Feature Channels: Psychology and Psychiatry

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The University of Utah has awarded $1.3 million in grants to 56 projects that will examine a host of issues arising out of the pandemic. These multidisciplinary projects will not only address ways to prevent and treat the disease, but will also explore how to design better personal protective equipment as well as dampen the long-term effects of physical isolation on domestic violence and mental health.

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Researchers have received a $1.7 million NIH grant for a novel project that is the first to investigate how the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1) influences neurotransmission through a direct action on neurons and how this action triggers behavioral changes. They will establish nIL-1R1 as a crucial link that could convert neuroinflammation to neural dysfunction, providing a new pathogenic mechanism for anxiety, depression, and cognitive dysfunction. Results from this work could suggest new targets for the treatment of psychopathology.

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Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle with finding and maintaining employment, which is an important key to helping them achieve lifelong success. To create a bridge toward employment, the Benjamin J. Geigerman Lecture Series was created at UTHealth.

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New research from the University at Buffalo suggests that non-traditional social strategies, which can include so-called “guilty pleasures,” are just as effective at fulfilling critical social needs as family connections, romantic relationships or strong social support systems. The study represents the first time researchers have empirically combined the traditional and non-traditional for comparative purposes to simultaneously test their relative effectiveness.

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Physical fitness and social connection can be difficult to maintain in old age. But new research published in Frontiers in Psychology shows that Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) may promote exercise, improve quality of life and deepen familial ties between grandparents and grandchildren.

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Psilocybin mushrooms have been found to have minimal harmful effects and could potentially benefit those with depression. But they remain illegal even though they offer a groundbreaking alternative to several under-treated psychological conditions.

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Recovery. Reentry. Reopen. Return. A new normal. Faculty experts at DePaul University are available for news media interviews about what comes next — after the COVID-19 pandemic. Does the world return to normal or will there be fundamental changes to how we live our lives, work, and travel; and how we are governed?

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Researchers have shown that improving one's “self-efficacy” -- the confidence to perform well in a particular part of life -- may help manage stress during a time like COVID-19. Here are four ways to build self-efficacy.

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Despite the near-universal assumption of individuality in biology, there is little agreement about what individuals are and few rigorous quantitative methods for their identification. A new approach may solve the problem by defining individuals in terms of informational processes.

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Millions of Americans are being impacted by the psychological fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath

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Women Veterans with more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or moral injury (guilt, shame or demoralization in response to participating in or witnessing events that violate one's sense of right and wrong), are at greater risk for negative pregnancy outcomes and postpartum depression in the three years following discharge from military service.

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Child abuse and neglect hotlines around the country are reporting declines in calls over the past few weeks. While normally this would be welcome news, it does not bode well during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, says an expert on child abuse and neglect at Washington University in St. Louis.“Normally, a decrease in calls about alleged child abuse and neglect or maltreatment would be a welcome start to child abuse prevention month, but the context of current declines is worrisome,” said Melissa Jonson-Reid, the Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work Research at the Brown School.

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Researchers suggest that in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a host of neuropsychiatric challenges may remain — or emerge — for those recovering from COVID-19 infections.

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The novel coronavirus that has infected more than one million people globally (at time of publication) is not just a physical health threat.

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