A 2026 hospital MRI study found that the left paracingulate sulcus was present in 31 of 109 catatonia patients (28%) vs. 171 of 323 psychiatric controls without catatonia (53%), a left-hemisphere group effect that survived adjustment for age, sex, scanner, brain volume, benzodiazepines, and antipsychotics.1 Research Highlights Left PCS signal: left paracingulate sulcus (PCS) presence …
A 2026 fMRI study of 84 medication-free adolescents found that reward uncertainty had its own phase-specific brain pattern: anxiety, depression, and anhedonia separated across different task phases and brain systems.1 The clearest clinical split was narrow but useful: anxiety tracked blunted striatum/thalamus activation during uncertain non-reward expectancy, while depression and anhedonia tracked higher visual/default-network activation …
A 2026 UK Biobank MRI preprint involving 71,214 adults found that chronic pain plus current depression had a structural brain profile that was more than chronic pain plus depression pasted together. The 1,377-person comorbid group showed widespread lower cortical volume, lower bilateral thalamic and hippocampal volume, lower left accumbens volume, and broad white-matter microstructure differences …
Most antidepressant pharmacovigilance data come from high-income countries, leaving prescribing patterns and adverse-effect profiles in low- and middle-income countries underdocumented. A 2026 cross-sectional study by Riaz and colleagues describes antidepressant use in Pakistan, with patient-reported adverse effects mapped against prescription patterns.1 Research Highlights Antidepressant use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has grown substantially but …
An ear-clip that modulates mood by stimulating the vagus nerve has obvious appeal — but the evidence base for non-invasive tVNS in depression has been mixed for a decade. A 2026 cross-over RCT by Forbes et al. sharpens what specifically tVNS does well.1 Research Highlights Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) is a non-invasive ear-electrode version …
Iceland is a registry-rich country with a small enough population that genuinely nationwide health data is feasible — not the survey-based approximations that anchor most psychiatric epidemiology elsewhere. A 2026 PLOS One study used the Iceland Screens, Treats, or Prevents Multiple Myeloma (iStopMM) cohort — 80,759 adults aged 40+, representing 54% of all eligible Icelanders …
Children with intellectual disability are 3–4x more likely to have a comorbid psychiatric disorder than peers without ID. A 2026 nationwide Korean study by Joo and colleagues tracks how those rates changed across a decade.1 Research Highlights Korean children and adolescents (ages 2–18) with intellectual disability had ADHD comorbidity rise from 30.2% in 2012 to …