor were less likely to endorse violence by the other. Older participants tended to show more support for Israeli actions and less support for Hamas actions. Men reported more support for Israeli military actions than women did, but there was no difference between men and women regarding support for Hamas.
When looking at personality, however, a different pattern emerged. Psychopathy and sadism were positively associated with support for violent actions by both Israel and Hamas. Individuals scoring higher in these two traits showed a generalized acceptance of violence, regardless of which side was responsible. This generalized support remained present even when the researcher accounted for the participants’ political ideologies. Narcissism and Machiavellianism, on the other hand, did not show this consistent, cross-actor support for violence.
A second study was conducted with 470 United Kingdom citizens to see if these findings would hold up in a larger sample and to explore potential psychological mechanisms. In addition to measuring the Dark Tetrad traits and support for violence by Israel and Hamas, participants completed assessments for two other variables. One was their interest in militarism, which captures a fascination with weapons, special forces, and martial arts. The other was their propensity for moral disengagement.
The second study mirrored the findings of the first. Once again, support for Israel and Hamas was negatively correlated overall, but psychopathy and sadism reliably predicted an endorsement of violence by both actors. Narcissism was only linked to support for Hamas, and Machiavellianism showed no reliable association with support for either side.
The data also indicated that interest in militarism and moral disengagement helped explain the connection between dark personality traits and support for violence, though only partially. Both militarism and moral disengagement acted as mediating factors for why psychopathy and sadism predicted support for Israeli violent actions. However, neither of these psychological mechanisms explained the link between the dark traits and support for Hamas’s violent actions, suggesting that different cognitive pathways might be at play depending on the specific actor involved.
“This confirms the work of earlier research and slightly extends it by explicitly showing that individuals scoring high on dark personality traits (especially on psychopathy and sadism) tend to exhibit support for political violence of multiple conflicted and even directly opposing groups,” said Tomislav Pavlović, a researcher working on the MOTIKA project, which focuses on understanding drivers and barriers to peaceful and violent collective action, who was not involved in the study.
“As earlier research demonstrated, individuals scoring high on dark personality traits also tend to exhibit more favorable attitudes toward violence in general,” Pavlović told PsyPost. “From this perspective, it is not surprising that individuals showing stronger support for violence as a general method of achieving goals also see it as a more acceptable method of achieving political goals.”
“The findings of this paper could be taken as an extension of existing research, indicating that endorsement of political violence is not related only to political beliefs and social identity (ideological partisanship), but also to individual differences in dark personality traits,” said Anja Wertag, a researcher at the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences in Croatia who was also not involved in the work. She told PsyPost the study highlights “the importance of integrating personality and political psychology perspectives in investigating violence endorsement.”
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in July 2024, which indicated that psychopathy strongly predicted support for military violence against civilians among Russian residents. The results also align with another 2024 study showing that higher psychopathy is associated with greater attitudinal support for politically motivated violence across multiple countries. Additionally, the conclusions echo a 2021 study that linked psychopathic traits to support for violent social change, regardless of whether that violence was endorsed by left-wing or right-wing groups.
But as with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind regarding this study. The data rely on self-reported questionnaires, meaning participants might have altered their answers to appear more socially acceptable, especially on sensitive political topics. The samples were also non-representative groups of internet users from Europe, which limits how broadly the findings can be applied to the general public or to populations directly involved in the conflict.
“It is important to note that the Dark Tetrad traits explained only a modest amount of the variance in support for Israeli and Hamas violent actions – ranging from 5 to 8%,” Wertag noted. She added that because “all Dark Tetrad traits are multidimensional and the current study used only a brief measure to assess them, future research should include broader measures of dark traits to enable a clearer view of the relations between different aspects of the dark traits and violence endorsement.”
Pavlović pointed out another geographical limitation regarding the samples. “Finally, it is worth mentioning that none of the samples were from Israel or Gaza,” he said. “Therefore, (at least) the majority of participants perceive the conflict from the perspective of relatively neutral bystanders. We cannot tell whether these results would be replicated had the study been conducted on participants whose nations are involved in conflict.”
The cross-sectional design of the studies also means the research cannot determine cause and effect. It is possible that consuming media about political violence alters a person’s psychological state, rather than personality traits alone driving their political attitudes. Future research could investigate whether these patterns hold true in other geopolitical conflicts and explore other psychological mechanisms, such as a lack of empathic concern for victims, that might bridge the gap between dark personality traits and support for war.
“While dark personality traits and support for political violence are correlated, this relationship may reflect a third underlying variable (such as experience of violence),” Pavlović explained. “Furthermore, support for political violence should not be equated with actual participation in violent acts.”
Wertag agreed, warning against leaping to broad conclusions. “I am concerned about a possible overinterpretation of the results regarding the link between violence endorsement, regardless of the side, and psychopathy and sadism due to the above-mentioned methodological constraints,” she said. “The results also do not imply that personality traits are more important than political orientation; they simply highlight that both matter. Finally, the results say nothing about the actual tendency toward violent behavior.”
The study, “When darkness overrides partisanship: Psychopathy and sadism predict support for violence on both sides of the Israel–Hamas conflict,” was authored by Tobias Greitemeyer.
-------------------------------------------------
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 #DarkTriad #Psychopathy #Sadism #IsraelHamas #PoliticalViolence #MoralDisengagement #Militarism #PersonalityPsychology #ConflictResearch #ViolenceEndorsement
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Denial of suicidal intent in adolescents after firearm injury can coexist with high-risk behaviors, necessitating assessment beyond self-report, particularly when affect appears constricted or emotionally numb. https://t.co/S3WlYtR2eN
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".
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #AdolescentMentalHealth #SuicidePrevention #FirearmInjury #HighRiskBehavior #EmotionalNumbness
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Denial of suicidal intent in adolescents after firearm injury can coexist with high-risk behaviors, necessitating assessment beyond self-report, particularly when affect appears constricted or emotionally numb. https://t.co/S3WlYtR2eN
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".
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Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #AdolescentMentalHealth #SuicidePrevention #FirearmInjury #HighRiskBehavior #EmotionalNumbness
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Denial of suicidal intent in adolescents after firearm injury can coexist with high-risk behaviors, necessitating assessment beyond self-report, particularly when affect appears constricted or emotionally numb. https://t.co/S3WlYtR2eN
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
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #AdolescentMentalHealth #SuicidePrevention #FirearmInjury #HighRiskBehavior #EmotionalNumbness
-
DATE: September 18, 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: High intelligence may exacerbate impulsivity in children with ADHD
URL: https://www.psypost.org/high-intelligence-may-exacerbate-impulsivity-in-children-with-adhd/
Having a high intelligence quotient is generally thought to protect children from the most severe symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A new large study reveals that while higher intelligence is associated with better focus, specific types of high intelligence are actually linked to greater impulsivity. The research was published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Inattention involves difficulty staying on task, sustaining focus, and staying organized. Hyperactivity and impulsivity involve excessive movement, fidgeting, and taking actions without thinking about the consequences.
Clinicians measure intelligence using an intelligence quotient, or IQ. A full-scale IQ score is made up of two main components. Verbal IQ measures language-based reasoning, vocabulary, and verbal comprehension. Performance IQ evaluates non-verbal skills like spatial processing, pattern recognition, and visual puzzle-solving.
Medical professionals often assume that a higher overall IQ buffers children against the daily challenges of ADHD. Some researchers suspect this perspective is too simple. They propose that high intelligence can sometimes mask underlying deficits, making diagnosis difficult, or even introduce new behavioral challenges.
Lead researchers Lu Liu and Qiujin Qian, psychiatrists at Peking University Sixth Hospital in China, wanted to examine whether the separate components of intelligence relate to different ADHD symptoms. They also aimed to see if these behavioral patterns corresponded with brain structure and daily functioning in a clinical setting.
The researchers examined a large study cohort of 5,138 children diagnosed with ADHD, ranging in age from six to 16 years old. Clinicians evaluated the children using standardized intelligence tests and established ADHD symptom rating scales filled out by guardians. The team analyzed how verbal and performance IQ scores correlated with specific symptoms like inattention and impulsivity.
Overall intelligence was linked to fewer total ADHD symptoms. When looking at the components separately, a higher verbal IQ was associated with less inattention. However, a higher verbal IQ was also linked to higher impulsivity scores, presenting a mixed outcome for highly verbal children.
Performance IQ showed a shifting developmental pattern. In younger children, higher performance IQ was associated with lower impulsivity. In adolescents aged 12 and older, the pattern formed a U-shape. This means that both the lowest and the highest performance IQ scores were linked to higher impulsivity.
To understand the cognitive mechanisms behind these behaviors, the team analyzed a subset of 3,676 children who had completed tests of executive function. Executive function refers to the mental skills needed to manage daily life and achieve goals. These skills include working memory, which is the ability to hold and use information over short periods, and inhibitory control, which is the ability to stop oneself from acting on sudden urges.
Higher verbal and performance IQ scores were both linked to better working memory. This aligns with the observation that higher intelligence is associated with less inattention, as holding information in mind helps children stay focused on tasks.
When looking at inhibitory control, performance IQ again showed a non-linear relationship. This mirrored the U-shaped pattern seen with impulsivity in the behavioral tests. The cognitive data suggested that the behavioral symptoms were rooted in measurable differences in how the children processed information.
The researchers then looked at brain anatomy in a smaller subset of 262 children who underwent magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, scans. They focused on the surface area of specific brain regions previously linked to attention and hyperactivity.
Higher verbal IQ was associated with a larger surface area in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex. This brain region is involved in regulating emotions, resolving conflicts, and managing impulses.
Performance IQ had a non-linear relationship with total brain surface area. These physical brain measurements provided biological evidence matching the behavioral and cognitive test results, linking physical brain structure to the children’s psychological profiles.
Finally, the team grouped 1,100 of the children based on how much their symptoms impaired their daily academic and social lives. They used statistical modeling to find natural groupings within the data based on functional impairment scores reported by parents.
The analysis revealed three distinct groups. A “mild impairment” group had the highest intelligence scores and the fewest academic problems. However, children in this group still exhibited notable impulsivity, showing that intelligence did not erase all ADHD symptoms.
A “severe academic deficit” group had the lowest intelligence scores and the most severe inattention. These children displayed minimal impulsivity, suggesting their primary struggle was with focus and learning rather than behavioral control.
A third group fell in the middle for both intelligence and symptom severity. This profiling showed that higher intelligence does not automatically translate to fewer social impairments. Highly intelligent children with ADHD may face social struggles just as severe as those with average intelligence.
Because this is an observational study, the results show associations rather than proving that high intelligence causes impulsive behavior. High verbal intelligence might simply give children the ability to navigate social situations faster. This rapid social processing could inadvertently reinforce an impulsive interaction style over time.
Additionally, the brain regions analyzed in this study were selected based on previous research conducted on the general population. They were not based specifically on children with ADHD. Brain development in children with ADHD can vary widely from the general population, meaning the selected brain regions might not tell the whole story.
Few associations in the study reached the threshold of being statistically significant after researchers corrected for multiple testing. The researchers noted that strict mathematical thresholds can sometimes mask authentic developmental processes in very large datasets, though the findings should be interpreted with that limitation in mind.
Future research using brain imaging targeted specifically at ADHD populations is needed to verify these neurological associations. Researchers might also look at how shifting social demands during adolescence influence impulsive behavior in highly intelligent children.
As adolescents develop more autonomy, what appears as a lack of impulse control might actually represent an intelligence-driven desire to test environmental boundaries. Understanding these specific profiles could help medical professionals design better, more targeted interventions for children across the entire intelligence spectrum.
The study, “The paradox of high IQ in ADHD: dissociable effects on inattention and impulsivity – insights from behavior, cognition & brain in 5138 children,” was authored by Ningning Liu, Gaoding Jia, Yinshan Wang, Litanshunbuer A, Zelin Mu, Meixue Wang, Meirong Pan, Haimei Li, Yufeng Wang, Qiujin Qian, and Lu Liu.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/high-intelligence-may-exacerbate-impulsivity-in-children-with-adhd/
-------------------------------------------------
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-
DATE: September 18, 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: High intelligence may exacerbate impulsivity in children with ADHD
URL: https://www.psypost.org/high-intelligence-may-exacerbate-impulsivity-in-children-with-adhd/
Having a high intelligence quotient is generally thought to protect children from the most severe symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A new large study reveals that while higher intelligence is associated with better focus, specific types of high intelligence are actually linked to greater impulsivity. The research was published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Inattention involves difficulty staying on task, sustaining focus, and staying organized. Hyperactivity and impulsivity involve excessive movement, fidgeting, and taking actions without thinking about the consequences.
Clinicians measure intelligence using an intelligence quotient, or IQ. A full-scale IQ score is made up of two main components. Verbal IQ measures language-based reasoning, vocabulary, and verbal comprehension. Performance IQ evaluates non-verbal skills like spatial processing, pattern recognition, and visual puzzle-solving.
Medical professionals often assume that a higher overall IQ buffers children against the daily challenges of ADHD. Some researchers suspect this perspective is too simple. They propose that high intelligence can sometimes mask underlying deficits, making diagnosis difficult, or even introduce new behavioral challenges.
Lead researchers Lu Liu and Qiujin Qian, psychiatrists at Peking University Sixth Hospital in China, wanted to examine whether the separate components of intelligence relate to different ADHD symptoms. They also aimed to see if these behavioral patterns corresponded with brain structure and daily functioning in a clinical setting.
The researchers examined a large study cohort of 5,138 children diagnosed with ADHD, ranging in age from six to 16 years old. Clinicians evaluated the children using standardized intelligence tests and established ADHD symptom rating scales filled out by guardians. The team analyzed how verbal and performance IQ scores correlated with specific symptoms like inattention and impulsivity.
Overall intelligence was linked to fewer total ADHD symptoms. When looking at the components separately, a higher verbal IQ was associated with less inattention. However, a higher verbal IQ was also linked to higher impulsivity scores, presenting a mixed outcome for highly verbal children.
Performance IQ showed a shifting developmental pattern. In younger children, higher performance IQ was associated with lower impulsivity. In adolescents aged 12 and older, the pattern formed a U-shape. This means that both the lowest and the highest performance IQ scores were linked to higher impulsivity.
To understand the cognitive mechanisms behind these behaviors, the team analyzed a subset of 3,676 children who had completed tests of executive function. Executive function refers to the mental skills needed to manage daily life and achieve goals. These skills include working memory, which is the ability to hold and use information over short periods, and inhibitory control, which is the ability to stop oneself from acting on sudden urges.
Higher verbal and performance IQ scores were both linked to better working memory. This aligns with the observation that higher intelligence is associated with less inattention, as holding information in mind helps children stay focused on tasks.
When looking at inhibitory control, performance IQ again showed a non-linear relationship. This mirrored the U-shaped pattern seen with impulsivity in the behavioral tests. The cognitive data suggested that the behavioral symptoms were rooted in measurable differences in how the children processed information.
The researchers then looked at brain anatomy in a smaller subset of 262 children who underwent magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, scans. They focused on the surface area of specific brain regions previously linked to attention and hyperactivity.
Higher verbal IQ was associated with a larger surface area in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex. This brain region is involved in regulating emotions, resolving conflicts, and managing impulses.
Performance IQ had a non-linear relationship with total brain surface area. These physical brain measurements provided biological evidence matching the behavioral and cognitive test results, linking physical brain structure to the children’s psychological profiles.
Finally, the team grouped 1,100 of the children based on how much their symptoms impaired their daily academic and social lives. They used statistical modeling to find natural groupings within the data based on functional impairment scores reported by parents.
The analysis revealed three distinct groups. A “mild impairment” group had the highest intelligence scores and the fewest academic problems. However, children in this group still exhibited notable impulsivity, showing that intelligence did not erase all ADHD symptoms.
A “severe academic deficit” group had the lowest intelligence scores and the most severe inattention. These children displayed minimal impulsivity, suggesting their primary struggle was with focus and learning rather than behavioral control.
A third group fell in the middle for both intelligence and symptom severity. This profiling showed that higher intelligence does not automatically translate to fewer social impairments. Highly intelligent children with ADHD may face social struggles just as severe as those with average intelligence.
Because this is an observational study, the results show associations rather than proving that high intelligence causes impulsive behavior. High verbal intelligence might simply give children the ability to navigate social situations faster. This rapid social processing could inadvertently reinforce an impulsive interaction style over time.
Additionally, the brain regions analyzed in this study were selected based on previous research conducted on the general population. They were not based specifically on children with ADHD. Brain development in children with ADHD can vary widely from the general population, meaning the selected brain regions might not tell the whole story.
Few associations in the study reached the threshold of being statistically significant after researchers corrected for multiple testing. The researchers noted that strict mathematical thresholds can sometimes mask authentic developmental processes in very large datasets, though the findings should be interpreted with that limitation in mind.
Future research using brain imaging targeted specifically at ADHD populations is needed to verify these neurological associations. Researchers might also look at how shifting social demands during adolescence influence impulsive behavior in highly intelligent children.
As adolescents develop more autonomy, what appears as a lack of impulse control might actually represent an intelligence-driven desire to test environmental boundaries. Understanding these specific profiles could help medical professionals design better, more targeted interventions for children across the entire intelligence spectrum.
The study, “The paradox of high IQ in ADHD: dissociable effects on inattention and impulsivity – insights from behavior, cognition & brain in 5138 children,” was authored by Ningning Liu, Gaoding Jia, Yinshan Wang, Litanshunbuer A, Zelin Mu, Meixue Wang, Meirong Pan, Haimei Li, Yufeng Wang, Qiujin Qian, and Lu Liu.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/high-intelligence-may-exacerbate-impulsivity-in-children-with-adhd/
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ADHD #IQandADHD #VerbalIQ #PerformanceIQ #Impulsivity #Inattention #ExecutiveFunction #BrainImaging #TranslationalPsychiatry #PediatricNeurodevelopment
-
DATE: September 18, 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: High intelligence may exacerbate impulsivity in children with ADHD
URL: https://www.psypost.org/high-intelligence-may-exacerbate-impulsivity-in-children-with-adhd/
Having a high intelligence quotient is generally thought to protect children from the most severe symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A new large study reveals that while higher intelligence is associated with better focus, specific types of high intelligence are actually linked to greater impulsivity. The research was published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Inattention involves difficulty staying on task, sustaining focus, and staying organized. Hyperactivity and impulsivity involve excessive movement, fidgeting, and taking actions without thinking about the consequences.
Clinicians measure intelligence using an intelligence quotient, or IQ. A full-scale IQ score is made up of two main components. Verbal IQ measures language-based reasoning, vocabulary, and verbal comprehension. Performance IQ evaluates non-verbal skills like spatial processing, pattern recognition, and visual puzzle-solving.
Medical professionals often assume that a higher overall IQ buffers children against the daily challenges of ADHD. Some researchers suspect this perspective is too simple. They propose that high intelligence can sometimes mask underlying deficits, making diagnosis difficult, or even introduce new behavioral challenges.
Lead researchers Lu Liu and Qiujin Qian, psychiatrists at Peking University Sixth Hospital in China, wanted to examine whether the separate components of intelligence relate to different ADHD symptoms. They also aimed to see if these behavioral patterns corresponded with brain structure and daily functioning in a clinical setting.
The researchers examined a large study cohort of 5,138 children diagnosed with ADHD, ranging in age from six to 16 years old. Clinicians evaluated the children using standardized intelligence tests and established ADHD symptom rating scales filled out by guardians. The team analyzed how verbal and performance IQ scores correlated with specific symptoms like inattention and impulsivity.
Overall intelligence was linked to fewer total ADHD symptoms. When looking at the components separately, a higher verbal IQ was associated with less inattention. However, a higher verbal IQ was also linked to higher impulsivity scores, presenting a mixed outcome for highly verbal children.
Performance IQ showed a shifting developmental pattern. In younger children, higher performance IQ was associated with lower impulsivity. In adolescents aged 12 and older, the pattern formed a U-shape. This means that both the lowest and the highest performance IQ scores were linked to higher impulsivity.
To understand the cognitive mechanisms behind these behaviors, the team analyzed a subset of 3,676 children who had completed tests of executive function. Executive function refers to the mental skills needed to manage daily life and achieve goals. These skills include working memory, which is the ability to hold and use information over short periods, and inhibitory control, which is the ability to stop oneself from acting on sudden urges.
Higher verbal and performance IQ scores were both linked to better working memory. This aligns with the observation that higher intelligence is associated with less inattention, as holding information in mind helps children stay focused on tasks.
When looking at inhibitory control, performance IQ again showed a non-linear relationship. This mirrored the U-shaped pattern seen with impulsivity in the behavioral tests. The cognitive data suggested that the behavioral symptoms were rooted in measurable differences in how the children processed information.
The researchers then looked at brain anatomy in a smaller subset of 262 children who underwent magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, scans. They focused on the surface area of specific brain regions previously linked to attention and hyperactivity.
Higher verbal IQ was associated with a larger surface area in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex. This brain region is involved in regulating emotions, resolving conflicts, and managing impulses.
Performance IQ had a non-linear relationship with total brain surface area. These physical brain measurements provided biological evidence matching the behavioral and cognitive test results, linking physical brain structure to the children’s psychological profiles.
Finally, the team grouped 1,100 of the children based on how much their symptoms impaired their daily academic and social lives. They used statistical modeling to find natural groupings within the data based on functional impairment scores reported by parents.
The analysis revealed three distinct groups. A “mild impairment” group had the highest intelligence scores and the fewest academic problems. However, children in this group still exhibited notable impulsivity, showing that intelligence did not erase all ADHD symptoms.
A “severe academic deficit” group had the lowest intelligence scores and the most severe inattention. These children displayed minimal impulsivity, suggesting their primary struggle was with focus and learning rather than behavioral control.
A third group fell in the middle for both intelligence and symptom severity. This profiling showed that higher intelligence does not automatically translate to fewer social impairments. Highly intelligent children with ADHD may face social struggles just as severe as those with average intelligence.
Because this is an observational study, the results show associations rather than proving that high intelligence causes impulsive behavior. High verbal intelligence might simply give children the ability to navigate social situations faster. This rapid social processing could inadvertently reinforce an impulsive interaction style over time.
Additionally, the brain regions analyzed in this study were selected based on previous research conducted on the general population. They were not based specifically on children with ADHD. Brain development in children with ADHD can vary widely from the general population, meaning the selected brain regions might not tell the whole story.
Few associations in the study reached the threshold of being statistically significant after researchers corrected for multiple testing. The researchers noted that strict mathematical thresholds can sometimes mask authentic developmental processes in very large datasets, though the findings should be interpreted with that limitation in mind.
Future research using brain imaging targeted specifically at ADHD populations is needed to verify these neurological associations. Researchers might also look at how shifting social demands during adolescence influence impulsive behavior in highly intelligent children.
As adolescents develop more autonomy, what appears as a lack of impulse control might actually represent an intelligence-driven desire to test environmental boundaries. Understanding these specific profiles could help medical professionals design better, more targeted interventions for children across the entire intelligence spectrum.
The study, “The paradox of high IQ in ADHD: dissociable effects on inattention and impulsivity – insights from behavior, cognition & brain in 5138 children,” was authored by Ningning Liu, Gaoding Jia, Yinshan Wang, Litanshunbuer A, Zelin Mu, Meixue Wang, Meirong Pan, Haimei Li, Yufeng Wang, Qiujin Qian, and Lu Liu.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/high-intelligence-may-exacerbate-impulsivity-in-children-with-adhd/
-------------------------------------------------
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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 #ADHD #IQandADHD #VerbalIQ #PerformanceIQ #Impulsivity #Inattention #ExecutiveFunction #BrainImaging #TranslationalPsychiatry #PediatricNeurodevelopment
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 07:31AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Last chance to register for Jersey City Psychiatry 2026! 🧠
Join fellow mental health professionals October 2–3 in Jersey City, NJ, for 2 days of education, connection & conversations on the latest in psychiatric care.
Register: https://t.co/fok1Qmp3EY #JCPsych2026 https://t.co/nd7hZhBAPi
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".
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 07:31AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Last chance to register for Jersey City Psychiatry 2026! 🧠
Join fellow mental health professionals October 2–3 in Jersey City, NJ, for 2 days of education, connection & conversations on the latest in psychiatric care.
Register: https://t.co/fok1Qmp3EY #JCPsych2026 https://t.co/nd7hZhBAPi
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".
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #JerseyCityPsych2026 #MentalHealthEducation #PsychiatryConference #ProfessionalNetworking #RegisterNow
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 07:31AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Last chance to register for Jersey City Psychiatry 2026! 🧠
Join fellow mental health professionals October 2–3 in Jersey City, NJ, for 2 days of education, connection & conversations on the latest in psychiatric care.
Register: https://t.co/fok1Qmp3EY #JCPsych2026 https://t.co/nd7hZhBAPi
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".
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #JerseyCityPsych2026 #MentalHealthEducation #PsychiatryConference #ProfessionalNetworking #RegisterNow
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 12:25AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEEDTITLE: Scientists restore a brain protein and reverse signs of aging in mice
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
Scientists found that declining levels of the brain protein Menin may help drive aging, with lower levels in mice linked to inflammation, cognitive decline, weaker bones, and thinner skin. Restoring Menin reversed several age-related changes, while the amino acid D-serine improved cognition, hinting at a potentially intriguing new target for healthy aging.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 12:25AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEEDTITLE: Scientists restore a brain protein and reverse signs of aging in mice
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
Scientists found that declining levels of the brain protein Menin may help drive aging, with lower levels in mice linked to inflammation, cognitive decline, weaker bones, and thinner skin. Restoring Menin reversed several age-related changes, while the amino acid D-serine improved cognition, hinting at a potentially intriguing new target for healthy aging.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 12:25AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEEDTITLE: Scientists restore a brain protein and reverse signs of aging in mice
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
Scientists found that declining levels of the brain protein Menin may help drive aging, with lower levels in mice linked to inflammation, cognitive decline, weaker bones, and thinner skin. Restoring Menin reversed several age-related changes, while the amino acid D-serine improved cognition, hinting at a potentially intriguing new target for healthy aging.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 05:48AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHIATIRY FEEDTITLE: These blood thinners may have an unexpected benefit for Alzheimer’s patients
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
Newer blood thinners may do more than prevent strokes in people with Alzheimer’s disease and atrial fibrillation. Researchers found that patients taking NOACs experienced a slower decline in cognitive function than those using warfarin or no blood thinners. The effect was modest each year but could add up over time.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 05:48AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHIATIRY FEEDTITLE: These blood thinners may have an unexpected benefit for Alzheimer’s patients
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
Newer blood thinners may do more than prevent strokes in people with Alzheimer’s disease and atrial fibrillation. Researchers found that patients taking NOACs experienced a slower decline in cognitive function than those using warfarin or no blood thinners. The effect was modest each year but could add up over time.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
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Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Alzheimers Research #NOACs #Blood Thinners #CognitiveHealth #AtrialFibrillation #WarfarinAlternatives #StrokePrevention #DementiaCare #NeurodegenerativeSupport #MedicalResearch
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 05:48AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHIATIRY FEEDTITLE: These blood thinners may have an unexpected benefit for Alzheimer’s patients
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
Newer blood thinners may do more than prevent strokes in people with Alzheimer’s disease and atrial fibrillation. Researchers found that patients taking NOACs experienced a slower decline in cognitive function than those using warfarin or no blood thinners. The effect was modest each year but could add up over time.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
-------------------------------------------------
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Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Alzheimers Research #NOACs #Blood Thinners #CognitiveHealth #AtrialFibrillation #WarfarinAlternatives #StrokePrevention #DementiaCare #NeurodegenerativeSupport #MedicalResearch
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 12:25AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: Scientists restore a brain protein and reverse signs of aging in mice
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
Scientists found that declining levels of the brain protein Menin may help drive aging, with lower levels in mice linked to inflammation, cognitive decline, weaker bones, and thinner skin. Restoring Menin reversed several age-related changes, while the amino acid D-serine improved cognition, hinting at a potentially intriguing new target for healthy aging.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
-------------------------------------------------
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Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 05:48AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: These blood thinners may have an unexpected benefit for Alzheimer’s patients
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
Newer blood thinners may do more than prevent strokes in people with Alzheimer’s disease and atrial fibrillation. Researchers found that patients taking NOACs experienced a slower decline in cognitive function than those using warfarin or no blood thinners. The effect was modest each year but could add up over time.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
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Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AlzheimersResearch #BloodThinners #NOACs #WarfarinAlternative #CognitiveDecline #AtrialFibrillation #StrokePrevention #AlzheimersTherapy #NeurologyNews #MedicalBreakthroughs
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 12:25AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: Scientists restore a brain protein and reverse signs of aging in mice
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
Scientists found that declining levels of the brain protein Menin may help drive aging, with lower levels in mice linked to inflammation, cognitive decline, weaker bones, and thinner skin. Restoring Menin reversed several age-related changes, while the amino acid D-serine improved cognition, hinting at a potentially intriguing new target for healthy aging.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
-------------------------------------------------
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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 #MeninProtein #AgingResearch #CognitiveHealth #Inflammation #BoneHealth #SkinHealth #DSerine #MiceStudy #HealthyAging
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 05:48AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: These blood thinners may have an unexpected benefit for Alzheimer’s patients
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
Newer blood thinners may do more than prevent strokes in people with Alzheimer’s disease and atrial fibrillation. Researchers found that patients taking NOACs experienced a slower decline in cognitive function than those using warfarin or no blood thinners. The effect was modest each year but could add up over time.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
-------------------------------------------------
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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 #AlzheimersResearch #BloodThinners #NOACs #WarfarinAlternative #CognitiveDecline #AtrialFibrillation #StrokePrevention #AlzheimersTherapy #NeurologyNews #MedicalBreakthroughs
-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 12:25AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: Scientists restore a brain protein and reverse signs of aging in mice
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
Scientists found that declining levels of the brain protein Menin may help drive aging, with lower levels in mice linked to inflammation, cognitive decline, weaker bones, and thinner skin. Restoring Menin reversed several age-related changes, while the amino acid D-serine improved cognition, hinting at a potentially intriguing new target for healthy aging.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260918000437.htm
-------------------------------------------------
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Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 05:48AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: These blood thinners may have an unexpected benefit for Alzheimer’s patients
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
Newer blood thinners may do more than prevent strokes in people with Alzheimer’s disease and atrial fibrillation. Researchers found that patients taking NOACs experienced a slower decline in cognitive function than those using warfarin or no blood thinners. The effect was modest each year but could add up over time.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003732.htm
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
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-
DATE: September 18, 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: “Mankeeping” takes a toll on women’s mental health and relationship satisfaction, study suggests
A newly developed psychological survey provides a way to measure the unpaid, emotional labor that women perform to manage and maintain the social lives of their romantic partners. The research, published in Sex Roles, details the creation of a scale that captures how women experience the effects of men’s shrinking friendships. The tool offers a standardized way to study this dynamic and its impacts on relationship satisfaction and individual well-being.
The survey centers on a concept called mankeeping. This term describes the effort women exert to compensate for the decline in their male partners’ social networks. It involves behaviors like organizing social events, encouraging men to reconnect with friends, and serving as a primary or sole source of emotional support to prevent the men from becoming isolated.
The concept builds on a long history of sociological research into household and emotional labor. For instance, a 1985 study established the idea of kinkeeping, which refers to the everyday, invisible work that women typically perform to keep family members connected and preserve relational harmony.
At the same time, recent public health data indicates that men are facing a widespread decline in close friendships. A 2022 study observed that men generally face greater social isolation than women across most of their adult lives. This vulnerability is also reflected in a study covered by PsyPost in 2026, which showed that psychological distress tends to shrink men’s support networks much more severely than it does for women.
Recognizing the intersection of these two trends, researchers Angelica P. Ferrara and Dylan P. Vergara formally theorized mankeeping in a 2024 paper. They proposed that the ongoing decline in men’s friendships shifts a heavy, unreciprocated social burden onto their female partners, who act to shield the men and the relationship from the negative consequences of isolation.
“‘Mankeeping’ is something many women express that they have been doing for their partners for quite some time,” lead researcher Vincent Mancini told PsyPost. Mancini is an adjunct senior research fellow at the UWA Medical School and a senior research fellow at the UWA Centre for Child Health Research. “With loneliness being a population health crisis that has gendered features, the aim of this work was to better understand how women may engage in additional effort to help maintain their male partner’s social needs.”
Prior to this work, scientists lacked a validated survey to actually quantify the extent of mankeeping and its psychological toll. By developing a specialized scale, Mancini and his colleagues aimed to provide a reliable way to investigate how men’s loneliness reshapes the daily lives of the women who care for them. To build the scale, the researchers first drafted a large pool of questions based on the initial theory of mankeeping.
They recruited 402 women residing in the United States who had been in a heterosexual romantic relationship for at least six months. The participants rated their agreement with 62 potential scale items using a seven-point rating system. They also completed several established psychological questionnaires measuring depression, anxiety, stress, relationship burnout, relationship burden, and overall relationship satisfaction.
Through a statistical process that groups related questions together based on how participants respond, the researchers refined the survey down to 46 items spanning six distinct categories. These six factors include the actual behaviors women perform to manage their partner’s social life, the emotional impact of that labor, and a recognition that their emotional support is often unequal or unappreciated. The remaining three factors capture the woman’s appraisal of her partner’s social network status, a desire for her partner to expand his friendships, and the extent to which the partner depends on her for emotional support.
The results indicated that the survey accurately captured theoretical predictions about mankeeping. Higher scores across the mankeeping dimensions strongly correlated with lower relationship satisfaction and higher levels of relationship burden and burnout. In addition, five of the six dimensions positively correlated with women’s self-reported depression, anxiety, and stress.
“There is now a validated and useful measure that can help to assess how women engage in this effortful process to help address their partner’s unmet social needs,” Mancini said. “Women who engage in these behaviors more tended to show poorer relationship satisfaction, which may signal the importance of social connections outside the romantic relationship that can help to more widely distribute social needs.” He added that “these results, whilst preliminary, indicate fairly robust and strong effects.”
Interestingly, simply appraising that a partner lacked friends was not strongly linked to psychological distress; rather, it was the active behaviors and the resulting emotional impact that were associated with poorer mental health. The data also showed that women who held more traditional beliefs about gender roles were more likely to report engaging in mankeeping behaviors.
Next, the team sought to verify that their newly developed survey, titled the Mankeeping Scale Partner Report, operated consistently across different populations. They administered the 46-item survey to a second group of 395 romantically partnered cisgender women living in the United Kingdom. Statistical analyses confirmed that the original six-category structure fit the UK data just as well as the US data. This suggests that the survey measures the same underlying concepts regardless of which of these two countries the women reside in, establishing what researchers call measurement invariance.
Recognizing that a 46-item questionnaire can be overly long for many research or clinical settings, the scientists combined the data from both the US and UK participants, totaling 797 women. They identified the three most mathematically and theoretically strong questions from each of the six categories to create an 18-item brief version. Testing showed that this shortened survey maintained excellent reliability and produced similar associations with relationship satisfaction and psychological distress as the full-length version, offering a practical alternative for future studies.
“It is incredibly useful to have validated measures of concepts such as mankeeping, so that research can move from theory to actually testing associations with possible outcomes,” said Sara B. Chadwick, an assistant professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study. “Having a validated measure of mankeeping will allow researchers to better understand how women’s efforts to support and maintain their men partners’ social networks and emotional health are connected to a variety of outcomes for both women and men in these partnerships,” she told PsyPost.
“The development of this measure offers a clear extension of research theorizing ‘mankeeping,’ and builds on previous feminist scholarship that has aimed to conceptualize the many ways that gender norms shape women’s romantic relationships with men,” Chadwick added.
She noted that earlier research has highlighted how gender norms often position women as caregivers for their male partners in ways that mimic a parent-child dynamic. “Overall, I would say this offers an important contribution to feminist research by specifically naming the kinds of behaviors that women engage in for the sake of supporting their men partners and by creating a way for researchers to measure and thus further explore it.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind about these findings. The survey relies entirely on self-reported data from one partner, meaning it captures a woman’s perception of her partner’s social life rather than an objective measure of his actual friendships. A man might feel his social needs are adequately met, even if his partner appraises his network as lacking. Future studies would benefit from surveying both members of a couple simultaneously to get a complete picture of the relationship dynamics.
“It is absolutely crucial to recognize that these results at the population level might not apply in the same way to the individual/couple level,” Mancini cautioned. “Romantic couples are incredibly diverse, not every man is lonely, nor does every woman need to engage in this process. This paper should also not take away from the importance of understanding loneliness as a population health issue, that all genders can experience.”
Chadwick agreed that context is crucial, noting that emotionally supporting a partner or helping them maintain social networks can sometimes be a consensual arrangement or a necessity based on temporary life circumstances, such as moving to a new city or dealing with a period of depression.
“The behaviors listed are not in themselves problematic, even when they may be burdensome,” Chadwick explained. “The key here is consent and mutuality, or in other words, it is essential that women either have consented to an arrangement where they take on the majority of social networking and emotional labor, or that this labor is offered to women in their times of need from their men partners.”
The current data is also a single snapshot in time, which makes it impossible to determine a strict chain of cause and effect between mankeeping behaviors and declining mental health. In addition, women’s responses to the survey might be influenced by internalized societal expectations about how a romantic partner is supposed to act.
Because the study focused on populations in the US and the UK with similar cultural norms, the survey might perform differently in other cultures. Expanding the research to include non-Western populations, as well as developing a companion survey to capture how men experience and perceive this social labor, will help clarify the full scope of this dynamic.
The issue arises, she pointed out, when women are automatically expected to take on this labor. “Unfortunately of course, with the way that gender norms function, the majority of mankeeping is indeed likely to be nonconsensual and non-mutual and thus have a disproportionately negative impact on women,” Chadwick said. In future research, she hopes to see investigations into whether this support is reciprocated, noting that the labor might not have a negative impact “if women feel they are offered the same types of labor from their partner in their own time periods of loneliness or need.”
“Our team is looking to engage in some longitudinal work that can allow us to follow couples over time, so that we can better understand how the phenomenon of mankeeping unfolds over time,” Mancini explained. “Being able to also capture the experiences of male partners, and develop interventions that can bolster the relationship quality between partners are our key future priorities.” He noted that the researchers are “always happy to chat to clinicians, researchers, and communities who have thoughts and ideas about the utility of this work!”
The study, “Measuring Mankeeping: Development and Validation of a Scale Assessing How Women Experience the Impact of Men’s Declining Social Networks,” was authored by Vincent O. Mancini, Briana N. Guerrini, James J. Clarke, Dylan P. Vergara, Zac E. Seidler, and Angelica P. Ferrara.
-------------------------------------------------
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 #Mankeeping #MankeepingScale #WomensEmotionalLabor #RelationshipHealth #GenderNorms #LonelinessInMen #FemaleCaregiving #RelationshipSatisfaction #EmotionalSupport #SocialNetworks
-
DATE: September 18, 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: “Mankeeping” takes a toll on women’s mental health and relationship satisfaction, study suggests
A newly developed psychological survey provides a way to measure the unpaid, emotional labor that women perform to manage and maintain the social lives of their romantic partners. The research, published in Sex Roles, details the creation of a scale that captures how women experience the effects of men’s shrinking friendships. The tool offers a standardized way to study this dynamic and its impacts on relationship satisfaction and individual well-being.
The survey centers on a concept called mankeeping. This term describes the effort women exert to compensate for the decline in their male partners’ social networks. It involves behaviors like organizing social events, encouraging men to reconnect with friends, and serving as a primary or sole source of emotional support to prevent the men from becoming isolated.
The concept builds on a long history of sociological research into household and emotional labor. For instance, a 1985 study established the idea of kinkeeping, which refers to the everyday, invisible work that women typically perform to keep family members connected and preserve relational harmony.
At the same time, recent public health data indicates that men are facing a widespread decline in close friendships. A 2022 study observed that men generally face greater social isolation than women across most of their adult lives. This vulnerability is also reflected in a study covered by PsyPost in 2026, which showed that psychological distress tends to shrink men’s support networks much more severely than it does for women.
Recognizing the intersection of these two trends, researchers Angelica P. Ferrara and Dylan P. Vergara formally theorized mankeeping in a 2024 paper. They proposed that the ongoing decline in men’s friendships shifts a heavy, unreciprocated social burden onto their female partners, who act to shield the men and the relationship from the negative consequences of isolation.
“‘Mankeeping’ is something many women express that they have been doing for their partners for quite some time,” lead researcher Vincent Mancini told PsyPost. Mancini is an adjunct senior research fellow at the UWA Medical School and a senior research fellow at the UWA Centre for Child Health Research. “With loneliness being a population health crisis that has gendered features, the aim of this work was to better understand how women may engage in additional effort to help maintain their male partner’s social needs.”
Prior to this work, scientists lacked a validated survey to actually quantify the extent of mankeeping and its psychological toll. By developing a specialized scale, Mancini and his colleagues aimed to provide a reliable way to investigate how men’s loneliness reshapes the daily lives of the women who care for them. To build the scale, the researchers first drafted a large pool of questions based on the initial theory of mankeeping.
They recruited 402 women residing in the United States who had been in a heterosexual romantic relationship for at least six months. The participants rated their agreement with 62 potential scale items using a seven-point rating system. They also completed several established psychological questionnaires measuring depression, anxiety, stress, relationship burnout, relationship burden, and overall relationship satisfaction.
Through a statistical process that groups related questions together based on how participants respond, the researchers refined the survey down to 46 items spanning six distinct categories. These six factors include the actual behaviors women perform to manage their partner’s social life, the emotional impact of that labor, and a recognition that their emotional support is often unequal or unappreciated. The remaining three factors capture the woman’s appraisal of her partner’s social network status, a desire for her partner to expand his friendships, and the extent to which the partner depends on her for emotional support.
The results indicated that the survey accurately captured theoretical predictions about mankeeping. Higher scores across the mankeeping dimensions strongly correlated with lower relationship satisfaction and higher levels of relationship burden and burnout. In addition, five of the six dimensions positively correlated with women’s self-reported depression, anxiety, and stress.
“There is now a validated and useful measure that can help to assess how women engage in this effortful process to help address their partner’s unmet social needs,” Mancini said. “Women who engage in these behaviors more tended to show poorer relationship satisfaction, which may signal the importance of social connections outside the romantic relationship that can help to more widely distribute social needs.” He added that “these results, whilst preliminary, indicate fairly robust and strong effects.”
Interestingly, simply appraising that a partner lacked friends was not strongly linked to psychological distress; rather, it was the active behaviors and the resulting emotional impact that were associated with poorer mental health. The data also showed that women who held more traditional beliefs about gender roles were more likely to report engaging in mankeeping behaviors.
Next, the team sought to verify that their newly developed survey, titled the Mankeeping Scale Partner Report, operated consistently across different populations. They administered the 46-item survey to a second group of 395 romantically partnered cisgender women living in the United Kingdom. Statistical analyses confirmed that the original six-category structure fit the UK data just as well as the US data. This suggests that the survey measures the same underlying concepts regardless of which of these two countries the women reside in, establishing what researchers call measurement invariance.
Recognizing that a 46-item questionnaire can be overly long for many research or clinical settings, the scientists combined the data from both the US and UK participants, totaling 797 women. They identified the three most mathematically and theoretically strong questions from each of the six categories to create an 18-item brief version. Testing showed that this shortened survey maintained excellent reliability and produced similar associations with relationship satisfaction and psychological distress as the full-length version, offering a practical alternative for future studies.
“It is incredibly useful to have validated measures of concepts such as mankeeping, so that research can move from theory to actually testing associations with possible outcomes,” said Sara B. Chadwick, an assistant professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study. “Having a validated measure of mankeeping will allow researchers to better understand how women’s efforts to support and maintain their men partners’ social networks and emotional health are connected to a variety of outcomes for both women and men in these partnerships,” she told PsyPost.
“The development of this measure offers a clear extension of research theorizing ‘mankeeping,’ and builds on previous feminist scholarship that has aimed to conceptualize the many ways that gender norms shape women’s romantic relationships with men,” Chadwick added.
She noted that earlier research has highlighted how gender norms often position women as caregivers for their male partners in ways that mimic a parent-child dynamic. “Overall, I would say this offers an important contribution to feminist research by specifically naming the kinds of behaviors that women engage in for the sake of supporting their men partners and by creating a way for researchers to measure and thus further explore it.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind about these findings. The survey relies entirely on self-reported data from one partner, meaning it captures a woman’s perception of her partner’s social life rather than an objective measure of his actual friendships. A man might feel his social needs are adequately met, even if his partner appraises his network as lacking. Future studies would benefit from surveying both members of a couple simultaneously to get a complete picture of the relationship dynamics.
“It is absolutely crucial to recognize that these results at the population level might not apply in the same way to the individual/couple level,” Mancini cautioned. “Romantic couples are incredibly diverse, not every man is lonely, nor does every woman need to engage in this process. This paper should also not take away from the importance of understanding loneliness as a population health issue, that all genders can experience.”
Chadwick agreed that context is crucial, noting that emotionally supporting a partner or helping them maintain social networks can sometimes be a consensual arrangement or a necessity based on temporary life circumstances, such as moving to a new city or dealing with a period of depression.
“The behaviors listed are not in themselves problematic, even when they may be burdensome,” Chadwick explained. “The key here is consent and mutuality, or in other words, it is essential that women either have consented to an arrangement where they take on the majority of social networking and emotional labor, or that this labor is offered to women in their times of need from their men partners.”
The current data is also a single snapshot in time, which makes it impossible to determine a strict chain of cause and effect between mankeeping behaviors and declining mental health. In addition, women’s responses to the survey might be influenced by internalized societal expectations about how a romantic partner is supposed to act.
Because the study focused on populations in the US and the UK with similar cultural norms, the survey might perform differently in other cultures. Expanding the research to include non-Western populations, as well as developing a companion survey to capture how men experience and perceive this social labor, will help clarify the full scope of this dynamic.
The issue arises, she pointed out, when women are automatically expected to take on this labor. “Unfortunately of course, with the way that gender norms function, the majority of mankeeping is indeed likely to be nonconsensual and non-mutual and thus have a disproportionately negative impact on women,” Chadwick said. In future research, she hopes to see investigations into whether this support is reciprocated, noting that the labor might not have a negative impact “if women feel they are offered the same types of labor from their partner in their own time periods of loneliness or need.”
“Our team is looking to engage in some longitudinal work that can allow us to follow couples over time, so that we can better understand how the phenomenon of mankeeping unfolds over time,” Mancini explained. “Being able to also capture the experiences of male partners, and develop interventions that can bolster the relationship quality between partners are our key future priorities.” He noted that the researchers are “always happy to chat to clinicians, researchers, and communities who have thoughts and ideas about the utility of this work!”
The study, “Measuring Mankeeping: Development and Validation of a Scale Assessing How Women Experience the Impact of Men’s Declining Social Networks,” was authored by Vincent O. Mancini, Briana N. Guerrini, James J. Clarke, Dylan P. Vergara, Zac E. Seidler, and Angelica P. Ferrara.
-------------------------------------------------
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 #Mankeeping #MankeepingScale #WomensEmotionalLabor #RelationshipHealth #GenderNorms #LonelinessInMen #FemaleCaregiving #RelationshipSatisfaction #EmotionalSupport #SocialNetworks
-
DATE: September 18, 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: “Mankeeping” takes a toll on women’s mental health and relationship satisfaction, study suggests
A newly developed psychological survey provides a way to measure the unpaid, emotional labor that women perform to manage and maintain the social lives of their romantic partners. The research, published in Sex Roles, details the creation of a scale that captures how women experience the effects of men’s shrinking friendships. The tool offers a standardized way to study this dynamic and its impacts on relationship satisfaction and individual well-being.
The survey centers on a concept called mankeeping. This term describes the effort women exert to compensate for the decline in their male partners’ social networks. It involves behaviors like organizing social events, encouraging men to reconnect with friends, and serving as a primary or sole source of emotional support to prevent the men from becoming isolated.
The concept builds on a long history of sociological research into household and emotional labor. For instance, a 1985 study established the idea of kinkeeping, which refers to the everyday, invisible work that women typically perform to keep family members connected and preserve relational harmony.
At the same time, recent public health data indicates that men are facing a widespread decline in close friendships. A 2022 study observed that men generally face greater social isolation than women across most of their adult lives. This vulnerability is also reflected in a study covered by PsyPost in 2026, which showed that psychological distress tends to shrink men’s support networks much more severely than it does for women.
Recognizing the intersection of these two trends, researchers Angelica P. Ferrara and Dylan P. Vergara formally theorized mankeeping in a 2024 paper. They proposed that the ongoing decline in men’s friendships shifts a heavy, unreciprocated social burden onto their female partners, who act to shield the men and the relationship from the negative consequences of isolation.
“‘Mankeeping’ is something many women express that they have been doing for their partners for quite some time,” lead researcher Vincent Mancini told PsyPost. Mancini is an adjunct senior research fellow at the UWA Medical School and a senior research fellow at the UWA Centre for Child Health Research. “With loneliness being a population health crisis that has gendered features, the aim of this work was to better understand how women may engage in additional effort to help maintain their male partner’s social needs.”
Prior to this work, scientists lacked a validated survey to actually quantify the extent of mankeeping and its psychological toll. By developing a specialized scale, Mancini and his colleagues aimed to provide a reliable way to investigate how men’s loneliness reshapes the daily lives of the women who care for them. To build the scale, the researchers first drafted a large pool of questions based on the initial theory of mankeeping.
They recruited 402 women residing in the United States who had been in a heterosexual romantic relationship for at least six months. The participants rated their agreement with 62 potential scale items using a seven-point rating system. They also completed several established psychological questionnaires measuring depression, anxiety, stress, relationship burnout, relationship burden, and overall relationship satisfaction.
Through a statistical process that groups related questions together based on how participants respond, the researchers refined the survey down to 46 items spanning six distinct categories. These six factors include the actual behaviors women perform to manage their partner’s social life, the emotional impact of that labor, and a recognition that their emotional support is often unequal or unappreciated. The remaining three factors capture the woman’s appraisal of her partner’s social network status, a desire for her partner to expand his friendships, and the extent to which the partner depends on her for emotional support.
The results indicated that the survey accurately captured theoretical predictions about mankeeping. Higher scores across the mankeeping dimensions strongly correlated with lower relationship satisfaction and higher levels of relationship burden and burnout. In addition, five of the six dimensions positively correlated with women’s self-reported depression, anxiety, and stress.
“There is now a validated and useful measure that can help to assess how women engage in this effortful process to help address their partner’s unmet social needs,” Mancini said. “Women who engage in these behaviors more tended to show poorer relationship satisfaction, which may signal the importance of social connections outside the romantic relationship that can help to more widely distribute social needs.” He added that “these results, whilst preliminary, indicate fairly robust and strong effects.”
Interestingly, simply appraising that a partner lacked friends was not strongly linked to psychological distress; rather, it was the active behaviors and the resulting emotional impact that were associated with poorer mental health. The data also showed that women who held more traditional beliefs about gender roles were more likely to report engaging in mankeeping behaviors.
Next, the team sought to verify that their newly developed survey, titled the Mankeeping Scale Partner Report, operated consistently across different populations. They administered the 46-item survey to a second group of 395 romantically partnered cisgender women living in the United Kingdom. Statistical analyses confirmed that the original six-category structure fit the UK data just as well as the US data. This suggests that the survey measures the same underlying concepts regardless of which of these two countries the women reside in, establishing what researchers call measurement invariance.
Recognizing that a 46-item questionnaire can be overly long for many research or clinical settings, the scientists combined the data from both the US and UK participants, totaling 797 women. They identified the three most mathematically and theoretically strong questions from each of the six categories to create an 18-item brief version. Testing showed that this shortened survey maintained excellent reliability and produced similar associations with relationship satisfaction and psychological distress as the full-length version, offering a practical alternative for future studies.
“It is incredibly useful to have validated measures of concepts such as mankeeping, so that research can move from theory to actually testing associations with possible outcomes,” said Sara B. Chadwick, an assistant professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study. “Having a validated measure of mankeeping will allow researchers to better understand how women’s efforts to support and maintain their men partners’ social networks and emotional health are connected to a variety of outcomes for both women and men in these partnerships,” she told PsyPost.
“The development of this measure offers a clear extension of research theorizing ‘mankeeping,’ and builds on previous feminist scholarship that has aimed to conceptualize the many ways that gender norms shape women’s romantic relationships with men,” Chadwick added.
She noted that earlier research has highlighted how gender norms often position women as caregivers for their male partners in ways that mimic a parent-child dynamic. “Overall, I would say this offers an important contribution to feminist research by specifically naming the kinds of behaviors that women engage in for the sake of supporting their men partners and by creating a way for researchers to measure and thus further explore it.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind about these findings. The survey relies entirely on self-reported data from one partner, meaning it captures a woman’s perception of her partner’s social life rather than an objective measure of his actual friendships. A man might feel his social needs are adequately met, even if his partner appraises his network as lacking. Future studies would benefit from surveying both members of a couple simultaneously to get a complete picture of the relationship dynamics.
“It is absolutely crucial to recognize that these results at the population level might not apply in the same way to the individual/couple level,” Mancini cautioned. “Romantic couples are incredibly diverse, not every man is lonely, nor does every woman need to engage in this process. This paper should also not take away from the importance of understanding loneliness as a population health issue, that all genders can experience.”
Chadwick agreed that context is crucial, noting that emotionally supporting a partner or helping them maintain social networks can sometimes be a consensual arrangement or a necessity based on temporary life circumstances, such as moving to a new city or dealing with a period of depression.
“The behaviors listed are not in themselves problematic, even when they may be burdensome,” Chadwick explained. “The key here is consent and mutuality, or in other words, it is essential that women either have consented to an arrangement where they take on the majority of social networking and emotional labor, or that this labor is offered to women in their times of need from their men partners.”
The current data is also a single snapshot in time, which makes it impossible to determine a strict chain of cause and effect between mankeeping behaviors and declining mental health. In addition, women’s responses to the survey might be influenced by internalized societal expectations about how a romantic partner is supposed to act.
Because the study focused on populations in the US and the UK with similar cultural norms, the survey might perform differently in other cultures. Expanding the research to include non-Western populations, as well as developing a companion survey to capture how men experience and perceive this social labor, will help clarify the full scope of this dynamic.
The issue arises, she pointed out, when women are automatically expected to take on this labor. “Unfortunately of course, with the way that gender norms function, the majority of mankeeping is indeed likely to be nonconsensual and non-mutual and thus have a disproportionately negative impact on women,” Chadwick said. In future research, she hopes to see investigations into whether this support is reciprocated, noting that the labor might not have a negative impact “if women feel they are offered the same types of labor from their partner in their own time periods of loneliness or need.”
“Our team is looking to engage in some longitudinal work that can allow us to follow couples over time, so that we can better understand how the phenomenon of mankeeping unfolds over time,” Mancini explained. “Being able to also capture the experiences of male partners, and develop interventions that can bolster the relationship quality between partners are our key future priorities.” He noted that the researchers are “always happy to chat to clinicians, researchers, and communities who have thoughts and ideas about the utility of this work!”
The study, “Measuring Mankeeping: Development and Validation of a Scale Assessing How Women Experience the Impact of Men’s Declining Social Networks,” was authored by Vincent O. Mancini, Briana N. Guerrini, James J. Clarke, Dylan P. Vergara, Zac E. Seidler, and Angelica P. Ferrara.
-------------------------------------------------
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 #Mankeeping #MankeepingScale #WomensEmotionalLabor #RelationshipHealth #GenderNorms #LonelinessInMen #FemaleCaregiving #RelationshipSatisfaction #EmotionalSupport #SocialNetworks
-
DATE: September 18, 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: “Mankeeping” takes a toll on women’s mental health and relationship satisfaction, study suggests
A newly developed psychological survey provides a way to measure the unpaid, emotional labor that women perform to manage and maintain the social lives of their romantic partners. The research, published in Sex Roles, details the creation of a scale that captures how women experience the effects of men’s shrinking friendships. The tool offers a standardized way to study this dynamic and its impacts on relationship satisfaction and individual well-being.
The survey centers on a concept called mankeeping. This term describes the effort women exert to compensate for the decline in their male partners’ social networks. It involves behaviors like organizing social events, encouraging men to reconnect with friends, and serving as a primary or sole source of emotional support to prevent the men from becoming isolated.
The concept builds on a long history of sociological research into household and emotional labor. For instance, a 1985 study established the idea of kinkeeping, which refers to the everyday, invisible work that women typically perform to keep family members connected and preserve relational harmony.
At the same time, recent public health data indicates that men are facing a widespread decline in close friendships. A 2022 study observed that men generally face greater social isolation than women across most of their adult lives. This vulnerability is also reflected in a study covered by PsyPost in 2026, which showed that psychological distress tends to shrink men’s support networks much more severely than it does for women.
Recognizing the intersection of these two trends, researchers Angelica P. Ferrara and Dylan P. Vergara formally theorized mankeeping in a 2024 paper. They proposed that the ongoing decline in men’s friendships shifts a heavy, unreciprocated social burden onto their female partners, who act to shield the men and the relationship from the negative consequences of isolation.
“‘Mankeeping’ is something many women express that they have been doing for their partners for quite some time,” lead researcher Vincent Mancini told PsyPost. Mancini is an adjunct senior research fellow at the UWA Medical School and a senior research fellow at the UWA Centre for Child Health Research. “With loneliness being a population health crisis that has gendered features, the aim of this work was to better understand how women may engage in additional effort to help maintain their male partner’s social needs.”
Prior to this work, scientists lacked a validated survey to actually quantify the extent of mankeeping and its psychological toll. By developing a specialized scale, Mancini and his colleagues aimed to provide a reliable way to investigate how men’s loneliness reshapes the daily lives of the women who care for them. To build the scale, the researchers first drafted a large pool of questions based on the initial theory of mankeeping.
They recruited 402 women residing in the United States who had been in a heterosexual romantic relationship for at least six months. The participants rated their agreement with 62 potential scale items using a seven-point rating system. They also completed several established psychological questionnaires measuring depression, anxiety, stress, relationship burnout, relationship burden, and overall relationship satisfaction.
Through a statistical process that groups related questions together based on how participants respond, the researchers refined the survey down to 46 items spanning six distinct categories. These six factors include the actual behaviors women perform to manage their partner’s social life, the emotional impact of that labor, and a recognition that their emotional support is often unequal or unappreciated. The remaining three factors capture the woman’s appraisal of her partner’s social network status, a desire for her partner to expand his friendships, and the extent to which the partner depends on her for emotional support.
The results indicated that the survey accurately captured theoretical predictions about mankeeping. Higher scores across the mankeeping dimensions strongly correlated with lower relationship satisfaction and higher levels of relationship burden and burnout. In addition, five of the six dimensions positively correlated with women’s self-reported depression, anxiety, and stress.
“There is now a validated and useful measure that can help to assess how women engage in this effortful process to help address their partner’s unmet social needs,” Mancini said. “Women who engage in these behaviors more tended to show poorer relationship satisfaction, which may signal the importance of social connections outside the romantic relationship that can help to more widely distribute social needs.” He added that “these results, whilst preliminary, indicate fairly robust and strong effects.”
Interestingly, simply appraising that a partner lacked friends was not strongly linked to psychological distress; rather, it was the active behaviors and the resulting emotional impact that were associated with poorer mental health. The data also showed that women who held more traditional beliefs about gender roles were more likely to report engaging in mankeeping behaviors.
Next, the team sought to verify that their newly developed survey, titled the Mankeeping Scale Partner Report, operated consistently across different populations. They administered the 46-item survey to a second group of 395 romantically partnered cisgender women living in the United Kingdom. Statistical analyses confirmed that the original six-category structure fit the UK data just as well as the US data. This suggests that the survey measures the same underlying concepts regardless of which of these two countries the women reside in, establishing what researchers call measurement invariance.
Recognizing that a 46-item questionnaire can be overly long for many research or clinical settings, the scientists combined the data from both the US and UK participants, totaling 797 women. They identified the three most mathematically and theoretically strong questions from each of the six categories to create an 18-item brief version. Testing showed that this shortened survey maintained excellent reliability and produced similar associations with relationship satisfaction and psychological distress as the full-length version, offering a practical alternative for future studies.
“It is incredibly useful to have validated measures of concepts such as mankeeping, so that research can move from theory to actually testing associations with possible outcomes,” said Sara B. Chadwick, an assistant professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study. “Having a validated measure of mankeeping will allow researchers to better understand how women’s efforts to support and maintain their men partners’ social networks and emotional health are connected to a variety of outcomes for both women and men in these partnerships,” she told PsyPost.
“The development of this measure offers a clear extension of research theorizing ‘mankeeping,’ and builds on previous feminist scholarship that has aimed to conceptualize the many ways that gender norms shape women’s romantic relationships with men,” Chadwick added.
She noted that earlier research has highlighted how gender norms often position women as caregivers for their male partners in ways that mimic a parent-child dynamic. “Overall, I would say this offers an important contribution to feminist research by specifically naming the kinds of behaviors that women engage in for the sake of supporting their men partners and by creating a way for researchers to measure and thus further explore it.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind about these findings. The survey relies entirely on self-reported data from one partner, meaning it captures a woman’s perception of her partner’s social life rather than an objective measure of his actual friendships. A man might feel his social needs are adequately met, even if his partner appraises his network as lacking. Future studies would benefit from surveying both members of a couple simultaneously to get a complete picture of the relationship dynamics.
“It is absolutely crucial to recognize that these results at the population level might not apply in the same way to the individual/couple level,” Mancini cautioned. “Romantic couples are incredibly diverse, not every man is lonely, nor does every woman need to engage in this process. This paper should also not take away from the importance of understanding loneliness as a population health issue, that all genders can experience.”
Chadwick agreed that context is crucial, noting that emotionally supporting a partner or helping them maintain social networks can sometimes be a consensual arrangement or a necessity based on temporary life circumstances, such as moving to a new city or dealing with a period of depression.
“The behaviors listed are not in themselves problematic, even when they may be burdensome,” Chadwick explained. “The key here is consent and mutuality, or in other words, it is essential that women either have consented to an arrangement where they take on the majority of social networking and emotional labor, or that this labor is offered to women in their times of need from their men partners.”
The current data is also a single snapshot in time, which makes it impossible to determine a strict chain of cause and effect between mankeeping behaviors and declining mental health. In addition, women’s responses to the survey might be influenced by internalized societal expectations about how a romantic partner is supposed to act.
Because the study focused on populations in the US and the UK with similar cultural norms, the survey might perform differently in other cultures. Expanding the research to include non-Western populations, as well as developing a companion survey to capture how men experience and perceive this social labor, will help clarify the full scope of this dynamic.
The issue arises, she pointed out, when women are automatically expected to take on this labor. “Unfortunately of course, with the way that gender norms function, the majority of mankeeping is indeed likely to be nonconsensual and non-mutual and thus have a disproportionately negative impact on women,” Chadwick said. In future research, she hopes to see investigations into whether this support is reciprocated, noting that the labor might not have a negative impact “if women feel they are offered the same types of labor from their partner in their own time periods of loneliness or need.”
“Our team is looking to engage in some longitudinal work that can allow us to follow couples over time, so that we can better understand how the phenomenon of mankeeping unfolds over time,” Mancini explained. “Being able to also capture the experiences of male partners, and develop interventions that can bolster the relationship quality between partners are our key future priorities.” He noted that the researchers are “always happy to chat to clinicians, researchers, and communities who have thoughts and ideas about the utility of this work!”
The study, “Measuring Mankeeping: Development and Validation of a Scale Assessing How Women Experience the Impact of Men’s Declining Social Networks,” was authored by Vincent O. Mancini, Briana N. Guerrini, James J. Clarke, Dylan P. Vergara, Zac E. Seidler, and Angelica P. Ferrara.
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DATE: September 18, 2026 at 04:30AM
SOURCE: STAT NEWS MENTAL HEALTHTITLE: Opinion: More young men are coming to me for plastic surgery. The way I think about them has changed
There are more men sitting in my plastic surgery waiting room now than ever before. If I had to choose one word to describe the men I see today, it would be “influenced.”
Procedures on men in the U.S. have grown by 4%, a rate that makes men the fastest growing population in aesthetics. In 2024, men underwent 1.6 million minimally invasive cosmetic procedures and almost 100,000 surgical procedures in the United States.
Read the rest…
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STAT News reports "from the frontiers of health and medicine".
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DATE: September 18, 2026 at 04:30AM
SOURCE: STAT NEWS MENTAL HEALTHTITLE: Opinion: More young men are coming to me for plastic surgery. The way I think about them has changed
There are more men sitting in my plastic surgery waiting room now than ever before. If I had to choose one word to describe the men I see today, it would be “influenced.”
Procedures on men in the U.S. have grown by 4%, a rate that makes men the fastest growing population in aesthetics. In 2024, men underwent 1.6 million minimally invasive cosmetic procedures and almost 100,000 surgical procedures in the United States.
Read the rest…
-------------------------------------------------
STAT News reports "from the frontiers of health and medicine".
Learn more at https://www.statnews.com/topic/mental-health/ .
See also their complete Mastodon account at @STAT .
This robot is NOT affiliated with STAT news and merely rebroadcasts from their site. Responses posted here are not monitored.
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 04:30AM
SOURCE: STAT NEWS MENTAL HEALTHTITLE: Opinion: More young men are coming to me for plastic surgery. The way I think about them has changed
There are more men sitting in my plastic surgery waiting room now than ever before. If I had to choose one word to describe the men I see today, it would be “influenced.”
Procedures on men in the U.S. have grown by 4%, a rate that makes men the fastest growing population in aesthetics. In 2024, men underwent 1.6 million minimally invasive cosmetic procedures and almost 100,000 surgical procedures in the United States.
Read the rest…
-------------------------------------------------
STAT News reports "from the frontiers of health and medicine".
Learn more at https://www.statnews.com/topic/mental-health/ .
See also their complete Mastodon account at @STAT .
This robot is NOT affiliated with STAT news and merely rebroadcasts from their site. Responses posted here are not monitored.
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DATE: September 18, 2026 at 03:37AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORGTITLE: Polls Show Most Americans Agree on One Thing: Opposition to AI
Source: Yahoo News - Top Headlines
There's not much the American people agree on these days. From Trump Steaks to plastic straws, from vaccines to Teslas, it's hard to pinpoint a topic that hasn't been polarized by politics. But a series of new surveys suggest Americans may have finally found an area of agreement: opposition to artificial intelligence. In fact, nearly two out of three Americans now say there is at least a moderate risk that AI will destroy humanity.
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 03:37AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORGTITLE: Polls Show Most Americans Agree on One Thing: Opposition to AI
Source: Yahoo News - Top Headlines
There's not much the American people agree on these days. From Trump Steaks to plastic straws, from vaccines to Teslas, it's hard to pinpoint a topic that hasn't been polarized by politics. But a series of new surveys suggest Americans may have finally found an area of agreement: opposition to artificial intelligence. In fact, nearly two out of three Americans now say there is at least a moderate risk that AI will destroy humanity.
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 03:37AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORGTITLE: Polls Show Most Americans Agree on One Thing: Opposition to AI
Source: Yahoo News - Top Headlines
There's not much the American people agree on these days. From Trump Steaks to plastic straws, from vaccines to Teslas, it's hard to pinpoint a topic that hasn't been polarized by politics. But a series of new surveys suggest Americans may have finally found an area of agreement: opposition to artificial intelligence. In fact, nearly two out of three Americans now say there is at least a moderate risk that AI will destroy humanity.
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 03:37AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORGTITLE: OpenAI Discloses New "Concerning" Behavior
Source: DW- top stories
OpenAI revealed new incidents Wednesday in which its artificial intelligence has behaved in "unexpected or concerning" ways, including models attempting to "cheat." In one case, a model tried to upload files to the internet that it had created itself, only to cite them later and present them as reliable sources. In another case, a model, after failing to find the requested information, fabricated it and attempted to conceal that it had done so.
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 03:37AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORGTITLE: OpenAI Discloses New "Concerning" Behavior
Source: DW- top stories
OpenAI revealed new incidents Wednesday in which its artificial intelligence has behaved in "unexpected or concerning" ways, including models attempting to "cheat." In one case, a model tried to upload files to the internet that it had created itself, only to cite them later and present them as reliable sources. In another case, a model, after failing to find the requested information, fabricated it and attempted to conceal that it had done so.
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-
DATE: September 18, 2026 at 03:37AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORGTITLE: OpenAI Discloses New "Concerning" Behavior
Source: DW- top stories
OpenAI revealed new incidents Wednesday in which its artificial intelligence has behaved in "unexpected or concerning" ways, including models attempting to "cheat." In one case, a model tried to upload files to the internet that it had created itself, only to cite them later and present them as reliable sources. In another case, a model, after failing to find the requested information, fabricated it and attempted to conceal that it had done so.
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