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You feel it ahead of a big exam. Your stomach churns before a job interview. Your heart races before you board a plane. Stress is something everyone is likely to experience at some point. But stress doesn’t have to be an obstacle. In fact, it can be a useful tool. A recent study from the University of Rochester found that re-evaluating perceptions of stress can improve mental health, wellbeing and ultimately, success. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry looked at how genetically encoded sensors enable micro and nano-scopic decoding of transmission in healthy and diseased brains. “Our study looked at developing a method to visualize neuromodulatory communication between neurons at the nanoscale,” study author Li Lin told us. “Neuromodulatory communication is important for many high cognitive behaviors and its deficit is responsible various psychiatric, mental and neurology disorders.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Translational Psychiatry looked at a combined clinical and genetic approach to the assessment of suicide and death in bipolar affective disorder. “When we think about the risk for suicide, we often think about what is happening in a person’s life at the time: the loss of a job, a major change in a relationship,” study author Eric Monson told us. “Not many people are aware that genetics play an important role in risk. In fact, the heritability for suicidality is estimated to be 30-50%, meaning that a significant proportion of risk arises from genetic sources.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology looked at whether emotional diversity is associated with better student engagement and achievement. “Our study explored whether students who have varied emotional experiences would also be more engaged and achieve better in school,” study author Cherry Frondozo told us. “We adapted a measure of diversity from ecology to examine the link between the diversity of emotional experiences and achievement.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Pediatric Research looked at family environment and development in children adopted from institutionalized care. “This prospective study followed children recently adopted from institutionalized care over two years to investigate the relationship between family environment, executive function, and behavioral outcomes,” study author Constantine A. Stratakis told us. “My research interest is how early life stress effects development.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Nature Human Behaviour looked at how brain stimulation and brain lesions converge on common causal circuits in neuropsychiatric disease. “The study is about brain circuitry in depression,” study author, Dr. Shan H. Siddiqi told us. “We were hoping to find if modulating specific brain circuits (with brain damage or brain stimulation) can causally modify depression severity.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology looked at sex differences in specific aspects of two animal tests of anxiety-like behavior. “We studied male and female rodent models to better understand sex differences in biological responses related to anxiety,” study author Thatiane De Oliveira Sergio told us. “We used procedures that let us measure a lot of different aspects of the anxiety behavior.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Occupational Health looked at physical relaxation for occupational stress in healthcare workers in a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. "Our study evaluates various physical methods of relaxation (yoga, massage therapy, progressive muscle relaxation, and stretching exercises) on their effectiveness in reducing work-related stress in healthcare workers,” study author Michael Zhang told us. [More]

Nearly half of staff working in the intensive care unit during COVID-19 show signs of mental health conditions. A study from Imperial College London found that 48 percent of healthcare staff showed signs of depression, insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder. [More]

A new study published in JAMA looked at exposure to family member incarceration and adult wellbeing in the United States. “Our study investigated how the incarceration of a family member is associated with wellbeing and life expectancy,” study author Dr. Ram Sundaresh told us. “We suspected that having a family member incarcerated would be associated with lower wellbeing and life expectancy.” [More]