This study found that participating in online pleasure-focused research moments led to small boosts in positive affect and larger drops in negative affect, suggesting that the process of answering pleasure questions can itself enhance mood.
Resistance training significantly improved depression and anxiety symptoms in older adults, with even stronger effects in those with mental disorders. Specific training factors influenced how effective it was.
This review highlights how endurance exercise and cardiorespiratory fitness support healthy brain ageing by improving blood flow, reducing inflammation, and boosting neuroplasticity, helping protect against cognitive decline and dementia.
This study suggests omega-3 supplements may reduce anxiety symptoms at 2 grams per day, though evidence is limited and more high-quality research is needed to confirm the effect.
This study found omega-3 supplements may improve executive function in older adults, especially with higher doses and in those who already have moderate DHA and EPA levels.
This study found that higher magnesium intake is linked to better brain health, especially in women, with greater brain volume and fewer white matter lesions seen in those with higher intake.
This study examined self-compassion in college students and found it was linked to better mood, lower stress, and healthier cortisol patterns, suggesting protection against stress both mentally and physically.
The aim of this study is to understand the distribution of social health across the Australian population and examine the relationships between loneliness and social isolation and community knowledge, stigma, physical and mental health, health service utilisation, quality of life, and work productivity.
Young men experiencing anxiety risk traversing traditional norms of masculinity, a tension that contributes to under-diagnosis – and, by extension, under-treatment. Within this context, young men frequently present to ambulance services with acute psychosomatic anxiety symptoms, implicating extensive, and resource exhaustive diagnostic tests to differentially diagnose and clinically manage potentially life-threatening conditions
Contemplative practices, such as meditation and yoga, are increasingly popular among the general public and as topics of research. Beneficial effects associated with these practices have been found on physical health, mental health and cognitive performance. This theoretical review aims to show that various contemplative activities have in common that breathing is regulated or attentively guided. This respiratory discipline in turn may explain the physical and mental benefits of these practises through changes in autonomic balance. This review proposes a neurophysiological model that explains how these specific respiration styles could operate, by tonically stimulating the vagal nerve (respiratory vagal nerve stimulation rVNS).
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), as a physical therapy has shown promising outcomes in some CNS diseases and has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States for epilepsy and depression. Moreover, it has demonstrated significant potential in the treatment of stroke, consciousness disorders, and Alzheimer’s disease. The exact efficacy of VNS, its beneficiaries, and its mechanisms of action remain unclear. This article discusses the current clinical evidence supporting the efficacy of VNS in CNS diseases, providing updates on the progress, potential, and potential mechanisms of action of VNS in producing effects on CNS diseases.
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is emerging as a potent intervention, particularly within neurology and psychiatry. The clinical value of VNS continues to grow, while the development of noninvasive options promises to change a landscape that is already quickly evolving. This review explores recent progress of VNS and helpful insights into the future application of this modality.
This meta-analysis sought to expand upon neurobiological models of mindfulness through investigation of inherent brain network connectivity outcomes, indexed via resting state functional connectivity (rsFC). The researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of rsFC as an outcome of mindfulness training (MT) relative to control. They hypothesized that MT would increase cross-network connectivity between nodes of the Default Mode Network (DMN), Salience Network (SN), and Frontoparietal Control Network (FPCN) as a mechanism of internally-oriented attentional control.
This study found increased Functional Connectivity (FC) between nodes of the default mode network (DMN) and nodes of the salience network (SN) in participants of the Mindfulness Meditation Training. Seed-based correlation analyses revealed further connectivity increases between the SN and key regions of the central executive network (CEN). These results indicate, that, among multiple Large Scale Networks, one month of mindfulness meditation effectively increases interconnectivity between networks of the triple network model (DMN, SN, CEN).
Findings from this study suggest that self-compassion training supports regulation of pain through the involvement of self-referential (vPCC), salience-processing (TPJ), and emotion regulatory (dlPFC) brain areas. The results also suggest that self-compassion could be an important target in the psychotherapeutic treatment of chronic lower back pain.
This study suggests compassion can be cultivated with training. Greater altruistic behavior may emerge from increased engagement in neural systems implicated in understanding the suffering of others, executive and emotional control, and reward processing.
Self-compassion refers to being supportive toward oneself when experiencing suffering or pain—be it caused by personal mistakes and inadequacies or external life challenges. This review presents Dr Neff’s theoretical model of self-compassion as comprised of six different elements: increased self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness as well as reduced self-judgment, isolation, and overidentification.
This study explores how compassion training elicited activity in a neural network including the medial orbitofrontal cortex, putamen, pallidum, and ventral tegmental area—brain regions previously associated with positive affect and affiliation. The deliberate cultivation of compassion offers a new coping strategy that fosters positive affect even when confronted with the distress of others (empathic distress).
This paper explores how health system leaders can implement relevant organisational interventions to reduce caregiver burnout and promote engagement and compassionate practice during the Covid-19 pandemic, and beyond.
Professionals regularly exposed to the traumatic experiences of the people they service, such as healthcare, emergency and community service workers, are particularly susceptible to developing Compassion Fatigue (CF). This can impact standards of patient care, relationships with colleagues, or lead to more serious mental health conditions such as PTSD, anxiety or depression. This systematic review examined the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing CF in healthcare, emergency and community service workers.
The influence that the Internet may have on our brain structure and functioning remains a central topic of investigation. This article draws on recent psychological, psychiatric & neuroimaging findings to examine several hypotheses on how the Internet may be changing our cognition.
Cardiovascular disease is a common issue for those living with mental illness yet mental health services do not routinely provide lifestyle interventions. Can exposing mental health staff to lifestyle interventions help improve patient outcomes?
Despite several positive aspects of digital media, which include the capability to effortlessly communicate with peers, even over a long distance, and their being used as training tools for students and the elderly, detrimental effects on our brains and minds have also been suggested.
This study shows that mindfulness was associated with fewer PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and alcohol problems when controlling for the other study variables across 124 urban firefighters.
Nutritional interventions have beneficial effects on certain psychiatric disorder symptomatology & common physical health comorbidities. However, studies evaluating nutritional literacy in mental health professionals are scarce. This study aimed to assess this across 52 countries.