Current Psychiatry Reports最新文献

Purpose of the review: The conventional approaches for diagnosing and monitoring major depressive disorder such as clinical interviews, structured assessments, and self-reporting scales. Moreover, it relies heavily on patient self-disclosure, clinician judgment, and observational data, which can lead to subjectivity and recall bias. These approaches are unable to capture the real-time dynamics of symptoms. This review aims to synthesise the current state of digital biomarkers, critically examine their clinical relevance, real-world applicability and alignment with DSM-5-TR symptoms and RDoC constructs.

Recent findings: In our review, we found that passive digital biomarkers, including activity and mobility patterns, location diversity, sleep-wake variables, speech and language features, communication behaviour, and cognitive-motor posters, had meaningful correlations with core domains of depression symptoms such as anhedonia, psychomotor disturbance, sleep dysregulation, cognitive impairment and social withdrawal. This review highlights the importance of combining DSM-5-TR symptomatology with RDoC psychological systems to improve the interpretability, standardisation, and translatability of digital phenotyping into clinical practice. Moving forward, digital psychiatry will need to focus on construct-level alignment, multimodal integration, and implementation in consultation, taking into account the feedback of clinicians, to assist in delivering an individual, sensitive, and holistic way of taking care of people with depression in various healthcare contexts.

Purpose of review: Schema therapy is an evidence-based treatment for personality disorders (PDs), with 'schema modes' being a core theoretical and clinical concept. Despite their centrality, empirical research into the mechanisms of schema mode activation remains limited. This paper reviews the available research on schema mode activation and provides methodological guidelines and a research agenda to stimulate experimental research on schema modes.

Recent findings: We identified five published studies that experimentally induced schema modes using a variety of procedures (e.g., stress interviews, film clips, and art/drama therapy), showing diverse but generally significant effects on mode activation. Their findings underscore the need for validated and replicable experimental paradigms, as effects were highly dependent on sample characteristics, procedure-specific variability, and discrepancies between therapist- and patient ratings of schema mode activation. Building on insights from emotion induction research, we propose two procedures for experimental schema mode induction: guided autobiographical recall/scripted imagery and stimulus-based experimental triggers. We outline best practices, challenges, and recommendations for designing and validating such procedures. A future research agenda is presented, focusing on identifying conditions that activate schema modes and examining their effects on information processing and behavior. By developing validated experimental tools and adopting open science practices, we aim to stimulate further experimental research to empirically test schema therapy's theoretical premises and clarify the role of schema modes in PDs.

Purpose of review: This study uses a phenomenological approach to explore how university students perceive and experience "brain rot," a digital-age phenomenon marked by cognitive decline, attention deficits, and emotional desensitization from prolonged exposure to low-quality digital content.

Recent findings: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 university students selected through maximum variation sampling, and data were analyzed using Moustakas' phenomenological method. Findings showed that students associated brain rot with reduced productivity, poor concentration, and impaired decision-making. They reported that low-quality digital content harmed academic performance, caused social isolation, and evoked inadequacy, while coping through self-regulation strategies such as exercise, digital detox, and mindfulness. Ultimately, this study provides the first qualitative evidence of how university students experience brain rot as a result of exposure to low-quality digital content and offers a unique and in-depth conceptual framework regarding its impact on individual and academic life in the digital era.

Purpose of review: A number of sex differences have been reported in people with schizophrenia in terms of epidemiological data and clinical and social needs.

Recent findings: This review examines recent evidence on sex differences in clinical outcomes, medical comorbidities and social risk factors in schizophrenia. Sex-specific personality traits and the effects of childhood maltreatment are relevant in schizophrenia. Insomnia is more common in women and is associated with depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment. Differences in antipsychotic dose requirements, risk of hospitalization and adverse events between men and women with schizophrenia have been reported and vary with age. The association between negative symptoms and 10-year cardiovascular risk are more common in men. Hyperglycaemia and dyslipidaemia are potential targets for sex stratification in the treatment of schizophrenia. Living without a spouse is associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, which is higher in men than in women. Loneliness and social isolation are positively associated with clinical symptoms in men. The mental, physical and social needs of men and women with schizophrenia differ. This should be recognised when planning sex-specific programmes for psychosis.

Purpose: Eating disorders and subthreshold symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum pose significant risks for maternal and child health. This review synthesizes recent findings (2020-2025) on epidemiology, assessment, and intervention to inform clinical care and research.

Recent findings: Eating disorders affect approximately 4% of pregnant individuals and over 9% of postpartum individuals. Subthreshold symptoms, particularly loss of control eating, are highly prevalent across both periods. Risk factors include maladaptive attitudes and worries related to pregnancy and motherhood and body comparison. Assessment tools adapted for pregnancy show promise, but no validated postpartum measures exist. Intervention research is sparse; two ongoing trials-an acceptance-based food craving intervention to reduce loss of control eating and an adapted Body Project to improve body image and prevent disordered eating-illustrate efforts to tailor evidence-based approaches for pregnancy. Pregnancy and postpartum present opportunities for prevention and treatment of eating disorders, but additional research is needed.

Purpose of review: This review examines the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in psychiatry in the past 5 years across four domains: screening; outcome prediction; risk and relapse prediction; and psychotherapy.

Recent findings: Machine learning models applied to questionnaires, electronic health records, neuroimaging, and digital phenotyping data demonstrate promising results for predicting symptom trajectories, relapse risk and treatment response, but external and clinical validation is rare. Randomized controlled trials provide some evidence for AI-enabled clinical decision support, but only preliminary evidence for chatbot-delivered psychotherapy. Some preliminary evidence for chatbots in screening exists. Ethical risks, including automation bias, model opacity and socioemotional harms, complicate integration into practice. Current evidence only supports AI's role as a complement to clinical expertise. To realize safe integration of AI into clinical practice, future work should focus on prospective, multi-site trials with active comparators, external validation across diverse populations, transparent reporting, and governance frameworks that prioritize explainability, oversight, and equity.

Purpose of review: This review examines recent evidence for the effectiveness of telehealth in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), alcohol use disorder, and insomnia in military veterans and active-duty service members (ADSMs).

Recent findings: Recent randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies provide strong evidence that synchronous video-teleconference based therapy is effective for PTSD, MDD, and insomnia in this population. There is growing evidence for the effectiveness of internet-based self-guided therapy, particularly when combined with coaching support provided by telemedicine, for symptoms of PTSD, MDD, and insomnia. The effectiveness of telehealth in the treatment of alcohol use disorders is less well-supported, as is the effectiveness of mobile applications. These findings are supported by the team's analysis of the literature as well as an analysis provided by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform. The current evidence supports the use of synchronous video-teleconference and internet-based self-guided therapy with coaching support in the treatment of several common diagnoses in the military veteran and ADSM populations. Other modalities of telehealth require further research.

Human and animal rights: This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Purpose of review: The purpose of this review is to synthesize recent advancements over the last four years in eating disorder prevention and early intervention research.

Recent findings: Our comprehensive review identified over 140 prevention and early intervention articles published from 2021 to 2024, with themes focused on specific intervention strategies or targets (e.g., dissonance, mindfulness, weight stigma), targeted populations (e.g., adolescents/school-based programs, athletes), digital-based interventions, system-level interventions, and early interventions. The eating disorder prevention and early intervention literature has expanded over the last several years. Based on the current state of the evidence, we outline future directions to help inform the field and continue movement towards accessible and inclusive eating disorder prevention.

Purpose: This critical review examines literature published between January 2020 and January 2025, focusing on overlapping pain-related factors during and after childbirth (e.g., pain experiences and management). These factors may increase vulnerability to postpartum depression, especially among racial and ethnic minorities.

Recent findings: The findings from the 23 studies reviewed indicate that several factors contribute to peripartum pain experienced by individuals giving birth. Factors influencing the birthing person's pain experiences include their mental health during pregnancy (such as depression and anxiety), delivery method (especially cesarean), pain management practices, discrimination toward racial and ethnic minorities, and overall neglect of pain. Additionally, healthcare providers' beliefs about pain management play a role in postpartum pain experiences. Individuals with a history of depression or anxiety often experience more severe postpartum pain. Mode of delivery is an important factor, as cesarean deliveries are associated with more severe pain than vaginal deliveries. However, intrapartum experiences and pain management significantly influence pain ratings. Analgesics during and after labor may buffer postpartum pain, but not always. Additionally, pain relief medications for patients with opioid use disorders can impact postpartum pain management. While healthcare providers rely on clinical assessments and patient-centered approaches to inform postpartum pain management, data from racial and ethnic minorities revealed that healthcare professionals often fail to recognize these patients' pain. This underscores the disparities in perspectives and experiences among patients. Post-childbirth pain experiences and their management strategies may increase the risk of postpartum depression, highlighting the necessity for researchers and practitioners to consider them.

Purpose of review: To investigate the prevalence of self-reported diagnoses of ADHD among U.S. post-secondary students.

Recent findings: We identified fifteen empirical studies published in academic journals between 2008 and 2023 that reported ADHD prevalence estimates. These studies had variability in samples and methods and produced a wide range of prevalence estimates-3.4% to 11.2%-and an overall prevalence estimate of 9.1%. We supplemented the academic literature with data from two multi-institutional, annual surveys-the Healthy Minds Study and National College Health Assessment (NCHA III/IIIb). Their prevalence estimates for the 2024-2025 academic year were 14% and 15%, respectively, which reflected significant increases from their 2019-2020 estimates of 4% and 8%. Estimates for the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses vary by data source and method. Multi-institutional, annual surveys suggest an increase in prevalence in recent years. These data might warrant the strengthening of ADHD services provided by campus clinics.