Community forensic mental health services are supposed to bridge secure hospitals, prisons, community psychiatry, and risk management. A 2026 mapping study of England found that these services still vary substantially in structure, referral routes, psychological treatments, and the way they handle restricted patients.1 Research Highlights 32 services were mapped: Freedom of Information responses from NHS …
A 244-person functional MRI study found no significant evidence that ventral striatum activation during reward anticipation works as an endophenotype — a measurable trait used to connect inherited risk with diagnosed illness — for bipolar and psychotic disorders. Research Highlights The registered hypothesis failed: Barendse et al. found no significant ventral striatum reward-anticipation difference among …
Clozapine has been the most effective antipsychotic in schizophrenia for almost 40 years, yet it is still routinely held back until patients have failed multiple alternatives over many years — a “third-line, after years of failure” default that a 2026 Current Opinion review by Davani et al. argues is no longer supported by the evidence.1 …
A 2026 SEEearly baseline report found that 53.3% of 184 young people with early schizophrenia-spectrum psychosis were not in employment, education, or training at study entry, even though 97.8% had at least a lower- or upper-secondary school-leaving qualification.1 Psychosis had already interrupted the bridge from school into training, college, or competitive work. Research Highlights NEET …
Mukai et al.’s 499-person Phase 2b schizophrenia trial tested whether higher, sustained PDE10A inhibition could turn MK-8189 into a non-D2 antipsychotic; it did not. At week 6, MK-8189 missed the PANSS total endpoint at 16 mg (−2.8 points vs. placebo; 95% CI −8.3 to 2.6; P = 0.241) and 24 mg (−0.7 points; 95% CI …
A 2026 analysis of 174 people with non-affective first-episode psychosis found that cognitive reserve was tied to 3 signals available near illness onset: age at onset, family history of psychosis, and polygenic liability for educational attainment. Adding the education polygenic score raised the model’s adjusted R² from 13.5% to 17.7%, a real but modest gain …
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 …