Current Opinion in Psychiatry最新文献

Purpose of review: Negative symptoms in schizophrenia remain an unmet treatment need. Recent guidelines and meta-analyses suggest that some pharmacological and psychosocial interventions show modest efficacy. Adding to this evidence, this review summarizes randomized clinical trials (RCTs) published between January 2024 and October 2025 on pharmacological, psychosocial, physical, digital, and neuromodulatory interventions targeting negative symptoms.

Recent findings: Most recent RCTs were small and methodologically heterogeneous, and effects on negative symptoms were generally modest. Exercise-based and body-oriented interventions, CBT-based interventions, psychosocial programmes, and digital tools were feasible and often associated with within-group improvement, but rarely superior to active controls or treatment as usual; only a larger yoga trial showed clear added benefit. Cognitive remediation did not directly reduce negative symptoms, but recent work indicates that negative symptoms moderate the translation of cognitive gains into functional improvement. Pharmacological trials yielded mixed results, with signals for muscarinic agonist-antagonist treatment, selected repurposed agents, and sulforaphane. Neuromodulation studies, particularly intermittent theta burst stimulation and transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation, suggested small to moderate improvements that depended on stimulation parameters and treatment duration.

Summary: Current evidence confirms that negative symptoms are modifiable and underscores the need for adequately powered, mechanism-informed, multimodal trials with long-term follow-up.

Purpose of review: This review synthesizes recent findings on recent developments in the understanding and treatment of longstanding eating disorders (L-ED).

Recent findings: Following a systematic search 42 papers were identified that included 5 scoping or systematic reviews. The majority were about phenomenology and treatment. Co-design and perspectives of people with lived experience expertise were common. Research on conceptualization suggests some consistency that duration is a necessary but insufficient defining feature, and to broaden from a symptom focus to the inter- and intra-personal experience of L-ED. There has been little progress however on a consensus for the defining features or the aetiological understanding of L-ED or longstanding anorexia nervosa (L-AN). There are several new collaborative and person-centred models of care and therapeutic approaches, alongside developments in treatments, mostly biological however, and most of L-AN, e.g. ketamine, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS). There remains an acute need to test these in controlled trials.

Summary: L-EDs continue to present unique challenges. The involvement of people with lived experience expertise in research has supported the increasing emphasis on exploring improved longer-term outcomes and meaningful trajectories of recovery, with personalized and integrated approaches to care being the new holy grail.

Purpose of review: Only one in five people with eating disorders ever receive care, making effective prevention critical. This review synthesizes prevention trials from the past 2 years - highlighting new interventions and implementation strategies.

Recent findings: A dissonance-based program for Brazilian men reduced muscle dysmorphia and body dissatisfaction, but not eating-disorder symptoms. The Body Advocacy Movement , designed to lessen fatphobia, produced medium declines in weight bias but only small symptom reductions, performing no better than the Body Project . Eat Breathe Thrive, a yoga-based program for female athletes, improved anxiety and interoceptive body trusting but did not reduce eating pathology. Two studies testing the Diabetes Body Project for young women with type 1 diabetes - an open pilot and a multinational randomized trial - produced large, durable reductions in general and diabetes specific symptoms but did not improve glycemic control. An implementation experiment across 63 colleges showed that pairing train-the-trainer workshops with technical assistance and ongoing quality assurance supervision maximized clinical benefit per dollar.

Summary: Recent work demonstrates promising population-specific adaptations of dissonance-based programs and underscores that comprehensive implementation support enhances effectiveness. Future work should optimize high-school delivery, boost effect sizes, and verify long-term reductions in future eating disorder onset.

Purpose of review: Adolescence is a sensitive period for the onset of mood disorders. Many adolescents experience mood symptoms, which for some are transient and pass over time and for others lead to a mood disorder diagnosis. Mood disorders are substantially heritable and those at highest genetic risk tend to have an earlier onset. The present review summarizes recent advances in our understanding of genetic factors contributing to mood disorders in adolescents.

Recent findings: Genetic predispositions play a critical part in the development of mood disorders, including major depression and bipolar disorder. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have consistently found that individuals reporting mood symptoms during adolescence have higher polygenic risk for both mood disorders and other psychiatric disorders than those without symptoms. Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) that aggregate the effects of thousands of genetic variants can improve individual risk prediction for bipolar disorder when combined with clinical and environmental factors. Genetically informative designs, either using observed genotypes summarized in PRS or the occurrence of the disorder in family members summarized in Family Genetic Risk Scores (FGRS) are also used to investigate mechanisms underlying associations with risk factors. Recent studies suggest that teens whose peers are genetically vulnerable to depression have an increased risk for depression compared to teens with the same genetic risk but whose peers are not genetically vulnerable. This indicates a direct environmental effect. These studies illustrate that both family-based and molecular-based genetic approaches can help in diagnosing and understanding the origins of mood disorders in adolescents.

Summary: Adolescent-onset mood disorders are associated with increased genetic risk relative to later-onset. Although not currently clinically applicable, genetic factors, with a focus on PRS and FGRS, can help to predict onset and course of mood disorders in adolescents. The use of PRS and FGRS, combined with environmental factors, improves prediction models for mood disorders in adolescents. Additionally, it also provides information on the etiology of these disorders, for example by examining parent-offspring and peer group associations in genetically informative study designs.

Purpose of review: Eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa and avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder, commonly co-occur with autism. Many autistic people with eating disorders face delays and challenges in assessment and treatment because their particular needs are not understood. The aim of this narrative review is to introduce the concept of neurodivergence-affirming eating disorder care and to review recent scientific research on this topic.

Recent findings: Some of the unique challenges that autistic individuals with eating disorders face include sensory processing differences, communication barriers, and unmet support needs. Neurodiversity-affirming care challenges structural ableism by emphasizing co-designing care with autistic experts by experience. Neurodiversity-affirming practitioners presume that their clients are autonomous and competent. When providing care, they respect different communication styles, tailor support to their client's individual needs and strengths, and seek to foster a positive autistic identity. This involves respecting autistic eating behaviours, providing timely assessment and support, individualized treatment goals, and carefully considering communication and sensory needs.

Summary: Eating disorder service providers often have a hard time understanding their autistic clients. This can contribute to poor eating disorder treatment outcomes. Neurodiversity-affirming practitioners seek insight from the autistic community and participatory research to improve eating disorder services for their clients.

Purpose of review: Over one billion people suffer from psychiatric and/or neurological disorders for which transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has shown efficacy. Achieving widespread TMS access will require major improvements to cost and convenience. A key figure of merit for a given TMS protocol concerns not its remission rate or tolerability, but simply its treatment time per remission (TTPR).

Recent findings: Outcomes for conventional bilateral TMS protocols imply a TTPR of more than 100 h - incompatible with widespread access. However, briefer accelerated and/or theta-burst protocols may improve TTPR to less than 20 h. Personalization strategies that improve remission rates sometime improve TTPR, depending on associated cost-penalties of time or complexity. A potentially groundbreaking new strategy to improve TTPR involves pharmacological augmentation of neuroplasticity, using agents such as D -cycloserine. Plasticity-augmentation may improve TTPR by improving remission rates, and by reducing the number of required sessions. Recent literature suggests that TTPR values of under 5 h per remission may be achievable via neuroplasticity augmentation.

Summary: The most recent plasticity-augmented TMS protocols may approach or exceed cost-parity with pharmacotherapy, in terms of reducing the prevalence of depression. With the health economics of TMS improving steadily, a pathway to universal access may be within reach.

Purpose of review: Binge eating (BE) is a core symptom of multiple eating disorders and disproportionately affects females during/after puberty. Gonadal hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone) are sex-differentiated and have been posited as key biological contributors to BE risk. This review synthesizes recent findings from animal and human studies regarding gonadal hormone influences on the etiology BE in females during puberty and adulthood.

Recent findings: Estrogen may exert organizational effects (i.e., long-lasting) during puberty that shape responsivity to activational effects (i.e., transient) of gonadal hormones on BE in late adolescence/adulthood. In adulthood, estradiol appears to be protective against BE, while progesterone antagonizes this effect. Emerging data also implicate testosterone as an additional hormonal risk factor for BE in women, particularly under conditions of lower estradiol. However, not all females exposed to these high-risk gonadal hormone milieus develop BE; behavior genetic studies provide empirical support for gene-by-hormone interactions in individual susceptibility.

Summary: Methodologically rigorous approaches (e.g., daily assessments, behavior genetics, hormone manipulation) have been critical in uncovering the complex etiologic influences of gonadal hormones on BE in females. Future research is needed to identify the specific neural circuits, genetic variants, and transcriptional pathways involved in these processes.

Purpose of review: Various psychological and medical treatments have demonstrated efficacy for binge-eating disorder (BED), but further improvement is warranted. This narrative research synthesis reviews randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published between November 16, 2022, and May 15, 2025, identified via systematic literature search.

Recent findings: Fourteen new RCTs were included. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) showed consistent efficacy for binge eating, abstinence, and eating disorder psychopathology; augmentation with lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) improved eating disorder psychopathology and weight loss, but not binge-eating outcome. Web-based self-help treatment reduced binge eating, eating disorder psychopathology, and impairment. Sequential designs suggested LDX and naltrexone/bupropion as maintenance options for responders, with CBT beneficial for nonresponders. Brain-based interventions showed initial evidence. Exploratory pharmacotherapy with nivasorexant was ineffective. No RCTs targeted youth.

Summary: Recent RCTs support digital CBT-based self-help treatment for improving psychological symptoms, and augmentation of CBT with LDX for improving psychopathology and weight loss in BED. Sequential designs suggest CBT's role for nonresponders to behavioral and/or pharmacological weight loss treatment, while for responders continued medication may be helpful. Brain-directed treatments need further validation. Future research should elucidate mechanisms and short-term and/or long-term efficacy, and overcome the lack of evidence in younger populations.

Purpose of review: Difficulties in emotion regulation are increasingly recognized as a transdiagnostic mechanism across the spectrum of feeding and eating disorders. In this article, we aim to provide an update on the latest contributions and research trends in the field of emotion regulation and eating psychopathology, in order to reflect on future research directions and implications for treatment.

Recent findings: Emerging research highlights the relevance of considering process-based and context-sensitive models of emotion regulation in the field of eating disorders. While neuroimaging, neurochemical, genetics, and gut-brain axis research shows promise for refining precision treatment, ecological momentary assessment and network analysis studies may be instrumental in the integration of interdisciplinary correlates of emotion regulation and eating psychopathology. Technologically-enhanced interventions including immersive virtual reality, mobile health, artificial intelligence, and serious games, hold potential for targeting difficulties in emotion regulation in individuals diagnosed with an eating disorder.

Conclusions: Interdisciplinary research that integrates genetic, biological, psychological, and environmental correlates is crucial to enhance precision medicine targeting emotion regulation-focused prevention and treatment of disordered eating symptomatology. Sustainable funding and prospective research are required to attain the full potential of evidence-based and data-driven care for those in need.

Purpose of review: The review synthesizes existing literature on the prevalence, assessment, and treatment of dissociation, focusing on its manifestation in eating disorders. The review explores various conceptualizations of dissociation, its relationship with trauma, and its role in emotion regulation.

Recent findings: Dissociation is a complex psychological process ranging from mild detachment to severe identity fragmentation. Everyday experiences like daydreaming or losing track of time are common examples of dissociation. More severe dissociative experiences are present in dissociative disorders, trauma-related stress disorders, and borderline personality disorder. In eating disorders, dissociation serves as a coping mechanism for managing intense emotions that can originate from traumatic and nontraumatic events. Recent studies highlight the role of dissociative experiences in emotion regulation, its association with functional seizures, and its link to night eating. Psychoeducation offers a promising way to address trauma-related dissociation and challenges with emotion regulation. Incorporating eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and other trauma-focused therapies into eating disorder treatment can also help reduce trauma-related dissociative symptoms in individuals with eating disorders.

Summary: This review underscores the multifaceted nature of dissociation and its role in eating disorders. It highlights the need for further research into effective treatments for people with eating disorders.