Npj mental health research最新文献

Increasing numbers of neurodivergent students are engaging in higher education; however, support approaches vary within different institutions. Sometimes there are long waiting lists for specialised support, and most focus on academic adjustments, such as providing extra time in an assessment, rather than mental health and wellbeing. A systematic review, pre-registered on Prospero (CRD42024597980), was conducted to provide an overview of interventions supporting mental health and wellbeing of neurodivergent students in higher education. Ovid, Web of Science, and ERIC databases were searched in May 2025. Studies were included where the intervention aimed to improve mental health and/or wellbeing or improve the student experience, and the focus was on whether any strength-based approaches were used. Thirty-seven studies are included, conducted in seven countries. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to assess the quality of included papers. Interventions varied widely and included: coaching, cognitive behavioural therapy, self-help, peer support, psychotherapy, counselling, mentoring, mindfulness, and neuro/bio feedback. The narrative synthesis demonstrates little evidence of strength-based approaches and found that neurodivergent students were rarely involved in designing the interventions. Most commonly, studies focused on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (17 studies) or Autism (14 studies), with few interventions considering co-occurrence or other neurotypes.

Digital phenotyping promises to transform psychiatry by using multimodal, densely sampled data. However, its potential is hindered by the lack of focus on identifying and validating digital biomarkers that accurately reflect mental states before evaluating their impact on outcomes. This longitudinal study used explainable machine learning to analyze multivariate, densely sampled data from 133 bipolar disorder (BD) participants over a median of 251 days, identifying robust digital biomarkers defining depressive episodes. The analysis included features from email-based daily self-reported mood, energy, and anxiety, as well as passively collected activity and sleep data using an Oura ring. The most robust descriptors of depressive episodes were lower daily mood variability, lower daily activity variability, and higher daily sleep onset latency variability. Self-reported daily mood features achieved the highest performance (AU-ROC: 0.82 ± 0.03). Our results establish the value of multimodal data and represent a critical first step toward automated detection and prediction of illness episodes in BD.

Loneliness and social (dis)connectedness are significant public health concerns, particularly among university students. Despite calls to reconceptualise loneliness as a systemic issue, interventions typically target individual students. This series of studies used a sequential mixed-methods and participatory action approach to explore students' social experiences and co-design a digital health solution. Focus groups (Study One) and a survey (Study Two) revealed that students see universities as partly responsible for their social connectedness, with perceptions of campus space being key. These insights informed the co-design of MAPP (Study Three), a preventative, system-focused digital solution. MAPP is an interactive campus map that visualises the university's living social network. It increases the visibility and accessibility of the university community to foster belonging, scaffold social engagement, and support institutional inclusivity. By shifting focus from the lonely student to the university as a social system, MAPP offers a novel, holistic response to student loneliness.

Mental health is sometimes understood as merely the absence of mental illness and sometimes more expansively as inclusive of a broader and more complete mental well-being. We present conceptual, empirical, and causal evidence for a distinction between the absence of mental illness and positive mental well-being. We discuss the implications for assessment, national tracking, research, policy, and mental healthcare. We argue for a greater clinical, policy, and public health attentiveness to positive mental well-being, to supplement work already being done on the treatment and prevention of mental illness.

Transitioning service members (TSMs) leaving military service have high risks of unemployment, homelessness, nonfatal suicide attempt (SA), and suicide death. Data from n = 7188 recently separated TSMs from the U.S. Army were used to update previously developed models for post-separation homelessness and SA based on data at the time of separation and to develop a new unemployment model. Predicted probabilities of suicide from a model developed elsewhere were imputed for comparison purposes. Cross-validated predictions were significant for the homelessness (AU-ROC = 0.68) and SA (AU-ROC = 0.78) models but not the unemployment model (AU-ROC = 0.60). Elevated cross-validated risk was found for the 10% of TSMs at the highest predicted risk of homelessness (SN = 26.6%), 20% for SA (SN = 60.9%), and 10% for suicide death (SN = 34.1%). 28% of TSMs were in the highest risk categories for at least one and 10% for more than one outcome. Findings regarding incomplete overlap highlight the complexities of risk targeting when multiple outcomes are of interest.

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are recognised as effective psychosocial strategies for managing stress. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published up to August 2025 across the Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, EBSCO and Google Scholar following the PRISMA guidelines. Seventeen randomised controlled trials (n = 1,641) met the inclusion criteria. Baseline stress did not differ between MBI and control groups (SMD = 0.15, 95% CI = -0.07 to 0.36, p = 0.18). Post-intervention, MBIs were associated with significantly lower perceived stress (SMD = -0.53, 95% CI = -0.72 to -0.33, p < 0.00001). Within-group analyses indicated substantial reductions among MBI participants (SMD = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.62 to 1.23, p < 0.00001), whereas controls showed only marginal changes (SMD = 0.23, 95% CI = 0.00 to 0.46, p = 0.05). Subgroup analyses confirmed effectiveness across regions and delivery modalities, with larger effects observed in indirect interventions (SMD = -0.676, p < 0.001). Meta-regression found no significant moderators, and sensitivity analyses demonstrated robustness with minimal publication bias. Collectively, these results support MBIs as effective and scalable strategies for reducing perceived stress in non-clinical adults, highlighting the need for further evaluation of their effects on physiological stress markers.

Magnesium-ibogaine, a formulation combining ibogaine with pre- and post-treatment magnesium, was recently found to yield rapid clinical improvements in U.S. Special Operations veterans with TBI and PTSD. Yet, its therapeutic phenomenology during such healing is unknown. We analyzed post-session narratives from 30 male veterans who, after a single open-label magnesium-ibogaine treatment, answered three open-ended questions. A constructivist grounded-theory approach identified four recurrent experiential domains: dialogic trauma re-appraisal marked by guided replay of autobiographical memories; altered-self and mystical connectedness; emotional resolution with surges of forgiveness, love, and renewed purpose; and embodied healing, a vivid sense of neural repair accompanied by cognitive clarity and somatic relief. Together, these themes portray an accelerated, self-directed psychotherapeutic process that dovetails with previously reported improvements in this same cohort, suggesting mind-body mechanisms involving rapid neuroplastic change and highlighting its potential to inform novel approaches to trauma and TBI.

Limited evidence exists on the association between high temperature and mental health in younger age group. We conducted a systematic search on PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL Plus and PsycInfo and reviewed studies that explore the associations of heat exposure with mental health and suicide among children and adolescents ( ≤24 years). Twenty-eight observational studies published over 2007-2025 were included for systematic review. Exposure to high temperature was associated with 13% (95% confidence intervals: 1.08 to 1.19; n = 720,512) higher risk of hospital visits or hospitalizations for mental health disorders, 14% (1.01 to 1.28; n = 529,654) higher risk for schizophrenia, 18% (1.03 to 1.34; n = 146,046) higher risk for depression, and 12% (1.06 to 1.18; n = 1,188,501) higher risk for composite mental health illnesses, relative to low temperature. Each 1 °C increment in temperature was associated with 1.0% (1.00 to 1.02; n = 30,749) higher risk of suicide. Findings suggest the need for early life interventions and evidence-based adaptation policies for preventing against climate-induced mental illnesses and suicide. Optimizing policies will be important for high- and upper-middle-income countries, while more scientific evidence from lower-income economies are warranted.

Psychedelic substances are increasingly recognized for their potential to catalyse transformative shifts in worldviews. Central to these transformations may be the integration of self-transcendent states. This mixed-methods study explored transformative psychedelic experiences, focussing on subsequent epistemic shifts. Ninety participants completed the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S), and the Inclusion of Other in Self Scale (IOS) and open-ended questions exploring epistemic changes. The vastness and connectedness components of awe recalled from the acute psychedelic experience were significantly positively associated with perceived self-other overlap post-experience. Thematic Network Analysis revealed three epistemic shift clusters: (1) expanded awareness and openness to complexity, (2) dissolution of societal and natural boundaries, (3) increased prosociality, compassion and acceptance of difference. Together, these patterns suggest that boundary-expanding experiences can promote reflective meaning-making towards more holistic, interconnected frameworks of understanding self, others, and the world. We discuss the potential of psychedelic experiences to foster prosocial and ecologically aware worldviews, and highlight the need for further research to identify culturally attuned resources for supporting the integration of transformative psychedelic experiences.

Substance use disorder (SUD) is characterized by behaviors of impaired control, physical dependence, social impairments, and risky use, regardless of the substance used-yet no prior work has predicted these behaviors directly. This study of 3476 adults used 15 judgment variables, derived from a picture rating task, with contextual variables to predict the SUD-defining behaviors, recency of four categories of substances being used, and SUD severity. This study achieved up to 83% accuracy and 0.74 AUC ROC for SUD behavior and moderate-high prediction for substance use with a balanced random forest approach, and 84% accuracy for predicting SUD severity. Judgment variable profiles revealed that participants with higher SUD severity are more risk-seeking, less resilient to losses, have more approach behavior, and have less variance in preference. This study argues that distinct constellations of 15 judgment variables yield a scalable system for addiction assessment, which can support research across a broad range of addictions.