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By some predictions, the COVID19 pandemic will cause the worst financial crisis in the US since the Great Depression. Already across the United States many are experiencing pay cuts and job losses, and for couples this may mean a lot of pressure on romantic relationships. Whilst financial struggles are never easy, research from the University of Arizona has found that some couples are better prepared to cope with financial stress than others. [More]

How different are our brains from our primate ancestors? This is the question researchers in Germany attempted to answer in a new study published in the Journal of Science Advances. The study looked at brain asymmetry in humans and great apes as seen from endocasts, casts of the inner bony brain case that approximate the size and shape of the brain. Brain asymmetry is imperative to cognition and brain function in humans and has been linked to language and the use of tools. [More]

Health authorities have emphasised the importance of social distancing to keep the community safe from COVID19, but for some, the social isolation can be challenging. But new research from the University of Buffalo suggests that there are other ways of fulfilling social needs without being physically close to others. [More]

During the 2003 SARS outbreak, health care workers had concerns about infecting others and experienced stigma because they were in close contact with sick patients. A new study in JAMA looked at the mental health of 1,257 health care workers attending to COVID-19 patients in China since COVID-19 is our current concern. A large percentage reported depression, anxiety, insomnia, and distress. Findings suggest that these health care workers are at a significant risk of developing mental illness. [More]

Going to work every day to help save other people's lives, while putting their own on the line, is something first responders are faced with every day. But in the era of COVID-19 that daily risk is even higher, and now doctors and nurses are finding themselves on the front lines. The fear and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 is taking a toll on everyone, but may hit these first responders especially hard. [More]

Experts around the world are racing to develop a vaccine for COVID19. But there is a group of people who are unlikely to sign up: vaccine skeptics. Vaccine skepticsm has become increasingly widespread, and researchers from Texas Tech University may have found the reason why. [More]

A recent review published in the Journal of European Neuropsychopharmacology looked at nutritional psychiatry and whether mental health can be improved by what you eat. The popular press often provide advice to the general public about recommendations on how to improve one’s mental health by changing what we eat – specific diets, supplements or foods. A group of researchers wanted to set the record straight and explain in an informed balanced manner, the actual data behind common claims and misconceptions. [More]

Across cultures it is accepted that it is a terrible thing to die alone. During the present covid-19 epidemic the televised vision of refrigerated trucks filled with the dead has been especially disturbing. Why is that? Of course it is tragic when large numbers of people die. It is also frightening. Part of what appears to be at play here is that the fear of being unknown and alone is projected on to what an individual,who is a witness, has conjured up in his/her mind as a picture of lives uncelebrated and discarded. [More]

Meena, featured on Google’s AI blog, is a chatbot trained in a conversational model. The concept is that it conducts conversations that are more sensible and specific than existing chatbots. This chatbot, trained with 2.6 billion parameters, is designed to offer more humanlike conversations. [More]

A national survey by the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 11.4 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds were depressed in 2014. Ruby Walker was one of them. Her book, Advice I Ignored: Stories and Wisdom from a Formerly Depressed Teen is the only book on teenage mental health written by a teenager. It answers the question everyone's been asking her: What happened? [More]