A 2026 review of 52 studies found that chronic primary pain is linked to several physiological stress markers, especially cortisol, heart rate, heart-rate recovery, and mean arterial pressure. The pattern is real enough to study, but not clean enough to use as a simple biomarker panel for pain severity.1 Research Highlights 52 studies were reviewed: …
A 2026 nationally-representative study by Johnson, Parker, and Wade in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry tested ACE-style screening in 7,608 Canadian adults and replicated what US, UK, and New Zealand cohorts already found: predictive accuracy is poor, with AUCs of 0.62 to 0.67 across anxiety, mood, substance use, and suicidality — all below the conventional …
Chronic stress is a candidate mechanism for both depression and addiction risk. A 2026 mouse study found that 28 days of unpredictable chronic mild stress increased striatal dopamine D1 receptor binding by 22–48% across nearly every region examined, plus more selective D2 receptor increases — pointing to a stress-driven shift in reward signaling that may …
A 2026 mouse study linked cholestatic liver injury to smaller thalamic volume than control injury-free mice, broad thalamus gene-expression changes, and partial pathway rescue after systemic tumor necrosis factor neutralization. Research Highlights Thalamic volume decreased: bile duct ligation (BDL; a mouse model of obstructive cholestatic liver injury) reduced thalamic volume vs. sham surgery by magnetic …
A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials found no broad superiority for phase-based complex PTSD care across most outcomes. Affect dysregulation was the clearest exception, improving more when treatment was phase-based, multi-phase, and exposure-containing. Research Highlights Most therapy formats helped: across waitlist and treatment-as-usual comparisons, psychological interventions reduced PTSD symptoms (k = 9; …
A 68-person randomized trial in Indian healthcare workers found a narrow but useful pattern: combined yoga plus Bhagavad Gita teaching beat usual care immediately on GAD-7 anxiety scores (p = 0.009), while Gita teaching alone beat usual care at 45 days (p = 0.047).1 Yoga alone improved within its own arm, but it did not …
A 148-worker Swedish longitudinal study found that psychosocial work experience improved after hybrid work was implemented, with total Work Experience Measurement Scale scores rising from 71.2 to 74.3 and the clearest subgroup signal appearing in women: +4.3 points vs. -1.2 points in men.1 Research Highlights Work experience improved: total WEMS scores increased from 71.2 before …