Heather R. Johnson

Researchers investigated the value of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) as a screening tool for suicide risk as well as major depressive disorder for adolescents.

Researchers investigated whether preteens who don’t get 9 hours of sleep per night are more likely to experience depression, thought problems, and other neurocognitive issues.

A group of researchers explored whether individuals who experienced ongoing discrimination had a higher risk for depression.

Compared with its use for chronic pain, reliable evidence to support the use of cannabis to treat anxiety is lacking and available data are “conflicting.” To bring clarity to the issue, researchers conducted a retrospective database study of Canadian medical cannabis patients.

The researchers compared depression and anxiety scores before and during the pandemic.

The study authors searched several databases to find correlations between tobacco smoking and COVID-19 during the pre-vaccination phase of the pandemic.

A review on the impact of buprenorphine on social determinants of health was recently published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

The researchers analyzed past-year medication for opioid use disorder in individuals diagnosed with opioid use disorder who received some type of treatment.

As households worldwide sheltered in place during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, children aged 12 experienced a range of sleep disturbances. Researchers of this study conducted a systematic review of these issues.

To learn more about the biological underpinnings of peripartum depression, researchers looked at the kynurenine pathway, an enzymatic pathway highly expressed in placenta as increased pathway activity may affect serotonin levels.

A study from the 1990s showed adverse childhood experiences contributed to illicit drug and alcohol use. A more recent study showed adults between age 18 and 25 had the highest rate of opioid misuse compared with teens and adults aged 26 and older. The researchers in the current study wanted to explore the connection between “early life risk exposures” and opioid use among university students.

Between May 2020 and April 2021, the estimated number of fatal overdoses exceeded 100,000 for the first time. Most of those deaths can be linked to illicitly manufactured fentanyls, including both fentanyl and illicit fentanyl analogs.

Biomarker research has revealed a connection between systemic inflammation and depression.

Individuals with co-occurring AUD and depression often receive treatment for one or the other disease. Little evidence exists on whether this type of intervention is effective.

A team of investigators conducted a cross-sectional study to explore the association between an increased pain threshold and risk of self-harm in youth.

A Danish study compared the rate of new-onset mental disorders among people diagnosed with Lyme disease vs the rate in people without Lyme disease.

The researchers examined this question: Does a tendency toward sleeping and waking earlier have a potential causal role in reducing the risk of major depressive disorder?

The researchers’ goal was to determine the effectiveness of a text message program vs only assessment for vaping cessation among young adults.

Previous research has demonstrated relationships between stress, work performance, and emotional intelligence. The researchers in the current study sought to test that relationship in the context of the pandemic.

The researchers combined virtual reality with Approach Bias Modification to determine if this would improve smokers’ motivation to quit smoking and reduce the number of dropouts from smoking cessation programs.

The researchers examined data for individuals age 12 to 25 from national surveys on drug use and looked at initiation dates, use in the past 12 months, lifetime use, and diagnosed substance use disorders.

While past research has found that young smokers are more likely to attempt to quit smoking, findings regarding age and success of quitting is conflicted. This study examines the degree to which smoker age is related to making quit attempts and quit success.