Women are suffering more anxiety and depression in states that banned abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a new study shows.

The court's Dobbs decision in June 2022 triggered laws banning abortion in 13 states.

In the six months after, symptoms of anxiety and depression increased among women living in those states, particularly those ages 18 to 45, researchers r...

If you decide to see a therapist, finding one who's right for you presents one of the biggest early hurdles.

“The field of psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy has advanced over the years, and one of the ways it has advanced is by learning that certain therapies may work best for certain problems,” said Eric Storch,...

Depression affects half of the 6 million Americans who struggle with debilitating heart failure.

Now, research shows that two leading modes of treatment -- antidepressants and an approach called behavioral activation psychotherapy -- work equally well to ease depression among these patients.

Behavioral activation psychotherapy works by promoting involvement in activities that the pa...

People coming off antidepressants often struggle with emotional and social turmoil, especially if they quit their meds cold turkey, a new study reports.

Challenges reported by patients quitting antidepressants included feeling overwhelmed by their emotions, finding social situations less enjoyable, and feeling detached and less empathetic towards others.

“Some symptoms were so sev...

College freshmen who are more outgoing and agreeable -- and less moody -- are more likely to feel a sense of belonging at their new school, new research has found.

Those personality traits could result in better academic performance and better mental health during college, the study authors concluded.

However, two other important personality traits -- conscientiousness and openness ...

Stressed-out teens are likely to have more heart health risk factors in adulthood, a new study says.

Teens with elevated stress levels tended to have high blood pressure, obesity and other heart risk factors as they aged, compared to those teens with less stress, researchers found.

“Our findings suggest that perceived stress patterns over time have a far-reaching effect on various...

Magnetic zaps to the brain can significantly help people with severe depression, if the procedure is guided using MRI brain scans, a new clinical trial has concluded.

On average, patients showed substantial improvements in depression, anxiety, cognition and quality of life for at least six months after undergoing MRI-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), results show.

One-...

A crowded house may not be the best for the mental health of a family's kids, a new study has found.

Teens from larger families tend to have poorer mental health than those with fewer siblings, according to a large-scale analysis of children in the United States and China.

In the United States, children with no or one sibling had the best mental health, while in China well-being was...

Women are far more likely to suffer an early death if they develop depression during or after pregnancy, a new Swedish study has found.

Women who developed what's known as "perinatal" depression were generally twice as likely to die as women who didn't experience the mood disorder, researchers reported Jan. 10 in the BMJ.

They also are six times more likely to commit suicid...

A bout of depression can trigger a bump in body weight among people struggling with obesity, a new study has found.

People who had an increase in symptoms related to depression experienced an increase in their weight a month later, researchers report in the journal PLOS One.

“Overall, this suggests that individuals with overweight o...

Weight gain has long been an unwanted side effect of medicines commonly used to treat psychiatric conditions such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

Some patients may quit their meds to avoid piling on pounds. Or if they stick to their meds and weight gain continues, they face higher risks for diabetes and liver disease.

However, research in mice is pinpointing how this drug-link...

Could the immune system play a role in why some women become depressed during and after a pregnancy?

Swedish researchers have uncovered a "bidirectional relationship" between pregnancy-linked depression and autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis and celiac disease.

In other words, women who experienced depression specific to a pregnancy were mo...

Depression that emerges around the time of pregnancy raises a woman's risk for suicide sharply and for many years, new Swedish research shows.

The study found that a new mom's odds for suicide soars seven-fold in the year after a diagnosis of perinatal depression -- depression that arises just before, during or after a pregnancy.

The increase in risk isn't limited to the short-term,...

"School spirit" appears to provide long-lasting mental health benefits for Black teens, new research finds.

School connectedness -- the degree to which students feel like part of to their school community -- is a protective factor against depression and aggressive behavior later in life among Black students, researchers report in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

“Our...

It's an approach that's becoming more widespread: Receiving hospital-level care in the home.

A new study finds that folks "hospitalized" at home tend to do at least as well as if they'd been checked into a hospital for medical care.

Patients getting hospital-level care at home have low death rates and are not likely to suffer a setback that requires a quick return to the ER, accordi...

Folks who take Ozempic or Wegovy for diabetes and weight loss need not worry about a higher risk of suicidal thoughts or feelings while on the medications, a new, large review finds.

In the study, which was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, researchers turned to a database of more than 100 million patient records to measure the risks of suicidal ideation among people using...

Combining mindfulness with exercise could be the key to managing stress during a potentially turbulent 2024, a new review argues.

People who exercise and practice mindfulness meditation together tend to have less worry, stress, anxiety and depression than those who only engage in either activity, according to results from 35 studies involving more than 2,200 people.

Mindfulness medi...

Reduced income, unemployment and mental health issues are more common among people who live with a loved one diagnosed with depression, new research shows.

“These findings indicate that the impact of depressive symptoms may extend beyond the affected individuals, imposing a burden on other adults in their households,” study lead author