mental disorder related research topics

Research Topics & Ideas: Mental Health

100+ Mental Health Research Topic Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

If you’re just starting out exploring mental health topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research topic ideation process by providing a hearty list of mental health-related research topics and ideas.

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . To develop a suitable education-related research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Mental Health Topic Ideas

Mood disorders
Anxiety disorders
Psychotic disorders
Personality disorders
Obsessive-compulsive disorders
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Neurodevelopmental disorders
Eating disorders
Substance-related disorders

Mood Disorders

Research in mood disorders can help understand their causes and improve treatment methods. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

The impact of genetics on the susceptibility to depression
Efficacy of antidepressants vs. cognitive behavioural therapy
The role of gut microbiota in mood regulation
Cultural variations in the experience and diagnosis of bipolar disorder
Seasonal Affective Disorder: Environmental factors and treatment
The link between depression and chronic illnesses
Exercise as an adjunct treatment for mood disorders
Hormonal changes and mood swings in postpartum women
Stigma around mood disorders in the workplace
Suicidal tendencies among patients with severe mood disorders

Anxiety Disorders

Research topics in this category can potentially explore the triggers, coping mechanisms, or treatment efficacy for anxiety disorders.

The relationship between social media and anxiety
Exposure therapy effectiveness in treating phobias
Generalised Anxiety Disorder in children: Early signs and interventions
The role of mindfulness in treating anxiety
Genetics and heritability of anxiety disorders
The link between anxiety disorders and heart disease
Anxiety prevalence in LGBTQ+ communities
Caffeine consumption and its impact on anxiety levels
The economic cost of untreated anxiety disorders
Virtual Reality as a treatment method for anxiety disorders

Psychotic Disorders

Within this space, your research topic could potentially aim to investigate the underlying factors and treatment possibilities for psychotic disorders.

Early signs and interventions in adolescent psychosis
Brain imaging techniques for diagnosing psychotic disorders
The efficacy of antipsychotic medication
The role of family history in psychotic disorders
Misdiagnosis and delayed treatment of psychotic disorders
Co-morbidity of psychotic and mood disorders
The relationship between substance abuse and psychotic disorders
Art therapy as a treatment for schizophrenia
Public perception and stigma around psychotic disorders
Hospital vs. community-based care for psychotic disorders

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Personality Disorders

Research topics within in this area could delve into the identification, management, and social implications of personality disorders.

Long-term outcomes of borderline personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder and criminal behaviour
The role of early life experiences in developing personality disorders
Narcissistic personality disorder in corporate leaders
Gender differences in personality disorders
Diagnosis challenges for Cluster A personality disorders
Emotional intelligence and its role in treating personality disorders
Psychotherapy methods for treating personality disorders
Personality disorders in the elderly population
Stigma and misconceptions about personality disorders

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Within this space, research topics could focus on the causes, symptoms, or treatment of disorders like OCD and hoarding.

OCD and its relationship with anxiety disorders
Cognitive mechanisms behind hoarding behaviour
Deep Brain Stimulation as a treatment for severe OCD
The impact of OCD on academic performance in students
Role of family and social networks in treating OCD
Alternative treatments for hoarding disorder
Childhood onset OCD: Diagnosis and treatment
OCD and religious obsessions
The impact of OCD on family dynamics
Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Causes and treatment

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Research topics in this area could explore the triggers, symptoms, and treatments for PTSD. Here are some thought starters to get you moving.

PTSD in military veterans: Coping mechanisms and treatment
Childhood trauma and adult onset PTSD
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) efficacy
Role of emotional support animals in treating PTSD
Gender differences in PTSD occurrence and treatment
Effectiveness of group therapy for PTSD patients
PTSD and substance abuse: A dual diagnosis
First responders and rates of PTSD
Domestic violence as a cause of PTSD
The neurobiology of PTSD

Free Webinar: How To Find A Dissertation Research Topic

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

This category of mental health aims to better understand disorders like Autism and ADHD and their impact on day-to-day life.

Early diagnosis and interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder
ADHD medication and its impact on academic performance
Parental coping strategies for children with neurodevelopmental disorders
Autism and gender: Diagnosis disparities
The role of diet in managing ADHD symptoms
Neurodevelopmental disorders in the criminal justice system
Genetic factors influencing Autism
ADHD and its relationship with sleep disorders
Educational adaptations for children with neurodevelopmental disorders
Neurodevelopmental disorders and stigma in schools

Eating Disorders

Research topics within this space can explore the psychological, social, and biological aspects of eating disorders.

The role of social media in promoting eating disorders
Family dynamics and their impact on anorexia
Biological basis of binge-eating disorder
Treatment outcomes for bulimia nervosa
Eating disorders in athletes
Media portrayal of body image and its impact
Eating disorders and gender: Are men underdiagnosed?
Cultural variations in eating disorders
The relationship between obesity and eating disorders
Eating disorders in the LGBTQ+ community

Substance-Related Disorders

Research topics in this category can focus on addiction mechanisms, treatment options, and social implications.

Efficacy of rehabilitation centres for alcohol addiction
The role of genetics in substance abuse
Substance abuse and its impact on family dynamics
Prescription drug abuse among the elderly
Legalisation of marijuana and its impact on substance abuse rates
Alcoholism and its relationship with liver diseases
Opioid crisis: Causes and solutions
Substance abuse education in schools: Is it effective?
Harm reduction strategies for drug abuse
Co-occurring mental health disorders in substance abusers

Choosing A Research Topic

These research topic ideas we’ve covered here serve as thought starters to help you explore different areas within mental health. They are intentionally very broad and open-ended. By engaging with the currently literature in your field of interest, you’ll be able to narrow down your focus to a specific research gap .

It’s important to consider a variety of factors when choosing a topic for your dissertation or thesis . Think about the relevance of the topic, its feasibility , and the resources available to you, including time, data, and academic guidance. Also, consider your own interest and expertise in the subject, as this will sustain you through the research process.

Always consult with your academic advisor to ensure that your chosen topic aligns with academic requirements and offers a meaningful contribution to the field. If you need help choosing a topic, consider our private coaching service.

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Public health-related research topics and ideas

Good morning everyone. This are very patent topics for research in neuroscience. Thank you for guidance

What if everything is important, original and intresting? as in Neuroscience. I find myself overwhelmd with tens of relveant areas and within each area many optional topics. I ask myself if importance (for example – able to treat people suffering) is more relevant than what intrest me, and on the other hand if what advance me further in my career should not also be a consideration?

This information is really helpful and have learnt alot

Phd research topics on implementation of mental health policy in Nigeria :the prospects, challenges and way forward.

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141+ Most Amazing Mental Disorder Research Topics – Amazing Guide!

Mental health issues are very important, puzzling, and not always properly understood. Mental sicknesses include many conditions that affect how a person thinks, feels, acts, and handles everyday duties.

Things like worry problems, sadness problems, thought problems and mood swings problems bother millions of people all over the world.

Working on research about mental sicknesses is super important to better understanding them, improving our ability to spot them, creating better cures, and ultimately helping make life better for those struggling with these challenges.

In this huge guide, we have over 141 fascinating mental sickness research topic ideas for you to check out. These cover all parts of this wide area, giving you many chances to learn, examine, and add new knowledge.

Importance of Research Topics in Mental Disorders

Table of Contents

Working on research about mental sicknesses is extremely important for many reasons:

It helps us better grasp these puzzling conditions and their root causes. The more we understand what causes mental sicknesses, the better we can work on stopping them.
Research topics in this area allow smart people to explore new and better treatment methods. Many mental health issues still don’t have really good cures or therapies.

Ongoing research is crucial for:

Testing new medicines
Developing new ways to help through therapy
Finding improved support methods that could vastly improve results
Mental sickness research also sheds light on the following:
The impacts on society from these conditions
The negative labels surrounding mental disorders
By studying personal stories, views across cultures, and struggles faced, we can work towards more awareness, understanding, and inclusion.
Furthermore, research increases our knowledge about biological, mental, and environmental factors . This deeper understanding helps spot conditions earlier.

Ultimately, every mental sickness research topic looked into has the potential to uncover ideas that could transform mental healthcare, improve millions of lives, and create a more caring, supportive society around these issues.

Recommended Readings: “ Top 110+ Amazing Brainstorming Research Topics For College Students “.

Scope of Mental Disorder Research

The scope of mental sickness research is incredibly big and far-reaching. It covers many different areas and aspects related to these conditions. Some of the major scopes include:

Causes and Risk Stuff – Research potential gene, body, environment, and mind causes that may increase the risk of developing a mental sickness.
Spotting and Testing – Exploring better methods for accurately identifying mental health issues through evaluations, tests, screening tools, etc.
Treatment Making – A huge area of research surrounds creating and testing new treatments. This includes:
New medicines and therapies
Analyzing if existing treatments work well
Developing specialized treatments for specific groups
Management and Coping – Studying techniques and strategies that help individuals better manage and cope with mental sicknesses in their daily lives.
Brain Processes – Using advanced imaging and research methods to understand how the brain and neurological functions are impacted.
Social and Culture Factors – Examining how money status, culture, negative labels, and support systems influence mental sickness prevalence and experiences.
Special Groups – Focused research on how mental sicknesses present and progress in specific groups like kids, the elderly, minority populations, etc.
Prevention Strategies – Exploring ways to stop the development or relapse of mental health issues through early intervention, education, policy changes, and more.

The possibilities for mental sickness research are endless as we continually aim to grow our collective understanding.

Top 141+ Mental Disorder Research Topics

Here is the list of 141+ mental disorder research topics according to different categories; let’s look.

Brain Development Disorders

Autism and genes that affect it.
Attention problems and hyperactivity in kids.
Learning problems in school and how to help.
Communication issues and how to improve them.
Motor skill problems and ways to get better.
How our brains work in mental health challenges.

Schizophrenia and Confusion Disorders

Brain scans for understanding schizophrenia.
Helping people who are confused for the first time.
Schizophrenia and problems with drugs.
Brain games to help people with schizophrenia.
Confusion problems in teenagers and how to help.

Mood Troubles

The science behind feeling sad.
Bipolar problems and finding the right help.
Feeling down in certain seasons.
Feeling very sad after having a baby.
Long-lasting sadness and how to cope.

Anxiety Issues

Feeling worried all the time about kids.
Panic attacks and ways to feel better.
Being very shy and ways to be more comfortable.
Repeating actions a lot and how to stop.
Feeling scared after something bad happens.

Personality Differences

Feeling lots of different emotions all at once.
Thinking you are very important and ways to feel better.
Doing things that hurt others and how to change.
Being very shy and how to get better.
Acting in a way that’s attention-seeking.

Eating Problems

Being very thin and ways to get better.
Eating a lot and then getting rid of it.
Eating a lot and not being able to stop.
Be very careful about what you eat.
Eating things that are not food.

Memory and Thinking Problems

Losing memory and ways to find out early.
Problems with blood vessels in the brain.
Memory problems with hallucinations.
Thinking problems with brain damage.
Memory problems that might turn into bigger problems.

Substance and Habit Problems

Problems with pain medicine and ways to stay safe.
Drinking too much and how to stop.
Using too much marijuana and how it affects your brain.
Using drugs that make you feel more awake.
Betting money and ways to stop.

Sleep and Wake Problems

Not being able to sleep well and how to fix it.
Falling asleep without wanting to.
Not breathing well during sleep.
Moving a lot during sleep.
Problems with sleeping at the right times.

Separation Problems

Having different parts inside you.
Feeling like you are not yourself.
Forgetting big parts of your life.
Acting like you don’t know who you are.
Suddenly leaving and not remembering why.

Gender Identity and Love Issues

Feeling like a different gender when you are young.
Doing things that are not usual and ways to help.
Having problems with love and what can help.
Wanting to do things too much and ways to help.
Problems in relationships and how to feel better.

Trauma and Stress Issues

Feeling upset and not being able to stop.
Feeling scared right after something bad happens.
Having problems after something bad happens.
Not being able to connect with others.
Not being able to connect with others differently.

Repeating Actions and Related Issues

Collecting too many things and ways to stop.
Worrying too much about how you look.
Pulling hair out and how to stop.
Picking at your skin and how to stop.
Doing things over and over and how to help.

Body Problems

Feeling physical pain without a cause.
Worrying a lot about being sick.
Acting like you are sick, but you are not.
Making yourself sick on purpose.
Having different body problems.

Closing Up

Mental Disorders greatly affect millions of lives worldwide, yet they remain widely ununderstood and looked down on in many societies . By exploring the huge list of 141+ mind sickness research topic ideas presented in this guide, smart workers, students, and health helpers have many chances to dive deeper into this crucial area.

From examining the puzzling mix of genes and surrounding factors to making new ways to treat and break down society’s walls, each topic holds the potential for ground-breaking findings. As we keep shining a light on the real-life of mental health troubles, we get closer to a future where those struggling receive the kindness, support, and working cures they deserve.

Remember, every new insight gained, every guess tested, and every wall broken brings us one step closer to a world where mind well-being is prioritized and celebrated. The journey may be hard, but the impact of mind sickness research is massive.

What are some promising areas for future research in mental disorders?

Promising areas for future research in mental disorders include investigating the role of genetics and epigenetics in susceptibility to various conditions, exploring novel therapeutic approaches such as neurostimulation and psychedelic-assisted therapy, and advancing our understanding of the gut-brain axis and its implications for mental health.

How do researchers address ethical considerations in mental disorder research?

Researchers address ethical considerations in mental disorder research by obtaining informed consent from participants, ensuring confidentiality and privacy, minimizing potential risks, and adhering to ethical guidelines and regulations set forth by institutional review boards and professional organizations.

What role do technological advancements play in understanding mental health?

Technological advancements play a significant role in understanding mental health by providing new tools and methods for diagnosis, treatment, and research. Technologies such as neuroimaging, wearable devices, mobile applications, and virtual reality enable researchers and clinicians to monitor symptoms, track progress, and deliver interventions remotely.

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60 popular mental health research paper topics.

The best way to write a good mental health research paper is to select a topic that you will enjoy working on. If you are looking for some interesting mental health research paper topics to work on, here is a list of 60 ideas to choose from.

Perfect for students as well as experts these topics have ample scope to experiment, share ideas and arguments on, and find substantial evidence to support your view. Take a look –

Mental Health Topics for Research Paper

When you are writing a paper for a graded assignment, it is important to have some great research paper topics about mental health to pick from. Here are some to consider –

Mental traumas from physical injuries and how to help recover
Resilience building – why is it important for children?
Friendships in men and how they contribute to mental health?
The role of parenting in building good mental health in children
What is normal emotional health and mental functioning?
Anti-depressants and their side effects.
Indicators suggesting medication for depression can be stopped
Effects of colors on mental health
How and why does lack of sleep effect emotional mental health?
Effect of exercise on a patient’s mental health
Effective methods to boost brain health and emotional quotient as we age
Mental health developmental stages in children from birth to 5 years of age
Why is play important for mental health in children
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – what causes it and how to manage?
ADHD — how to identify if someone has it?

Critical Analysis Research Paper Topics in Mental Health

For psychology students looking for effective research paper topics mental health offers many arenas for critical analysis. Here are some good topics to pick from –

Relevance of Freud in modern day psychiatry
Abortion care – the ethics and the procedures to facilitate emotional wellbeing
Are women facing more mental health issues than men?
Suicide – The reasons, trauma, and dealing with it
How does peer pressure change mental wellness and how to deal with it?
Effect of child abuse on toddlers’ mental health and resilience
Does Obesity affect mental health?
Is the damage on mental health caused by sexual abuse permanent?
Hormonal imbalances and their effect on women’s mental health
How to identify signs of mental illness in a loved one?

Music Therapy Research Paper Topics Mental Health

Music plays a significant role in enhancing mental health. Here are some mental health research paper topics on the role of music therapy in the field of mental health and treatments:

Music therapy a complimentary approach to biomedicine
Does music therapy facilitate enhanced healing?
Efficacy of music therapy for older adults
The role of music therapy in rehabilitation of mental health patients
Music based interventions and the effects of music therapy
Eating disorders and can music therapy help?
Can music therapy help with mental health during menopause?
Music therapy and its role in PTSD

Mental Health Nursing Research Paper Topics

If you are a nursing student you will certainly find these research paper topics for mental health useful for your assignment –

Psychiatric care in adult patients of mental health disorders
Non-chemical practices in bipolar disorder
Mental health care for patients dealing with alcohol addiction
Managing PTSD in armed forces veterans
Ethics to deal with psychiatric patients
Postpartum depression and how to identify and assist in early stages
Identifying the signs and managing patients with eating disorder
Mental illnesses common in soldiers returning from war
Signs of mental illness that must never be ignored
How to manage self-destructive mental health patients?

Controversial Research Paper Topics About Mental Health

Some mental health topics are controversial, but also well scoring if handled well. Take a look at some such topics worth considering –

Do natural alternatives to anti-depressants work?
Extreme postpartum depression leading to child harming tendencies
Infertility and its effects on mental health of the couple
Are more women suicidal than men?
Effect of teen relationship problems on mental health
The relationship between mental health and child abusers
Physical abuse in marriage and its effect on mental health
Rape and managing the emotional scars for effective healing
Self-destructive tendencies in children – causes and cures
Is it possible that there are people without conscience?
Are video games making children violent and aggressive?
Should criminals facing trial be subjected to genetic testing for impulse control?
Mental health in teenagers and why they cut themselves
Phobias – some of the most common and unusual fears people have
Divorce and how it affects the mental health of children
Is mental illness genetic
Does discovery of being adopted affect mental health of a child?

If you are a college student wondering what is the best way to write a research paper or how to write an effective submission that will get you good grades, you can get in touch with us for writing help. Our team offers fast and cheap assistance with writing papers that are appropriate for your level of education.

Home » 300+ Mental Health Research Topics

300+ Mental Health Research Topics

Mental health is a complex and multi-faceted topic that affects millions of people worldwide. Research into mental health has become increasingly important in recent years, as the global burden of mental illness continues to rise. From identifying risk factors and developing effective treatments, to addressing social and cultural influences, mental health research covers a broad range of topics . In this blog post, we will explore some of the most important and fascinating mental health research topics that are currently being studied by experts in the field.

Mental Health Research Topics

Mental Health Research Topics are as follows:

The impact of social media on mental health
The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for reducing stress and anxiety
The relationship between childhood trauma and adult mental health outcomes
The role of exercise in promoting mental health and well-being
The impact of COVID-19 on mental health and well-being
The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for treating depression and anxiety
The impact of sleep deprivation on mental health and cognitive functioning
The relationship between diet and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of virtual reality therapy for treating mental health disorders
The impact of workplace stress on mental health
The effectiveness of group therapy for treating mental health disorders
The relationship between substance abuse and mental health outcomes
The impact of stigma on mental health treatment-seeking behavior
The effectiveness of animal-assisted therapy for improving mental health
The impact of environmental factors on mental health outcomes
The relationship between chronic illness and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of art therapy for treating mental health disorders
The impact of cultural factors on mental health outcomes
The relationship between personality traits and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of music therapy for treating mental health disorders
The impact of trauma on memory and cognitive functioning
The relationship between socioeconomic status and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy for treating mental health disorders
The impact of social support on mental health outcomes
The relationship between perfectionism and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of exposure therapy for treating anxiety disorders
The impact of early intervention on mental health outcomes
The relationship between attachment styles and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of narrative therapy for treating mental health disorders
The impact of technology on mental health outcomes
The relationship between resilience and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of family therapy for treating mental health disorders
The impact of gender on mental health outcomes
The relationship between creativity and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy for treating borderline personality disorder
The impact of personality disorders on mental health outcomes
The relationship between trauma and addiction
The effectiveness of cognitive remediation therapy for improving cognitive functioning in individuals with mental illness
The impact of discrimination on mental health outcomes
The relationship between emotional intelligence and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of play therapy for treating mental health disorders in children
The impact of attachment trauma on relationships in adulthood
The relationship between religious or spiritual beliefs and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy for treating mental health disorders
The impact of chronic pain on mental health outcomes
The relationship between self-esteem and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) for treating trauma-related disorders
The impact of parenting style on mental health outcomes in children
The relationship between mindfulness and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of equine-assisted therapy for improving mental health.
The relationship between childhood trauma and mental illness
The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for treating anxiety disorders
The role of genetics in the development of mental illness
The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for treating depression
The impact of exercise on mental health
The prevalence and causes of burnout among healthcare professionals
The effectiveness of group therapy for treating substance abuse disorders
The impact of sleep on mental health
The relationship between trauma and dissociation
The effectiveness of virtual reality therapy for treating phobias
The relationship between gut health and mental health
The impact of stigma on seeking mental health treatment
The relationship between spirituality and mental health
The impact of adverse childhood experiences on mental health
The relationship between attachment style and mental health
The effectiveness of art therapy for treating PTSD
The impact of chronic illness on mental health
The relationship between personality traits and mental illness
The effectiveness of narrative therapy for treating depression
The relationship between social support and mental health
The effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy for treating trauma
The impact of discrimination on mental health
The relationship between parental bonding and mental health
The effectiveness of family therapy for treating eating disorders
The impact of environmental factors on mental health
The relationship between hormonal changes and mental health
The effectiveness of equine therapy for treating addiction
The impact of trauma on attachment
The relationship between exercise addiction and mental health
The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy for treating anxiety disorders
The impact of racism on mental health
The relationship between animal-assisted therapy and mental health
The effectiveness of exposure therapy for treating OCD
The impact of gender identity on mental health
The relationship between social anxiety and substance abuse
The effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy for treating relationship issues
The impact of social inequality on mental health
The relationship between spirituality and substance abuse
The effectiveness of schema therapy for treating personality disorders
The impact of peer support on mental health
The effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy for treating depression
The impact of poverty on mental health
The relationship between sleep disorders and mental health
The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for treating addiction
The impact of immigration on mental health
The relationship between self-esteem and mental health.
The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating anxiety disorders
The relationship between childhood trauma and adult mental health
The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for depression
The impact of exercise on mental health outcomes
The role of sleep disturbances in the development of psychiatric disorders
The effectiveness of pharmacological treatments for bipolar disorder
The relationship between alcohol use and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of psychotherapy in treating post-traumatic stress disorder
The impact of nutrition on mental health outcomes
The relationship between chronic pain and mental health
The effectiveness of group therapy in treating depression
The role of stigma in mental health treatment-seeking behaviors
The relationship between trauma exposure and suicidal behavior
The effectiveness of telehealth interventions for mental health care
The role of attachment styles in the development of mental illness
The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for anxiety
The impact of work-related stress on mental health
The relationship between physical activity and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of cognitive remediation in treating schizophrenia
The role of family dynamics in the development of mental illness
The relationship between childhood adversity and substance use disorders
The effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy in treating borderline personality
The effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy in treating depression
The impact of peer support groups on mental health outcomes
The role of spirituality in coping with mental illness
The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy in treating anxiety
The impact of trauma-informed care on mental health treatment outcomes
The relationship between body image and mental health
The effectiveness of art therapy in treating PTSD
The role of cognitive biases in the development of mental illness
The relationship between social isolation and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of virtual reality therapy in treating phobias
The impact of stigma on mental health among LGBTQ+ individuals
The relationship between trauma and eating disorders
The effectiveness of emotion regulation interventions in treating borderline personality disorder
The role of attachment styles in the treatment of anxiety disorders
The relationship between childhood abuse and dissociative disorders
The effectiveness of family-based interventions in treating adolescent depression
The relationship between social inequality and mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for substance use disorders
The role of cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating OCD
The relationship between emotional regulation and addiction recovery
The impact of trauma-focused therapy on PTSD symptoms in military veterans
The relationship between sleep disorders and mood disorders
The effectiveness of exercise interventions in treating depression
The role of trauma-informed care in treating substance use disorders
The relationship between trauma and personality disorders
The effectiveness of interpersonal therapy in treating depression
The impact of cultural factors on mental health treatment outcomes
The relationship between stigma and medication adherence in mental health treatment
The effectiveness of behavioral activation interventions in treating depression
The role of cognitive biases in addiction recovery
The relationship between social support and addiction recovery
The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy in addiction recovery
The impact of comorbid medical conditions on mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for chronic pain management
The role of coping strategies in the treatment of anxiety disorders
The relationship between anxiety and substance use disorders
The impact of COVID-19 on mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of narrative therapy in treating trauma
The role of social support in trauma recovery.
The relationship between trauma and depression
The effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy in treating substance use disorders
The impact of adverse childhood experiences on mental health outcomes
The role of cultural competence in mental health treatment
The relationship between childhood obesity and mental health
The effectiveness of art therapy in treating anxiety disorders
The impact of mindfulness on workplace mental health
The effectiveness of group therapy in treating substance use disorders
The role of spirituality in addiction recovery
The relationship between personality disorders and addiction
The effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy in treating anxiety disorders
The impact of social support on PTSD treatment outcomes
The relationship between social anxiety and substance use disorders
The effectiveness of virtual reality therapy in treating PTSD
The role of resilience in mental health recovery
The relationship between addiction and trauma in veterans
The effectiveness of cognitive remediation in treating ADHD
The impact of parental mental illness on children’s mental health outcomes
The relationship between trauma and bipolar disorder
The effectiveness of narrative therapy in treating depression
The role of mindfulness in addiction recovery
The relationship between borderline personality disorder and substance use disorders
The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating eating disorders
The impact of workplace bullying on mental health outcomes
The relationship between trauma and self-harm behaviors
The effectiveness of family therapy in treating addiction
The role of stigma in addiction recovery
The effectiveness of schema therapy in treating personality disorders
The impact of childhood neglect on mental health outcomes
The relationship between anxiety and chronic pain
The effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy in treating personality disorders
The role of self-compassion in mental health recovery
The relationship between trauma and dissociative disorders
The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy in treating personality disorders
The impact of adverse work conditions on mental health outcomes
The relationship between addiction and sleep disorders
The effectiveness of exposure therapy in treating phobias
The role of emotional regulation in addiction recovery
The relationship between trauma and addiction in women
The impact of childhood bullying on mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating personality disorders
The role of resilience in addiction recovery
The relationship between ADHD and substance use disorders
The impact of social support on eating disorder treatment outcomes
The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions in treating personality disorders
The role of positive psychology in mental health recovery
The relationship between trauma and PTSD in children
The effectiveness of family-based interventions in treating substance use disorders
The relationship between social media use and body image concerns
The effectiveness of group therapy for substance use disorders
The role of resilience in coping with mental illness
The impact of trauma on attachment patterns in adulthood
The relationship between childhood neglect and depression
The role of emotional intelligence in mental health outcomes
The effectiveness of family therapy for eating disorders
The impact of mindfulness on emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder
The relationship between childhood ADHD and substance use disorders in adulthood
The role of social support in preventing suicide
The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia
The impact of trauma on the development of borderline personality disorder
The relationship between childhood bullying and anxiety disorders in adulthood
The effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy for eating disorders
The role of attachment styles in the treatment of personality disorders
The impact of family conflict on adolescent mental health
The relationship between childhood maltreatment and self-harm behaviors
The effectiveness of exposure therapy for PTSD
The role of social support in the treatment of depression
The impact of trauma on the development of dissociative identity disorder
The relationship between childhood abuse and addiction
The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for ADHD
The role of cognitive biases in the development of OCD
The impact of perfectionism on mental health outcomes
The relationship between childhood trauma and schizophrenia
The effectiveness of cognitive remediation for executive functioning deficits in bipolar disorder
The role of cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of hoarding disorder
The impact of societal expectations on mental health in minority groups
The relationship between childhood trauma and borderline personality disorder
The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy for chronic pain
The role of social support in the treatment of substance use disorders
The impact of trauma on attachment patterns in childhood
The relationship between childhood ADHD and depression in adulthood
The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder
The role of emotional regulation in preventing self-harm behaviors
The impact of societal stigma on mental health treatment-seeking behaviors
The relationship between childhood trauma and eating disorders
The effectiveness of interpersonal therapy for depression
The role of cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of panic disorder
The impact of trauma on the development of anxiety disorders
The relationship between childhood trauma and bipolar disorder
The effectiveness of exposure and response prevention for OCD
The role of cognitive biases in the treatment of PTSD
The impact of social support on mental health outcomes in LGBTQ+ individuals
The relationship between childhood trauma and social anxiety disorder
The effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy for personality disorders
The role of emotional regulation in the treatment of anxiety disorders
The impact of childhood trauma on substance use disorders in adulthood
The relationship between childhood ADHD and anxiety disorders in adulthood
The relationship between social media use and body image dissatisfaction
The role of childhood attachment in the development of anxiety disorders
The relationship between social support and PTSD recovery
The effectiveness of psychotherapy for treating substance use disorders
The impact of trauma exposure on cognitive functioning
The relationship between sleep disorders and anxiety
The role of childhood adversity in the development of eating disorders
The effectiveness of virtual reality exposure therapy for anxiety disorders
The impact of racial discrimination on mental health outcomes
The role of emotion dysregulation in the development of personality disorders
The effectiveness of family-based interventions in treating eating disorders
The impact of childhood trauma on self-esteem
The role of attachment styles in the treatment of PTSD
The effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy for treating eating disorders
The impact of parental stress on child mental health outcomes
The relationship between childhood ADHD and substance use disorders
The role of resilience in the treatment of trauma
The effectiveness of motivational interviewing in treating substance use disorders
The impact of childhood trauma on physical health outcomes
The relationship between anxiety and perfectionism
The role of cultural factors in the development of eating disorders
The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for trauma
The impact of peer victimization on mental health outcomes
The role of self-compassion in the treatment of depression
The effectiveness of exposure therapy for OCD
The impact of childhood trauma on social relationships
The relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis
The role of cognitive biases in the development of eating disorders
The effectiveness of transdiagnostic treatments for anxiety and depression
The impact of chronic illness on mental health outcomes
The role of self-esteem in the treatment of anxiety disorders
The effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy in treating trauma
The impact of maternal depression on child mental health outcomes
The relationship between trauma and dissociative symptoms
The role of attachment styles in the treatment of eating disorders
The effectiveness of cognitive remediation in treating eating disorders
The impact of adverse childhood experiences on the development of addiction
The relationship between anxiety and hoarding behavior
The role of cognitive biases in the development of substance use disorders
The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for chronic pain management
The impact of childhood trauma on emotional regulation
The relationship between childhood trauma and suicidal behavior
The role of mindfulness in the treatment of depression
The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for substance use disorders.

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Understanding Mental Disorder through a Scientific Lens

Clinical Psychological Science
Clinical Psychology
Mental Health
Mental Illness
Psychological Science in the Public Interest

This is a photo of a magnifying glass on top of open books

Diagnosing mental-health issues may seem straightforward: Patients discuss their symptoms and a clinician matches those symptoms to a disorder and devises an appropriate treatment. In reality, this view belies the complexity inherent in understanding, classifying, and diagnosing psychiatric phenomena. Advances in clinical science over the past several decades have led to major improvements in how mental disorder is diagnosed and treated—millions of individuals now have access to robust, evidence-based interventions. But as science reveals more about the origins and development of mental disorder, it also raises more questions.

A team of clinical scientists delves into these complexities in a comprehensive new report , taking an in-depth look at three systems used for understanding mental-health disorders: the International Classification of Diseases ( ICD ), the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM ), and the Research Domain Criteria Project (RDoC).

The report, authored by researchers Lee Anna Clark, Bruce Cuthbert, Roberto Lewis-Fernández, William E. Narrow, and Geoffrey M. Reed, is published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest , a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. It is accompanied by a commentary from Paul S. Appelbaum.

“One of the main things that we kept coming back to is the idea that ‘having a mental disorder’ is very different from having the measles or even something like diabetes – and it can be helpful to think about mental disorder psychopathology in this more complex way,” says Clark. “While there definitely are treatments and ways to help people deal with mental disorders, there aren’t any magic bullets.”

“Psychological problems arise out of a long, unfolding process,” she adds.

The report highlights similarities and differences in the ways that the ICD, DSM, and RDoC classify and conceptualize mental disorder, focusing on overarching issues that such systems must confront. Given that mental disorder results from a complex interplay between genetic, individual, and sociocultural factors, understanding causal pathways necessarily requires taking a nuanced, individualized approach. Furthermore, determining the discrete categories and symptom thresholds that define disorders is a difficult process—it allows clinical practitioners to diagnose and treat disorder, but it also constrains how we think about individual functioning and outcomes.

“It’s so tempting to think, ‘If we could only zap out this one gene, schizophrenia would be gone from the world.’ But my prediction is that as we learn more, things will also be revealed that are even more complex than we can imagine,” says Clark. “At the same time, there’s no question that we know so much more than we did even 25 years ago. And what we know can get us a very long way toward helping people even if we don’t understand all the little ins and outs.”

The authors conclude the report by providing guidance and recommended next steps for researchers and clinicians.

In the accompanying commentary, Appelbaum praises the historical and conceptual analysis provided by this report and discusses three topics touched upon by Clark and colleagues: the role of science in revising current diagnostic frameworks, the incorporation of dimensional approaches into diagnostic schemas, and the reasons for differences among diagnostic frameworks.

Report Three Approaches to Understanding and Classifying Mental Disorder: The International Classification of Diseases, Revision 11 , the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition , and the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria Lee Anna Clark, Bruce Cuthbert, Roberto Lewis-Fernández, William E. Narrow, and Geoffrey M. Reed

Commentary Moving Toward the Future in the Diagnosis of Mental Disorders Paul S. Appelbaum

I think we have relied too much on medicines and created a no feel society. I believe if we had more people doing feelings and grief work and less medicine we could have a better society with more empathy. Look it how the substance abuse society turned out, its a mess.

Yes.. this exactly is my hope for the future. An emphasis on the psychology behind the symptoms must be the basis for diagnosis not the behaviours associated with them. Drugs never helped anyone with how to better understand themselves and why the behaviours they exhibit occur. Away with diagnoses and forward with psychological disorder analysis.

Without taking anything away from what are the major points in this work, there is some evidence that the nature of the person providing the treatment (and I suspect this is true regardless of what that treatment is) matters, and so far, in large part, this has proven difficult to quantify except in gross ways.

You have shared very informative article ! Thank you

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For a copy of the research article and access to other Psychological Science in the Public Interest research findings, please contact: - 202.293.9300

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Can psychological scientists divorce their own opinions and beliefs from their professional work? This APS Fellow’s research aims to answer that question.

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Research Article

Discovering Relations Between Mind, Brain, and Mental Disorders Using Topic Mapping

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Imaging Research Center and Departments of Psychology and Neurobiology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, United States of America

Affiliation NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Psychology, Colorado University, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America

Russell A. Poldrack,
Jeanette A. Mumford,
Tom Schonberg,
Donald Kalar,
Bishal Barman,
Tal Yarkoni

Published: October 11, 2012
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707
Reader Comments

Neuroimaging research has largely focused on the identification of associations between brain activation and specific mental functions. Here we show that data mining techniques applied to a large database of neuroimaging results can be used to identify the conceptual structure of mental functions and their mapping to brain systems. This analysis confirms many current ideas regarding the neural organization of cognition, but also provides some new insights into the roles of particular brain systems in mental function. We further show that the same methods can be used to identify the relations between mental disorders. Finally, we show that these two approaches can be combined to empirically identify novel relations between mental disorders and mental functions via their common involvement of particular brain networks. This approach has the potential to discover novel endophenotypes for neuropsychiatric disorders and to better characterize the structure of these disorders and the relations between them.

Author Summary

One of the major challenges of neuroscience research is to integrate the results of the large number of published research studies in order to better understand how psychological functions are mapped onto brain systems. In this research, we take advantage of a large database of neuroimaging studies, along with text mining methods, to extract information about the topics that are found in the brain imaging literature and their mapping onto reported brain activation data. We also show that this method can be used to identify new relations between psychological functions and mental disorders, through their shared brain activity patterns. This work provides a new way to discover the underlying structure that relates brain function and mental processes.

Citation: Poldrack RA, Mumford JA, Schonberg T, Kalar D, Barman B, Yarkoni T (2012) Discovering Relations Between Mind, Brain, and Mental Disorders Using Topic Mapping. PLoS Comput Biol 8(10): e1002707. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707

Editor: Olaf Sporns, Indiana University, United States of America

Received: May 14, 2012; Accepted: August 2, 2012; Published: October 11, 2012

Copyright: © Poldrack et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: This work was supported by NIH grant RO1MH082795 (to RAP) and F32NR012081 (to TY) and by the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The search for clues regarding the underlying causes of mental disorders has led to the notion that these disorders may be best understood in terms of a set of underlying psychological and/or neural mechanisms that stand between genes and environment on the one hand and psychiatric diagnoses on the other hand. Such intermediate phenotypes, or “endophenotypes”, may provide the traction that has eluded research using diagnostic categories as primary phenotypes [1] , [2] . They may also provide the means to better understand the structure the underlying psychological dimensions that appear to underlie overlapping categories of mental disorders [3] , [4] .

The identification of endophenotypes requires an understanding the basic structure of mental functions and their associated brain networks. For more than 30 years, cognitive neuroscientists have used neuroimaging methods (including EEG/MEG, PET, and fMRI) in an attempt to address this question. This work has led to a large body of knowledge about associations between specific psychological processes or tasks and activity in brain regions or networks. However, this knowledge has not led to a commensurate improvement in our understanding of the basic mental operations that may be subserved by particular brain systems. Instead, diverse literatures often assign widely varying functions to the same networks. A prime example is the anterior cingulate cortex, which has been associated with such widespread functions as conflict monitoring, error processing, pain, and interoceptive awareness. In order to understand the unique functions that are subserved by brain regions or networks, a different approach is necessary; namely, we need to analyze data obtained across a broad range of mental domains and understand how these domains are organized with regard to neural function and structure.

The identification of basic operations can be understood statistically as a problem of latent structure identification; that is, what are the latent underlying mental functions and brain networks that give rise to to the broad range of observed behaviors and patterns of brain activity and neuropsychiatric disorders? The focus within cognitive neuroscience on establishing associations between activation and specific hypothesized processes has hindered the ability to identify such latent structures. However, within the fields of machine learning and text mining, a number of powerful approaches have been developed to estimate the latent structure that generates observed data, assuming that large enough datasets are available. In the present work, we take advantage of one class of such generative models to develop a new approach to identifying the underlying latent structure of mental processing and the associated brain functions, which we refer to as “topic mapping”. We examine the latent conceptual structure of the fMRI literature by mining the full text from a large text corpus comprising more than 5,800 articles from the neuroimaging literature, and model the relation between these topics and associated brain activation using automated methods for extracting activation coordinates from published papers. This analysis uncovers conceptual structure and activation patterns consistent with those observed in previous neuroimaging meta-analyses, which provides confirmation of the approach, while also providing some novel suggestions regarding structure/function relationships. We then use this approach to identify the topical structure of terms related neuropsychiatric diseases, and use multivariate methods to identify relations between these the mental and disorder domains based on common brain activation patterns. This approach provides an empirical means of discovering novel endophenotypes that may underlie mental disorders, as well providing new insights into the relations between diagnostic categories.

Within the fields of information retrieval and computer science, research into document retrieval has led to the development of a set of techniques for estimating the latent structure underlying a set of documents. Early work in this area treated documents as vectors in a high-dimensional space, and used matrix decomposition techniques such as singular value decomposition to identify the latent semantic structure of the documents [5] . More recently, researchers in this domain have developed approaches that are based on generative models of documents. One popular approach, known generically as “topic models” [6] , treats each document as a mixture of a small number of underlying “topics”, each of which is associated with a distribution over words. Generating a document via this model involves sampling a topic and then sampling over words within the chosen topic; using Bayesian estimation techniques, it is possible to invert this model and estimate the topic and word distributions given a set of documents. The particular topic modeling technique that we employ here, known as latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA: [7] ), has been shown to be highly effective at extracting the structure of large text corpuses. For example [8] , used this approach to characterize the topical structure of science by analyzing 10 years of abstracts from PNAS , showing that it was able to accurately extract the conceptual structure of this domain.

We characterized the latent structure of the cognitive neuroscience literature by applying latent Dirichlet allocation to a corpus of 5,809 articles (using an expanded version of the corpus developed in [9] ), which were selected on the basis of reporting fMRI activation in a standardized coordinate format. An overview of the entire data processing workflow is presented in Figure 1 . This technique estimates a number of underlying latent “topics” that generate the observed text, where each topic is defined by a distribution over words. The dimensionality (i.e., number of topics) is estimated using a cross-validation approach; the documents are randomly split into 8 sets, and for each set a topic model is trained on the remaining data and then used to estimate the empirical likelihood of the held-out documents [10] . Plots of the empirical likelihood of left-out documents as a function of the number of topics are shown in Figure 2 , and histograms of the number of documents per topic and number of topics per document are shown in figure 3 .

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.g001

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.g002

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.g003

Initial application of LDA to the full-text corpus identified a number of topics that were related to mental function, but also many topics related to methodological or linguistic aspects of the documents. Because we were specifically interested in estimating the conceptual structure of mental processes, we examined each document in the corpus and identified each occurrence of any of the 605 terms (both single words and phrases) that are present as mental concepts in the Cognitive Atlas ( http://www.cognitiveatlas.org ); the topic model was then estimated using this limited word set (treating each word or phrase as a single-word token). The Cognitive Atlas is a curated collaborative ontology that aims to describe mental functions, and contains terms spanning across nearly all domains of psychological function [11] . The cross-validation analysis identified 130 as the optimal number of topics for this dataset. Examples of these topics are shown in Figure 4 , and the full list is presented in Table S1 . In large part these topics are consistent with the topics that are the focus of research in the cognitive neuroscience literature. The topics with the highest number of associated documents were those related to very common features of neuroimaging tasks such as movement (topic 20), emotion (topic 93), audition (topic 74), attention (topic 43), and working memory (topic 61). Each of these was associated with more than 400 documents in the corpus. At the other end of the spectrum were more focused topics that loaded on fewer than 200 documents, such as topic 121 (regret,surprise), topic 71 (narrative, discourse), and topic 108 (empathy, pain). The results of this analysis suggest that topic modeling applied to the limited term set of mental functions can successfully extract the conceptual structure of psychological processes at multiple levels within the current text corpus.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.g004

In order to further examine the effects of topic dimensionality, we compared the results obtained across several values for the number of topics (10,50, 100, and 250). We chose the term “language” and identified all topics for each model in which that term occurred in the top five terms. We then examined the correlation in the loading vector across documents for each set of levels, in order to identify the hierarchical graph relating topics across levels (see Figure 5 ). This analysis showed that increasing the topic dimensionality resulted in finer-grained topics; for example, with 10 topics there was a single matching topic that included “meaning”, “reading”, and “comprehension”, whereas each of these was split into a separate set of topics in the 50-topic model, and further subdivided as the dimensionality increased. This suggests that although the cross validation resulted in a particular “best” dimensionality, in reality there is relevant information at many different levels which differs in grain size.

All topics with “language in their top 5 terms were first identified from the results for topic models fit to the data at 10, 50, 100, and 250 topics. At each level, each topic is linked to the topic at the previous level with which it had the highest correlation in its document loadings. The values on each edge reflect the correlation in the topic loading vector across documents between the two levels.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.g005

Topic mapping

While concordance with the existing literature is reassuring, the true promise of this approach is in its ability to uncover novel associations between functions and activation, and the topic mapping analysis did in fact identify some unexpected associations, particularly when looking at negative associations. Two interesting examples are evident in Figure 4 . First, topic 61 was associated with the bilateral fronto-parietal network usually associated with working memory, but it also exhibited strong and focused negative association in the right amygdala; this means that the amygdala was significantly less likely to be activated in studies that loaded on this topic relative to those that did not. This is particularly interesting in light of further exploration of the literature using the PubBrain tool ( http://www.pubbrain.org ) which identified a number of studies that have noted amygdala activation in association with working memory tasks (cf. [13] ). Another example is topic 71 (associated with auditory processing) which was negatively associated with activation in a broad set of regions previously implicated in emotional function, such as orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, and amygdala. Whether such negative associations reflect truly negative relations in activation between these networks or reflect features of the tasks used in these domains remains to be determined, but such unexpected associations could suggest novel hypotheses about relations between specific brain networks. These are only two examples of potential novel discoveries using Topic Mapping.; future studies will be needed to systematically examine all possible new findings emerging from the usage of this tool.

Mapping the neural basis of neuropsychiatric disorders

Based on the results from the foregoing analyses, we then examined whether it was possible to obtain new insights about the organization of brain disorders using the topic mapping approach developed above. We estimated a set of topics using only terms related to brain disorders, based on a lexicon of mental disorders terms derived from the NIFSTD Dysfunction ontology [14] along with the DSM-IV. The optimal dimensionality of 60 based on cross-validation was found to produce multiple topics with exactly the same word distribution, so we used the largest number of topics yielding a unique set of word distributions across topics, which was 29 topics. Examples of these topics and the associated topic maps are presented in Figure 6 .

Topics are ordered in terms of the number of documents loading on the topic; color maps reflect the correlation coefficient between topic loading and activation across documents. The images are presented in radiological convention (i.e., left-right reversed).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.g006

The results of this analysis are largely consistent with results from prior meta-analyses and known functional anatomy of the various disorders, but are novel in highlighting relations between some of the disorders. For example, Topic 7 demonstrates the relations between bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and mood disorders, with activation centered on the medial prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, and amygdala. Topic 8 highlights relations between obesity and eating disorders and drug abuse, with activation in the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Topic 14 demonstrates relations between a set of externalizing disorders (drug abuse, conduct disorder, alcoholism, antisocial personality disorder, and cannabis related disorder) with activation focused in the striatum, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and dorsal prefrontal cortex. Conversely, Topic 25 demonstrates relations between a set of internalizing disorders (anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, and post traumatic stress disorder), with a very similar pattern of activation, though notably weaker in the striatum. One striking result of these analyses is the similarity of the patterns of brain activity associated with the mention of all of these different disorders. This could arise either from the fact that this particular set of limbic brain systems is the seat of all major psychiatric disorders, or the fact that these disorders are commonly mentioned in relation to tasks or cognitive domains that happen to preferentially engage these brain systems.

We further characterized the relations between different disorder concepts in their associated neural activations by clustering the disorder topics based on their associated brain activation patterns using hierarchical clustering. The results of this analysis are shown in Figure 7 . The results show the degree to which the neural patterns associated with the use of particular sets of mental disorder terms exhibit a consistent systematic structure. The clustering breaks into four large groups, comprising language disorders, mood/anxiety disorders and drug abuse, psychotic disorders, and autism and memory disorders. What is particularly interesting is that, although none of the topic maps associated with the term “schizophrenia” showed strong activation, the fact that they cluster together in this analysis suggests that they are nonetheless similar in the patterns of activation that are reported in the associated papers; however, this could also reflect the fact that a relatively small number of tasks is used in the literature, and thus any concordance could be driven by overlap of tasks that are commonly mentioned in the context of schizophrenia. Despite such limitations, these results provide further confirmation that the present analysis, while largely based on studies involving healthy adults, can nonetheless accurately characterize the neural basis of mental disorders as described in the literature.

Euclidean distance was used as the distance metric for clustering, and hierarchical clustering was performed using Ward's method. The colored blocks show the four major groupings obtained by cutting the tree at a height of 2.0. Abbreviations: APH: aphasia, DLX:dyslexia, SLI: specific language impairment, DA: drug abuse, AD:Alzheimer's disease, DEP:depressive disorder, MDD:major depressive disorder, ANX:anxiety disorder, PAN: panic disorder, BPD: bipolar disorder, CD: conduct disorder, GAM: gambling, MD: mood disorder, PD: Parkinson's disease, OCD: obsessive compulsive disorder, PHO: phobia, EAT: eating disorder, SZ: schizophrenia, OBE: obesity, COC: cocaine related disorder, PSY: psychotic disorder, PAR: paranoid disorder, SZTY: schizotypal personality disorder, TIC: tic disorder, ALC: alcoholism, ALX: alexia, ADD: attention deficit disorder, AMN: amnesia, AUT: autism, ASP: Asperger syndrome.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.g007

Empirical discovery of endophenotypes

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.t001

The first canonical variate (#0) demonstrated associations between a number of both internalizing and externalizing disorders (anxiety, depression, obesity, gambling) which were centered around the involvement of emotional processes (such as mood and fear) and reward-related decision processes. Another canonical variate (#1) was focused on memory processes, and identified a cluster of disorders including classical memory disorders (amnesia and Alzheimer's disease) as well as schizophrenia. Another (#2) focused on language processes and was associated with activity in left prefrontal, temporal, and parietal regions.

The results of the CCA analysis provide a potential new window into the complex psychological and neural underpinnings of schizophrenia and its relation to other psychiatric disorders. Across different canonical variates, schizophrenia is related to mood and decision making processes (components 0 and 3), memory processes (component 5), and social perception (component 10). These could potentially relate to different aspects of schizophrenic symptomatology, such as the distinctions between positive versus negative symptoms or between cognitive versus affective impairments. Further, they provide novel potential targets for genetic association studies, which have struggled to identify meaningful and replicable associations between schizophrenic symptoms or endophenotypes and genetic polymorphisms (cf. [16] ).

We also performed CCA directly using topic-document loading vectors, in order to determine whether the results differed from CCA computed on neural loading vectors; the results are presented in Table 2 . The results of this analysis are quite concordant with the foregoing analyses based on activation patterns, but one noticeable difference between the two analyses is that the activation-based CCA analysis appeared to cluster disorders more broadly, whereas many of the components found in the text-based analysis had only a single disorder. This may reflect the fact that disorders are less neurally distinct than is suggested by what is written by authors, but could also reflect greater noise in the neural data; further work will be necessary to better understand the unique contributions of activation-based and text-based analyses.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.t002

It is clear that neuroimaging can provide important evidence regarding the functional organization of the brain, but one of the most fundamental questions in cognitive neuroscience has been whether it can provide any new insights into psychological function [17] – [19] . The results presented here demonstrate how large databases of neuroimaging data can provide new insights into the structure of psychological processes, by laying bare their relations within a similarity space defined by neural function. The present results highlight the importance of “discovery science” approaches that take advantage of modern statistical techniques to characterize large, high-dimensional datasets (cf. [20] ). Just as the fields of molecular biology and genomics have been revolutionized by this approach [21] , we propose that the hypothesis-generating approach supported by data mining tools can serve as a powerful complement to more standard hypothesis-testing approaches [22] .

There is growing recognition that the diagnostic categories used in psychiatry are not reflective of sharp parallel biological distinctions; instead, a growing body of behavioral, genetic, and neuroimaging data suggest that these different disorders fall along a set of underlying continuous dimensions which likely relate to particular basic psychological processes [3] , [4] . The results presented here are consistent with that viewpoint, and further show how endophenotypes for groups of disorders can be empirically discovered via data mining, even if those disorders were not the primary aims of the studies being mined. This approach would likely be even more powerful using databases that were focused on imaging data from studies of patients. In addition, this approach has the potential to characterize the genetic architecture of these disorders through mining of genetic association data; unfortunately, genetic terms are not sufficiently frequent in the Neurosynth database to support robust mapping of relationships to genes, but future analyses using enhanced databases has the potential to discover additional relations between neurocognitive components and genetic contributions.

The present work is limited by several features of the data that were used in the analyses. The first limitation arises from the fact that we rely upon the presence of particular terms in the text, rather than on manual annotation of the relevance of those terms. Thus, obvious issues such as polysemy (e.g., the multiple senses of the term “working memory”) and negation can be problematic, though these issues could potentially be addressed using more powerful natural language processing. A second limitation arises from the meta-analytic nature of the activation data used in the analyses, which are reconstructed from a very sparse representation of the original data. A third limitation is that the activation maps are associated only with complete documents, not with specific terms within the document, and this coarseness undoubtedly adds a significant amount of noise to the modeling results. These limitations necessitate caution in drawing strong conclusions from the results reported here. At the same time, the concordance of many of the results with previous analyses using different datasets and analysis approaches suggests that these limitations have not greatly undermined the power of the technique. We propose that the approach outlined here is likely to be most useful for inspiring novel hypotheses rather than for confirming existing hypotheses, which means that any such results will be just the first step in a research program that must also include hypothesis-driven experimentation.

Another potential limitation of the present work is that the fact that a number of the parameters in the analyses were set arbitrarily. While the dimensionality of the topic models was determined using an automated method, there remain parameter settings (such as smoothness of the word and topic distributions) that must be chosen arbitrarily (in our case, we chose them based on previously published results). The results of the topic model are quite robust; for example, we saw very similar results when performing the topic models on the original set of 4,393 papers from the earlier paper by Yarkoni et al. compared to the results from the corpus of 5,809 papers. It is also evident from Figure 5 that there is strong continuity in topics across different dimensionalities, with single topics at lower dimensionalities splitting into multiple finer-grained topics at higher dimensionalities. We have chosen model parameters that appear to give sensible results relative to prior findings, but the possibility remains that different parameterizations or analysis approaches could lead to different outcomes; future research will need to explore this question in more detail. We would also note that some of these limitations may be offset by the fact that the analyses presented here are almost fully automated, which removes many possible opportunities for research bias to affect the results.

The present work follows and extends other recent work that has aimed to mine the relations between mental function and brain function using coordinate-based meta-analyses. Smith et al. [23] analyzed the BrainMap database (which is similar to the database used here, but is created via manual annotation and thus has lower coverage but greater specificity and accuracy than the Neurosynth database). This work showed that independent components analysis applied to the meta-analytic data was able to identify networks very similar to those observed in resting-state fMRI time series, and that these could be related to specific aspects of psychological function via the annotations in the BrainMap database. Laird et al [24] extended this by showing that behavioral functions could be clustered together based on these meta-analytic maps. The present work further extends those previous studies by showing that the structure of the psychological domain can be identified in an unsupervised manner using topic modeling across both cognitive function and mental disorder domains, and that these can further be used to identify potential endophenotypes that share common neural patterns across these two domains. Visual examination of the ICA components presented in the Smith and Laird papers shows substantial overlap with the topic maps identified in the present study. In future work, we hope to directly compare the topic mapping results with the maps identified in those papers, to further characterize the utility of each approach.

In summary, we have shown how large neuroimaging and text databases can be used to identify novel relations between brain, mind, and mental disorders. The approach developed here has the potential to enable new discoveries about the neural and cognitive bases of neuropsychiatric disorders, and to provide empirically-driven functional characterizations of patterns of brain activation. The results also highlight the importance of the availability of large open datasets in cognitive neuroscience to enable discovery-based science as a complement to hypothesis-driven research.

Materials and Methods

Code to implement all of the analyses reported here, along with all of the auxiliary files, are available at https://github.com/poldrack/LatentStructure .

Data extraction

The full text from the Neurosynth corpus was used for the text mining analyses. The sources of these data as well as the process for automated extraction of activation coordinates are described in detail in [9] .

Peak image creation

Synthetic activation peak images were created from the extracted activation coordinates by placing a sphere (10 mm radius) at each activation location, at 3 mm resolution using the MNI305 template. Activations detected to be in Talairach space were first converted to MNI305 coordinates using the Lancaster transform [25] .

Topic modeling

We ran two topic modeling analyses using limited sets of terms to obtain focused topics in specific domains. In the first, we used 605 mental concept terms from the Cognitive Atlas database mentioned previously. In the second, we used a set of 55 terms describing mental disorders; these were obtained by taking the NIFSTD Dysfunction ontology and removing all terms not relevant to psychiatric disorders, and then adding a set of missing terms that described additional disorders listed in the DSM-IV. In each case, we processed the full text corpus and created restricted documents containing only terms that were present in the respective term list (along with synonyms, which were mapped back to the base term), and then performed topic modeling on those restricted documents. The median number of terms per document after filtering was 127 for cognitive terms and 3 for disease terms.

For each dataset, the optimal number of topics was determined by performing a grid search across a range of dimensionality values (from 10 to 250 in steps of 10). Each document set was split into 8 random sets of documents, and 8 separate models were trained, in each case leaving out one subset of documents. The empirical likelihood of the left-out documents was then estimated using an importance sampling method as implemented in MALLET [10] .

In order to identify the hierarchical relations between topics across different dimensionalities (as shown in Figure 5 ), the topic models from the first crossvalidation fold for each level (10, 50, 100, and 250 topics) were used; because 1/8 of the data were excluded as test data, these models were thus trained on a total of 5082 documents (using the same documents across all different dimensionalities). Hierarchical relations between levels were identified by computing the correlation between the document loading vectors for each lower-level topic and all higher-level topics, and then assigning the link according to the maximum correlation.

Disorder clustering

Disorders were clustered using hierarchical clustering (Ward's method) applied to the Euclidean distance matrix computed across voxels for the disorder-based topic maps (Pearson r values).

Canonical correlation analysis

Supporting Information

Complete list of topics identified through application of latent Dirichlet allocation to the text corpus filtered for Cognitive Atlas terms. The top 5 words shown for each topic are those which had the highest loading for that topic across documents. The number of documents that loaded on each topic is also listed.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.s001

Complete list of topics identified through application of latent Dirichlet allocation to the text corpus filtered for mental disorder terms. The top 5 words shown for each topic are those which had the highest loading for that topic across documents. The number of documents that loaded on each topic is also listed.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002707.s002

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Robert Bilder, Eliza Congdon, Steve Hanson, Oluwasanmi Koyejo, Jonathan Pillow, and Fred Sabb for helpful comments on a draft of this paper and to Daniela Witten for assistance with the R PMA package.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RAP TS DK BB TY. Performed the experiments: RAP TY. Analyzed the data: RAP JAM TY. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RAP JAM DK BB TY. Wrote the paper: RAP JAM TS TY.

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Google Scholar
6. Steyvers M, Griffiths T (2007) Probabilistic topic models. In: Landauer T, McNamara D, Dennis S, Kintsch W, editors. Latent Semantic Analysis: A Road to Meaning.
10. Wallach HM, Murray I, Salakhutdinov R, Mimno D (2009) Evaluation methods for topic models. In: Proceedings of the 26th Annual International Conference on Machine Learning. New York, NY, USA: ACM, ICML 2009. pp. 1105–1112. Available: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1553374.1553515 .
26. McCallum AK (2002) Mallet: A machine learning for language toolkit. Available: http://mallet.cs.umass.edu .

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50+ Research Topics for Psychology Papers

How to Find Psychology Research Topics for Your Student Paper

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Specific Branches of Psychology
Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy
Human Cognition
Human Development
Critique of Publications
Famous Experiments
Historical Figures
Specific Careers
Case Studies
Literature Reviews
Your Own Study/Experiment

Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

I can always tell when a student really cares about the topic they chose; it comes through in the writing. My advice is to choose a topic that genuinely interests you, so you’ll be more motivated to do thorough research.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an abnormal psychology course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Research Topics Within Specific Branches of Psychology

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior .

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
Social cognition
Person perception
Social control and cults
Persuasion, propaganda, and marketing
Attraction, romance, and love
Nonverbal communication
Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

Eating disorders
Borderline personality disorder
Seasonal affective disorder
Schizophrenia
Antisocial personality disorder
Profile a type of therapy (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

False memories
Speech disorders
Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to early childhood such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

Language acquisition
Media violence and children
Learning disabilities
Gender roles
Child abuse
Prenatal development
Parenting styles
Aspects of the aging process

Do a Critique of Publications Involving Psychology Research Topics

One option is to consider writing a critique paper of a published psychology book or academic journal article. For example, you might write a critical analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams or you might evaluate a more recent book such as Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .

Professional and academic journals are also great places to find materials for a critique paper. Browse through the collection at your university library to find titles devoted to the subject that you are most interested in, then look through recent articles until you find one that grabs your attention.

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Famous Experiments

There have been many fascinating and groundbreaking experiments throughout the history of psychology, providing ample material for students looking for an interesting term paper topic. In your paper, you might choose to summarize the experiment, analyze the ethics of the research, or evaluate the implications of the study. Possible experiments that you might consider include:

The Milgram Obedience Experiment
The Stanford Prison Experiment
The Little Albert Experiment
Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments
The Asch Conformity Experiment
Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Topics of Psychology Research About Historical Figures

One of the simplest ways to find a great topic is to choose an interesting person in the history of psychology and write a paper about them. Your paper might focus on many different elements of the individual's life, such as their biography, professional history, theories, or influence on psychology.

While this type of paper may be historical in nature, there is no need for this assignment to be dry or boring. Psychology is full of fascinating figures rife with intriguing stories and anecdotes. Consider such famous individuals as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Harry Harlow, or one of the many other eminent psychologists .

Psychology Research Topics About a Specific Career

Another possible topic, depending on the course in which you are enrolled, is to write about specific career paths within the field of psychology . This type of paper is especially appropriate if you are exploring different subtopics or considering which area interests you the most.

In your paper, you might opt to explore the typical duties of a psychologist, how much people working in these fields typically earn, and the different employment options that are available.

Topics of Psychology Research Involving Case Studies

One potentially interesting idea is to write a psychology case study of a particular individual or group of people. In this type of paper, you will provide an in-depth analysis of your subject, including a thorough biography.

Generally, you will also assess the person, often using a major psychological theory such as Piaget's stages of cognitive development or Erikson's eight-stage theory of human development . It is also important to note that your paper doesn't necessarily have to be about someone you know personally.

In fact, many professors encourage students to write case studies on historical figures or fictional characters from books, television programs, or films.

Psychology Research Topics Involving Literature Reviews

Another possibility that would work well for a number of psychology courses is to do a literature review of a specific topic within psychology. A literature review involves finding a variety of sources on a particular subject, then summarizing and reporting on what these sources have to say about the topic.

Literature reviews are generally found in the introduction of journal articles and other psychology papers , but this type of analysis also works well for a full-scale psychology term paper.

Topics of Psychology Research Based on Your Own Study or Experiment

Many psychology courses require students to design an actual psychological study or perform some type of experiment. In some cases, students simply devise the study and then imagine the possible results that might occur. In other situations, you may actually have the opportunity to collect data, analyze your findings, and write up your results.

Finding a topic for your study can be difficult, but there are plenty of great ways to come up with intriguing ideas. Start by considering your own interests as well as subjects you have studied in the past.

Online sources, newspaper articles, books , journal articles, and even your own class textbook are all great places to start searching for topics for your experiments and psychology term papers. Before you begin, learn more about how to conduct a psychology experiment .

What This Means For You

After looking at this brief list of possible topics for psychology papers, it is easy to see that psychology is a very broad and diverse subject. While this variety makes it possible to find a topic that really catches your interest, it can sometimes make it very difficult for some students to select a good topic.

If you are still stumped by your assignment, ask your instructor for suggestions and consider a few from this list for inspiration.

Hockenbury, SE & Nolan, SA. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers; 2014.
Santrock, JW. A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

61 intriguing psychology research topics to explore

Last updated

11 January 2024

Reviewed by

Brittany Ferri, PhD, OTR/L

Psychology is an incredibly diverse, critical, and ever-changing area of study in the medical and health industries. Because of this, it’s a common area of study for students and healthcare professionals.

We’re walking you through picking the perfect topic for your upcoming paper or study. Keep reading for plenty of example topics to pique your interest and curiosity.

How to choose a psychology research topic

Exploring a psychology-based topic for your research project? You need to pick a specific area of interest to collect compelling data.

Use these tips to help you narrow down which psychology topics to research:

Focus on a particular area of psychology

The most effective psychological research focuses on a smaller, niche concept or disorder within the scope of a study.

Psychology is a broad and fascinating area of science, including everything from diagnosed mental health disorders to sports performance mindset assessments.

This gives you plenty of different avenues to explore. Having a hard time choosing? Check out our list of 61 ideas further down in this article to get started.

Read the latest clinical studies

Once you’ve picked a more niche topic to explore, you need to do your due diligence and explore other research projects on the same topic.

This practice will help you learn more about your chosen topic, ask more specific questions, and avoid covering existing projects.

For the best results, we recommend creating a research folder of associated published papers to reference throughout your project. This makes it much easier to cite direct references and find inspiration down the line.

Find a topic you enjoy and ask questions

Once you’ve spent time researching and collecting references for your study, you finally get to explore.

Whether this research project is for work, school, or just for fun, having a passion for your research will make the project much more enjoyable. (Trust us, there will be times when that is the only thing that keeps you going.)

Now you’ve decided on the topic, ask more nuanced questions you might want to explore.

If you can, pick the direction that interests you the most to make the research process much more enjoyable.

61 psychology topics to research in 2024

Need some extra help starting your psychology research project on the right foot? Explore our list of 61 cutting-edge, in-demand psychology research topics to use as a starting point for your research journey.

Psychology research topics for university students

As a university student, it can be hard to pick a research topic that fits the scope of your classes and is still compelling and unique.

Here are a few exciting topics we recommend exploring for your next assigned research project:

Mental health in post-secondary students

Seeking post-secondary education is a stressful and overwhelming experience for most students, making this topic a great choice to explore for your in-class research paper.

Examples of post-secondary mental health research topics include:

Student mental health status during exam season

Mental health disorder prevalence based on study major

The impact of chronic school stress on overall quality of life

The impacts of cyberbullying

Cyberbullying can occur at all ages, starting as early as elementary school and carrying through into professional workplaces.

Examples of cyberbullying-based research topics you can study include:

The impact of cyberbullying on self-esteem

Common reasons people engage in cyberbullying

Cyberbullying themes and commonly used terms

Cyberbullying habits in children vs. adults

The long-term effects of cyberbullying

Clinical psychology research topics

If you’re looking to take a more clinical approach to your next project, here are a few topics that involve direct patient assessment for you to consider:

Chronic pain and mental health

Living with chronic pain dramatically impacts every aspect of a person’s life, including their mental and emotional health.

Here are a few examples of in-demand pain-related psychology research topics:

The connection between diabetic neuropathy and depression

Neurological pain and its connection to mental health disorders

Efficacy of meditation and mindfulness for pain management

The long-term effects of insomnia

Insomnia is where you have difficulty falling or staying asleep. It’s a common health concern that impacts millions of people worldwide.

This is an excellent topic because insomnia can have a variety of causes, offering many research possibilities.

Here are a few compelling psychology research topics about insomnia you could investigate:

The prevalence of insomnia based on age, gender, and ethnicity

Insomnia and its impact on workplace productivity

The connection between insomnia and mental health disorders

Efficacy and use of melatonin supplements for insomnia

The risks and benefits of prescription insomnia medications

Lifestyle options for managing insomnia symptoms

The efficacy of mental health treatment options

Management and treatment of mental health conditions is an ever-changing area of study. If you can witness or participate in mental health therapies, this can make a great research project.

Examples of mental health treatment-related psychology research topics include:

The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for patients with severe anxiety

The benefits and drawbacks of group vs. individual therapy sessions

Music therapy for mental health disorders

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for patients with depression

Controversial psychology research paper topics

If you are looking to explore a more cutting-edge or modern psychology topic, you can delve into a variety of controversial and topical options:

The impact of social media and digital platforms

Ever since access to internet forums and video games became more commonplace, there’s been growing concern about the impact these digital platforms have on mental health.

Examples of social media and video game-related psychology research topics include:

The effect of edited images on self-confidence

How social media platforms impact social behavior

Video games and their impact on teenage anger and violence

Digital communication and the rapid spread of misinformation

The development of digital friendships

Psychotropic medications for mental health

In recent years, the interest in using psychoactive medications to treat and manage health conditions has increased despite their inherently controversial nature.

Examples of psychotropic medication-related research topics include:

The risks and benefits of using psilocybin mushrooms for managing anxiety

The impact of marijuana on early-onset psychosis

Childhood marijuana use and related prevalence of mental health conditions

Ketamine and its use for complex PTSD (C-PTSD) symptom management

The effect of long-term psychedelic use and mental health conditions

Mental health disorder research topics

As one of the most popular subsections of psychology, studying mental health disorders and how they impact quality of life is an essential and impactful area of research.

While studies in these areas are common, there’s always room for additional exploration, including the following hot-button topics:

Anxiety and depression disorders

Anxiety and depression are well-known and heavily researched mental health disorders.

Despite this, we still don’t know many things about these conditions, making them great candidates for psychology research projects:

Social anxiety and its connection to chronic loneliness

C-PTSD symptoms and causes

The development of phobias

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) behaviors and symptoms

Depression triggers and causes

Self-care tools and resources for depression

The prevalence of anxiety and depression in particular age groups or geographic areas

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a complex and multi-faceted area of psychology research.

Use your research skills to learn more about this condition and its impact by choosing any of the following topics:

Early signs of bipolar disorder

The incidence of bipolar disorder in young adults

The efficacy of existing bipolar treatment options

Bipolar medication side effects

Cognitive behavioral therapy for people with bipolar

Schizoaffective disorder

Schizoaffective disorder is often stigmatized, and less common mental health disorders are a hotbed for new and exciting research.

Here are a few examples of interesting research topics related to this mental health disorder:

The prevalence of schizoaffective disorder by certain age groups or geographic locations

Risk factors for developing schizoaffective disorder

The prevalence and content of auditory and visual hallucinations

Alternative therapies for schizoaffective disorder

Societal and systematic psychology research topics

Modern society’s impact is deeply enmeshed in our mental and emotional health on a personal and community level.

Here are a few examples of societal and systemic psychology research topics to explore in more detail:

Access to mental health services

While mental health awareness has risen over the past few decades, access to quality mental health treatment and resources is still not equitable.

This can significantly impact the severity of a person’s mental health symptoms, which can result in worse health outcomes if left untreated.

Explore this crucial issue and provide information about the need for improved mental health resource access by studying any of the following topics:

Rural vs. urban access to mental health resources

Access to crisis lines by location

Wait times for emergency mental health services

Inequities in mental health access based on income and location

Insurance coverage for mental health services

Systemic racism and mental health

Societal systems and the prevalence of systemic racism heavily impact every aspect of a person’s overall health.

Researching these topics draws attention to existing problems and contributes valuable insights into ways to improve access to care moving forward.

Examples of systemic racism-related psychology research topics include:

Access to mental health resources based on race

The prevalence of BIPOC mental health therapists in a chosen area

The impact of systemic racism on mental health and self-worth

Racism training for mental health workers

The prevalence of mental health disorders in discriminated groups

LGBTQIA+ mental health concerns

Research about LGBTQIA+ people and their mental health needs is a unique area of study to explore for your next research project. It’s a commonly overlooked and underserved community.

Examples of LGBTQIA+ psychology research topics to consider include:

Mental health supports for queer teens and children

The impact of queer safe spaces on mental health

The prevalence of mental health disorders in the LGBTQIA+ community

The benefits of queer mentorship and found family

Substance misuse in LQBTQIA+ youth and adults

Collect data and identify trends with Dovetail

Psychology research is an exciting and competitive study area, making it the perfect choice for projects or papers.

Take the headache out of analyzing your data and instantly access the insights you need to complete your next psychology research project by teaming up with Dovetail today.

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The Top 10 Most Interesting Mental Health Research Topics

In the United States, the majority of people have been diagnosed with at least one mental disorder. Once considered shameful, mental health issues are now being discussed more openly through various online platforms, such as the best mental health podcasts and blogs, which have made information more accessible. As a result, more people are seeking forms of mental healthcare and researchers are learning even more.

While research on mental health has come a long way, there is still a long way to go in destigmatizing mental health conditions and spreading mental health awareness. If you are looking for mental health research paper topics and are struggling to narrow down your list, take a look at the top 10 most interesting mental health research topics to help get you started.

Find your bootcamp match

What makes a strong mental health research topic.

The best way for you to develop a strong mental health research topic is by first having a specific and well-defined area of interest. Your research topic should provide a clear and simple roadmap to help you focus your research paper. Additionally, consider your audience and the topic’s significance within the mental health field. What does it contribute?

Tips for Choosing a Mental Health Research Topic

Choose a topic that is interesting to you. You may be writing to share your findings with your peers, but your topic should excite you first and foremost. You will spend a significant amount of time on it, so it should be work you are eager to dive into.
Choose a fresh approach. There is an extensive amount of mental health research conducted by mental health professionals. Use your research skills to choose a topic that does more than just restate the same facts and information. Say something that hasn’t been said before.
Choose a topic that matters. The topic you choose should make a contribution to all the mental health education and research that already exists. Approach your topic in a way that ensures that it’s of significance within the field.
Choose a topic that challenges you. A sure-fire way to find out if your topic meets the criteria of being interesting, fresh, and significant, is if it challenges you. If it’s too easy, then there must be enough research available on it. If it’s too difficult, it’s likely unmanageable.
Choose a topic that’s manageable. You should aim to choose a topic that is narrow enough in its focus that it doesn’t overwhelm you. Consider what’s feasible for you to dedicate to the research in terms of resources and time.

What’s the Difference Between a Research Topic and a Research Question?

The purpose of a research topic is to let the reader know what specific area of mental health research your paper will focus on. It is the territory upon which your research paper is based. Defining your topic is typically the initial step of any research project.

A research question, on the other hand, narrows down the scope of your research and provides a framework for the study and its objectives. It is based on the research topic and written in the form of a question that the research paper aims to answer. It provides the reader with a clear idea of what’s to be expected from the research.

How to Create Strong Mental Health Research Questions

To create a strong research question, you need to consider what will help guide the direction your research takes. It is an important part of the process and requires strong research methods . A strong research question clearly defines your work’s specific focus and lets your audience know exactly what question you intend to answer through your research.

2. The Psychology of Gender Identity, Inclusivity, and Diversity

With the conversations surrounding gender and identity in recent times, a research topic on the psychology of gender identity, inclusivity, and diversity is a good option. Our understanding of gender now, in the 21st century, has evolved and gender identity has become non-binary, more inclusive, and more diverse.

3. The Psychological Effects of Social Phobia on Undergraduate Students

Some of the most common mental illnesses in the United States are phobias, so the topic of the psychology and effects of phobias is interesting and relevant to the majority of people. There are various categories of phobias that have been identified by the American Psychiatric Association that you could choose to focus on.

4. Eating Disorders Among Teenagers and Adolescents

Eating disorders among teenagers and adolescents in the United States are prevalent, especially among young women. The statistics surrounding mental health issues show that 10 in 100 young women suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, as well as a preoccupation with food and body dysmorphia.

5. The Correlation Between Childhood Learning Disabilities and Mental Health Problems in Adulthood

When groups of people with learning disorders (LD) were compared with groups that had no known history of LD, a correlation between childhood LD and mental health issues in adulthood was found. This research is important because it helps us to understand how childhood LD increases mental health risks in adulthood and affects emotional development.

6. How Mental Disorder is Glamorized and Sensationalized in Modern Media

Shows and movies centered around the depiction of mental illness have become more popular in recent years. The portrayal of characters with mental illnesses can often be damaging and fail to take into account the complexities of mental disorders, which often leads to stigmatization and discrimination, and a reluctance to seek mental health care.

7. The Relationship Between Self-esteem and Suicide Rates Among Adolescents

A relationship between self-esteem and suicide rates among adolescents has been found when looking into their suicidal tendencies. This is more so the case with any individual who already suffers from a mental health issue. Low self-esteem has been linked to increased levels of depression and suicide ideation, leading to higher chances of suicide attempts among adolescents.

8. Destigmatizing Mental Illness and Mental Disorders

The rates at which people are diagnosed with mental illnesses are high. Even so, their portrayal in the media has resulted in the belief that those who suffer from a mental health issue or live in mental health facilities are dangerous. Conducting research on abnormal psychology topics and destigmatizing mental illness and mental disorders is important for mental health education.

9. Psychological Trauma and the Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Mental health statistics show that most abuse happens in childhood, causing long-lasting psychological trauma. The type of trauma caused by child abuse and childhood sexual abuse affects development in infants and children. It has been linked to higher levels of depression, anxiety, guilt, sexual issues, dissociative patterns, and relationship issues, to name a few.

10. Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Psychological Well-Being

There is no doubt about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 confinement on psychological well-being. The threat to public health, the social and economic stresses, and the various reactions by governments and individuals have all caused unexpected mental health challenges. This has affected behaviors, perceptions, and the ways in which people make decisions.

Mental Health Research Questions

Are digital therapy sessions as impactful as face-to-face therapy sessions for patients?
What are the best methods for effectively using social media to unite and connect all those suffering from a mental health issue in order to reduce their isolation?
What causes self-destructive behavior in some children?
Can introducing mental health topics in the school curriculum help to create understanding and reduce the stigmatization of mental disorders?
What are the most effective methods to improve brain health and emotional intelligence as we go through the aging process?

Choosing the Right Mental Health Research Topic

When choosing the right mental health research question, it is essential to figure out what single issue you want to focus on within the broader topic of mental conditions. The narrower your scope, the easier it will be to conduct thorough and relevant research. Vagueness can lead to information overload and a lack of clear direction.

However, even though it needs to be specific, your research question must also be complex enough to allow you to develop your research. If it’s too narrow in its focus, you won’t give yourself enough room to flesh out your findings as you build on your research. The key is to find the middle ground between the two.

Mental Health Research Topics FAQ

A mental disorder refers to any of the various conditions that affect and alter our behavior, thoughts, and emotions. More than half of Americans get diagnosed with a mental disorder at some point in their lives. They are common and manageable with the right support. Some mental illnesses are occasional, such as postpartum depression, while others are long-term, such as panic attacks.

Mental health research raises awareness of mental health disorders and promotes mental health care. It provides support and evidence for the effectiveness of mental health services and programs designed for psychiatric patients and those with mental health disorders. The information provided by the research helps us better understand mental illnesses and how best to approach treatment plans.

Behavioral health and emotional health are part of a person’s overall mental health since they are all interlinked and each one affects the other. When we speak of mental health, we are referring to behavioral, cognitive, and emotional well-being, which can also affect physical health.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the five main categories of mental illness include dementia, mood disorders such as bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, feeding and eating disorders, and personality disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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230 Current Mental Health Research Topics For Top Dissertation

Mental health characterizes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It involves the taking of multiple approaches to care for these different areas.

Medical news today notes that our mental health determines how we handle stress, relate to other people, and make healthy and articulate choices.

Mental health research is fast becoming one of the most researched areas in health. With this, so many research works can be chosen from this field. Therefore, as a student writing your essay on mental health, you must conduct extensive research for sufficient information.

Structure Of Mental Health Research Paper Or Essay

Students often have ample information on the chosen mental health nursing research topics, but the challenge they often encounter is properly arranging these topics to communicate knowledge effectively. We’ve prepared a mental illness research paper outline to improve your research paper.

Abstract. Your abstract provides a summary of the area your topic will be based on and what the aim and objectives of this topic focus are. Your abstract is like a door that leads to your research, so you need to make it interesting and informative.
Introduction. The introduction is the foremost part of your research paper or essay. Your introduction should always be straightforward, touching across all the relevant information that will be further pieced out subsequently.
Body. This is the actual content of your research paper or essay. In the body, you are expected to assemble all the various subtitles related and relevant to your topic of interest. All your opinions, findings, research methodology, and discussions will be contained in the body. To create a rich, high quality research paper or essay, the body of your writing must examine relevant data.
Conclusion. Your conclusion is the part where you are expected to summarise your arguments, thereby restating your thesis. By doing this, you’re bringing everything you’ve examined into consciousness again to remind your readers of the main issues and how it has been developed in the course of your writing.
Reference List. In the course of your essay, you must have used different sources. As you go along, you should therefore ensure that you keep notes of the books, journals, articles you have read, ensuring that the reference style goes with what your university and college recommend for your class. This way, you’ll stick with what your school dictates as the reference style and be praised by your teachers or professors at the end of the school year. Your references also have to be current.

By using this structure your thesis or dissertation will be way more clear.

Characteristics Of Mental Health Essay

How do you recognize a good essay? How do you know that everyone will welcome your contributions to the mental health essays? It would help if you considered these tips:

Clear Grammar. In other words, your diction must be grand yet easily understood. If it’s difficult for one to efficiently and thoroughly grasp your work, it’s not great work, and the essay’s purpose could be jeopardized. It would help if you communicated in simple language.
Conciseness. Conciseness is simply communicating in as few words as possible. As the soul of communication, brevity makes your words last longer in the minds of readers. To achieve this, erase superfluous or elaborative words, be pointed in your writing, and make your sentences too passive.
Depth and Arguments. Your arguments must be intellectually in depth and high level. With different mental health topics to write about, you need to explore a topic whose arguments you can profoundly develop. With this, you’ll be able to turn the ideas into something exciting and engaging. To create a good essay or an engaging one, this is something your readers look forward to.
Clear Structure. You must structure your work to relate well with your mental illness research topics. This is the only way to make your readers follow your thoughts without stress. Thus, your essay or paper must have an introduction, a body, the conclusion, and a reference list.

This brief guide should help you have an idea of what a professor is looking for. And now here is a helpful list of topics to consider when writing your bachelor thesis or about mental health in general:

Research Questions About Mental Health

Since the subject, mental health is quite vast and includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, below are some of the best mental health research questions that allow the student to focus on a particular field of research.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of delivering mental health care virtually?
Can mental health conditions limit how a person engages with technology?
How can physicians maximize the combination of existing treatment options with virtual mental health procedures?
Have virtual interventions been proven safe?
What are the measures put in place to ensure that mental health platforms are safe?
What different effects will the adoption of virtual meetups have on the patients’ appointment time?
Are virtual therapies as effective as physical therapies?
Can one ascertain total satisfaction from standard elements of therapy through virtual meetups?
Does virtual interaction create better avenues for minorities as compared to traditional interface?
Can the different virtual platforms be used to reach out to people with mental health problems effectively?
Does obesity affect mental health?
What are the possible symptoms of mental illness in family members?
At what point do people with mental illness become destructive?
What are the causes of anorexia?
Why does a person with mental illness begin to cut themselves?
How easily can one treat post-traumatic stress?
Does childbirth lead to depression?
Are mental illnesses more prevalent in men or women?
Is ADHD a mental illness?
What are the causes of ADHD in young adults?
Are mental illnesses prevalent in survivors of war?
Can OCD be termed a mental illness?
How can one tell when a person begins to develop obsessive-compulsive disorder?
Are movies, games, etc., some of the leading causes of depression in young adults?
How can one quickly ascertain if they’re mentally ill or not?
What are the side effects of drug abuse on mental health?
A study into medically proven ways of curing ADHD.
The impacts of ADHD on Young adults.
A study of the mental effects of excessive consumption of Marijuana
How ADHD and autism affect young people in the 21st century.
The mental challenges of living with learning disabilities.

Mental Health Research Paper Topics

Mental health is the psychological and emotional part of human health. Good mental health suggests good cognitive, behavioral, and emotional wellbeing. The following mental health research topics will provide multiple avenues for students to base their research topics on:

The relationship between depression and weight loss
The rise of eating disorders in teenagers and adolescents
The glamorization of mental illness in modern media
Why is it still somewhat taboo to speak openly about mental health?
The lasting psychological trauma of rape
PTSD in modern-day youth
How positive portrayals of mental illness in movies have helped destigmatize it
Violence in video games and violence in real life: is there a link between the two?
The effects of victim-blaming on rape victims
Is mental illness hereditary?
why mental health education is relevant in our society
ADHD in adults: regular, or a problem?
Harmful misconceptions about OCD
The relationship between physical health and mental wellness
Is postpartum depression a modern illness?
Why is a bipolar disorder more than a mood swing disorder
The relationship between childhood bullying and self-esteem issues in adults
Is mental illness more prevalent in men or women?
Advances in mental health education and research in the last decade
Living with mental health in the age of social media
Mental health and Nollywood: a study of mental illness portrayal in Nollywood
Mental health and social media: how social media has helped to destigmatize mental illness
Why schools should have functioning guidance counselors for students and teachers
The importance of including mental health topics in the school curriculum
The need to create safe spaces for people living with mental health issues.

Mental Health Topics To Write About

Your mental health deals with several health disorders, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and personality disorders. In case your mental health research topics are based on the categorical aspects of mental health, the following are research topics on mental health that you can write about:

What is mental health?
Destigmatizing mental health discussions
Mental health education in Nigerian societies
Can exposure to violent games and movies cause people to become killers?
Are sociopaths born or made?
The importance of self-affirmation to goal achievement
Why therapy isn’t only for the mentally ill
Why you have to love yourself to be able to receive love from others
Living with social anxiety
Overcoming low self-esteem
Why OCD is not just about an obsession with keeping things clean
How self-loathing makes us self-destructive
The benefits of mental health support groups
How to handle bullying when your child is the aggressor
Why do we need time for ourselves
Is your friend group toxic?
On low self-esteem and managing relationships
Why it’s insensitive to refer to the mentally ill as crazy
Why do we sometimes feel unloved?
Why it is helpful to have supportive friends and family when going through a hard time
Medically proven ways to deal with a constant depressive episode
Why depression pills should be regulated
Why everyone needs access to pills to relax anxiety
The importance of antidepressants to neurotics
How to successfully manage the challenges of living with mental health challenges

Mental Illness Research Paper Topics

Mental illness is a range of mental conditions that affect the mind, how we think, our behaviors. If you’ve been looking for the best mental illness research paper topics, your search stops here. Find below mental illness topics to help with your research:

The difference between depression and sadness
Similarities between bipolar disorder
Treating mental disorders using medication: a study on the pros and cons
The effects of postpartum depression on family members
The relationship between bullying and eating disorders
Common misconceptions about mental illness
Mental illness in the media: positive influence or harmful perpetuation of stereotypes?
A study on serial killers: how their childhoods shaped who they became
Self-esteem issues as a trigger for eating disorders
A study on the compulsive nature of kleptomania
A study on how movies shape our perception of mental illness
Identifying signs and symptoms of sociopathy in children
A study on the relationship between paranoia and impulsive actions
The relationship between suicide and low self-esteem
Genetics and mental illness: a study on mental illness in three generations of family members
A study on how past traumatic events shape our present
Why eating disorders are mental disorders
The portrayal of mental illness in the media in the past fifty years
Improvements in mental illness diagnosis and treatment in the past century
Examining the effects of mental illness on the lives of teenagers: a qualitative study
Examining the impacts of antidepressants in curbing depression
A study into the root cause of mental health challenges in young adults
Investigating the causes of mental illness in 80+ adults
The lingering cases of mental health challenges in older people
The need for the free accessibility of mental health facilities by students.

Research Topics In Psychiatry

Psychiatry is a vast field of study in medicine. Any psychiatry topics must make the research journey more straightforward. That said, the following are interesting topics in psychiatry:

Defects of tobacco addiction on the human brain
Treating schizophrenia: most effective ways
ADHD: more prevalent in adults than children?
Perfectionism and OCD: Where do we draw the line?
Why we should look out for symptoms of depression
How has the raid of COVID-19 affected the mental health of people?
What are the factors that provoke depression?
Bipolar disorders as symptoms of mental illness
What is the potency of talk therapy in relating to suicidal patients
Anxiety disorder: symptoms and remedies
Practical measures in overcoming alcohol abuse in men
Depression: cyberbullying as a tool for enhancing depressive tendencies in young adults
The adverse effect of antidepressants on brain activities
Genetics: A yardstick for determining mental health illness
Lack of sleep as a tool for building anxiety
Stress as a buildup for depression
Side effects of psychiatric treatments on older people
The effects of COVID-19 on brain activity
Preventing the excessive usage of sedatives in young adults
Aging as a measure of depression
Treating mental illness: Applying classical soul music as a means in the 21st century
Child mental disorders: curbing unhealthy family relationships
Postpartum depression is the leading cause of mental illness amongst women
A study on the distinction between Bipolar I and Bipolar II
The need for the destigmatization of psychiatric patients

Research Topics In Mental Health Nursing

Mental health nursing is a highly essential field of study that should be considered:

The challenges involved in psychiatric nursing care
Mental health risks involved in working with psychiatric patients
Merits and demerits of mental health nursing careers
Self-discipline in psychiatry nursing fields
Nursing ethics: what a nurse should know
Approaches to nursing theories
Talk therapy in nursing fields
Dealing with exposed trauma: a typical nursing experience
Psychiatry nursing: a walk in the park?
Limitation of responsibilities by nurses on psychiatric patients
The essence of skilled nurses in clinical psychology
Effective patients’ recovery: the roles of nurses in present-day psychiatry
Practical application of nursing experience in psychiatry wards
Forbidden practices in nursing homes
Is psychiatry nursing predominantly a woman’s job?
Promoting nursing staff shortage in health sectors
Evaluating anti stigmatization by nurses in psychiatric wards
Damning effects of psychiatric nursing on nurses
Mental health illness: are nurses exempted?
Nursing practices applied in treating children and adults
Helpful ways mental health nurses administer care to patients
Ways care for mental health patients can be improved in the hospitals
Effective ways of caring for mental health patients
Why mental health nursing should be a specialized healthcare role
Importance of mental health nursing
Why mental health nursing should be prioritized as a specialist role

Critical Analysis Research Paper Topics In Mental Health

The following are some critically analyzed paper topics in mental health that will make your research more accessible and give more depth to your essay.

Problems related to physical and mental health issues in men and women
Supporting children’s mental health in the 21st century
Bipolar disorder problem as a mental health challenge
Mental health and eating disorders
A mental health project: a research methodology on curbing mental illnesses
Connecting poverty and mental health problems
Mental health counseling: a way in the wilderness
Mental health administration: a necessity in present-day lives
Mental health and spirituality
Effects of marijuana on mental health
The critical role of school psychology in the mental health movement
Code of ethics for mental health professions worldwide
Mental health counselors: professionalism in workplaces
Mental health benefits in the employee benefits packages
Eliminating stigmatization in mental health diagnoses
Community mental health as a tool for curbing disorders
Mental health counselor: a much-needed remedy
Mental health issues in the criminal justice system
Refugees and their mental health
Medical ethics in mental health care
Child’s mental health and depression in adulthood: a qualitative study
Transitions in late life: a typical study of mental health concerns
Mental health nursing: health and illness
Mental health specialist jobs and career
Mental health: screening and assessment of nursing personnel
The role of female mental health in socio-cultural conditions
Schizophrenia: a dominant mental health disorder
Mental health practice model for public institutions
Mental health: research methodologies issues
Mental health strategies at the workplace

Good Research Questions About Mental Health

Good research questions must be willing to provide concise and thorough answers. Over time, researchers have generated questions that border on mental health that have proven highly effective.

Should the use of antidepressants be accessible to children?
Why do people need access to mental health care?
What is the importance of prioritizing mental health care?
Is self-care the same as mental health care?
Is there a correlation between self-care and mental health care?
How to prioritize mental health
The study of the growing mental health challenge amongst young adults
Growth of depression in third-world countries
The effects of poverty on mental health
A study on the effects of mental health education on the treatment of the mentally ill
Institutionalized bullying in schools and its effects on students’ mental health
The importance of mother’s mental health in the aftermath of childbirth
Addressing mental health problems in children below the age of ten
The effects of sudden environmental changes on childrens’ mental health
The focus on mental health in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic
Harmful effects of social media on the mental health of Nigerian youth
Fostering mental health discourse among males
Trolling and cancel culture and their effects on the mental health of their victims
The benefits of mental health apps in the lives of individuals
Measures to promote mental health awareness in religious spheres

Mental Illness Thesis Ideas

By nature, there are several mental illness thesis ideas you can explore. The following are proven great thesis ideas that concern mental health.

Addressing inadequate measures to combat mental illness in Nigerian societies
A study on the marginalization of the mentally ill in the society
Mental illness stigma and seeking help: how mental health stigma affects
The effects of mental illness stigma in people’s seeking of treatment
Embracing mental illness discourse in schools and the workplace
Why mental illness is an illness and not a figment of the imagination
The relationship between mental illness and violence
The relationship between childhood abuse and mental illness
The benefits of support systems to the mentally ill
Mental illness and the perpetuation of gun violence among youth in the united states
A study of mental illness portrayals in Nigerian media
Mental illness portrayals in Nigerian media: harmful or beneficial?
A study on the harmful effects of certain medications on mental disorders
Tackling common misconceptions about mental disorders among members of the older generation
Advancements in mental illness treatment methods
Breakthroughs in mental illness research in the 50s and 60s
A study on ethically questionable mental health research experiments in the last 50 years
Living with mental illness in the age of toxic internet culture
The increase in cases of depression and anxiety in youths between the early 2000s and late 2010s
Mental illness and criminality: a study on the relationship between the two
Drug abuse: a study on how college students engage in drugs
A study of the nicotine content of harmful drugs
A critical study of the early stage of mental illness in patients.

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Mental Health Dissertation Topics

Published by Carmen Troy at January 9th, 2023 , Revised On April 16, 2024

You probably found your way here looking for mental health topics for your final year research project. Look no further, we have drafted a list of issues, and their research aims to help you when you are brainstorming for dissertation or thesis topics on mental health.

PhD-qualified writers of our team have developed these topics, so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting a brief research proposal or full dissertation service from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an introduction to the topic, research question , aim and objectives, literature review , and the proposed research methodology to be conducted. Let us know if you need any help in getting started.

Check our dissertation examples to understand how to structure your dissertation .

Also read: Psychology dissertation topics & nursing dissertation topics

Latest Mental Health Dissertation Topics for 2024

Review the step-by-step guide on how to write your dissertation here .

Topic 1: Assessing the Influence of Parents’ Divorce or Separation on Adolescent Children regarding long-term psychological impact.
Topic 2: Investigating the impact of Trauma and Health-related quality of life on a child’s Mental health and self-worth.

Topic 3: Assessing the effect of Psychological training on males suffering from Post-Surgery Anxiety in the UK.

Topic 4: Investigating the Relationship between Mental Illness and Suicides- A case study of UK’s Young Adults.

Topic 5: Examining the behaviour of Mental Health Nurses taking care of Schizophrenia Patients in the UK.

Topic 1: an assessment of the influence of parents' divorce or separation on adolescent children in terms of long-term psychological impact..

Research Aim: This study aims to investigate the level of traumas experienced by the children of divorced or separated parents. The principal aim of this study is to explore the long-term psychological impacts of parents’ divorce on the life of children regardless of their gender and age in terms of mental wellbeing, academic performance, and self-worth.

Topic 2: An investigation of the impact of Trauma and Health-related quality of life on the Mental health and Self-worth of a child.

Research Aim: This study aims to assess the long-term impacts of the trauma children face in their early years of life on their overall mental health. Also, numerous studies have emphasized improving the quality of life for children who tend to experience multiple traumas and take them along in adulthood. Therefore, this study also proposed the impacts of traumatic childhood experiences on self-worth, mental health, and vitality of implementing firm intervention before the child reaches adulthood.

Research Aim: Postoperative problems may occur as a result of surgical stress. This study aims to examine different approaches to control post-surgical anxiety and improve patients’ lives in the short and long term, focusing on male patients in the UK. It will also give us an understanding of how psychological training and interventions affect anxiety in male patients and help them overcome this through a systematic review.

Topic 4: Investigating the Relationship between Mental illness and Suicides- A case study of UK's Young Adults.

Research Aim: This study aims to find the relationship between mental illness and suicides and risk factors in the UK. This study will specifically focus on young adults. It will examine different mental disorders and how they have led to suicide and will analyse further studies of people who had died by suicide and find evidence of the presence or absence of mental illness.

Research Aim: Negative behaviours and discrimination have been usually reported as a reason for the inconvenience in the treatment of mentally ill or schizophrenia patients, which negatively impacts the patient’s results. Health care professionals’ attitudes have been regarded as being more negative than the general public, which lowers the outlook for patients suffering from mental illness. This study will examine the behaviour of mental health nurses regarding schizophrenia patients in the UK and also focus on the characteristics associated with nurses’ attitudes.

COVID-19 Mental Health Research Topics

Topic1: impacts of the coronavirus on the mental health of various age groups.

Research Aim: This study will reveal the impacts of coronavirus on the mental health of various age groups

Topic 2: Mental health and psychological resilience during COVID-19

Research Aim: Social distancing has made people isolated and affected their mental health. This study will highlight various measures to overcome the stress and mental health of people during coronavirus.

Topic 3: The mental health of children and families during COVID-19

Research Aim: This study will address the challenging situations faced by children and families during lockdown due to COVID-19. It will also discuss various ways to overcome the fear of disease and stay positive.

Topic 4: Mental wellbeing of patients during the Coronavirus pandemic

Research Aim: This study will focus on the measures taken by the hospital management, government, and families to ensure patients’ mental well-being, especially COVID-19 patients.

Best Mental Health Topics for Your Dissertation in the Year 2023

Topic 1: kids and their relatives with cancer: psychological challenges.

Research Aim: In cancer diagnoses and therapies, children often don’t know what happens. Many have psychosocial problems, including rage, terror, depression, disturbing their sleep, inexpiable guilt, and panic. Therefore, this study is designed to identify and treat the child and its family members’ psychological issues.

Topic 2: Hematopoietic device reaction in ophthalmology patient’s radiation therapy

Research Aim: This research is based on the analysis of hematopoietic devices’ reactions to ophthalmology’s radiation.

Topic 3: Psychological effects of cyberbullying Vs. physical bullying: A counter study

Research Aim: This research will focus on the effects of cyberbullying and physical bullying and their consequences on the victim’s mental health. The most significant part is the counter effects on our society’s environment and human behaviour, particularly youth.

Topic 4: Whether or not predictive processing is a theory of perceptual consciousness?

Research Aim: This research aims to identify: whether or not predictive processing is a theory of perceptual consciousness?

Topic 5: Importance of communication in a relationship

Research Aim: This research aims to address the importance of communication in relationships and the communication gap consequences.

Topic 6: Eating and personality disorders

Research Aim: This research aims to focus on eating and personality disorders

Topic 7: Analysis of teaching, assessment, and evaluation of students and learning differences

Research Aim: This research aims to analyse teaching methods, assessment, and evaluation systems of students and their learning differences

Topic 8: Social and psychological effects of virtual networks

Research Aim: This research aims to study the social and psychological effects of virtual networks

Topic 9: The role of media in provoking aggression

Research Aim: This research aims to address the role of media and in provoking aggression among people

Best Mental Health Topics for Your Dissertation in the Year 2022

Topic 1: what is the impact of social media platforms on the mental wellbeing of adults.

Research Aim: the current study aims to investigate the impact social media platforms tend to have on adults’ mental well-being with a particular focus on the United Kingdom. While many studies have been carried out to gauge the impact of social media platforms on teenagers’ mental well-being, little to no research has been performed to investigate how the health of adults might be affected by the same and how social media platforms like Facebook impact them.

Topic 2: The contemporary practical management approach to treating personality disorders

Research Aim: This research will discuss the contemporary practical management approach for treating personality disorders in mental health patients. In the previous days, much of the personality disorder treatments were based on medicines and drugs. Therefore, this research will address contemporary and practical ways to manage how personality disorders affect the mental state of the individuals who have the disease.

Topic 3: How is Prozac being used in the modern-day to treat self-diagnosed depression?

Research Aim: In the current day and age, besides people suffering from clinical depression, many of the teens and the adults across have started to suffer from self-diagnosed depression. To treat their self-diagnosed depression, individuals take Prozac through all the wrong means, which harms their mental state even more. Therefore, the current study aims to shed light on how Prozac is being used in the modern age and the adverse effects of misinformed use on the patients.

Topic 4: Are women more prone to suffer from mental disorders than men: Comparative analysis

Research Aim: There have been several arguments regarding whether women are more likely to suffer from mental disorders than men. Much of the research carried out provides evidence that women are more prone to suffer from mental disorders. This research study aims to conduct a comparative analysis to determine whether it’s more likely for men or women to suffer from mental disorders and what role biological and societal factors play in determining the trend.

Topic 5: The impact of breakups on the mental health of men?

Research Aim: Several studies have been carried out to discuss how women are affected more by a breakup than men. However, little research material is available in support of the impact the end of a relationship can have on men’s mental health. Therefore, this research study will fill out the gap in research to determine the impact of a breakup on men’s mental health and stability.

Topic 6: A theoretical analysis of the Impact of emotional attachment on mental health?

Research Aim: This research aims to analyse the theories developed around emotional attachment to address how emotional attachment can harm individuals’ mental health across the globe. Several theories discuss the role that emotional attachment tends to play in the mind of a healthy being, and how emotional attachment can often negatively affect mental well-being.

Topic 7: How do social media friendships contribute to poor mental health?

Research Aim: This research idea aims to address how social media friendships and networking can often lead to a lack of self-acceptance, self-loathing, self-pity, self-comparison, and depression due to the different mindsets that are present in today’s world.

Topic 8: What role do parents play in ensuring the mental well-being of their children?

Research Aim: It is assumed that parents tend to stop playing a role in ensuring that the mental health and well-being of their children are being maintained after a certain age. Therefore, this study will aim to put forward the idea that even after the children pass the age of 18, activities and their relationship with their parents would always play a role in the way their mental health is being transformed.

Topic 9: A study on the mental health of soldiers returning from Iraq?

Research Aim: This topic idea puts forward the aim that the mental health of soldiers who return from war-struck areas is always a subject of interest, as each of the soldiers carries a mental burden. Therefore, it is vital to understand the soldiers’ mental health returning from Iraq, focusing on what causes their mental health to deteriorate during the war and suggestions of what to do or who to call if they do become unwell.

Topic 10: How the contemporary media practices in the UK are leading to mental health problems?

Research Aim: The media is known to have control and influence over people’s mindsets who are connected to it. Many of the contemporary media practices developed in the UK can negatively impact the mental well-being of individuals, which makes it necessary to analyse how they are contributing to the mental health problems among the UK population.

Topic 11: What is the impact of television advertising on the mental development of children in the UK?

Research Aim: This topic would aim to address how television advertising can negatively impact children’s mental development in the United Kingdom, as it has been observed in many studies that television advertising is detrimental to the mental health of children.

Topic 12: How deteriorating mental health can have an Impact on physical health?

Research Aim: This research aims to address the side-effects of deteriorating mental health on the physical health of individuals in the society, as it is believed that the majority of the physical ailments in the modern-day and age are due to the deteriorating mental health of individuals. The study can address the treatments for many ailments in our society due to deteriorating mental health and well-being.

Topic 13: The relationship between unemployment and mental health

Research Aim: How unemployment relates to concepts, such as a declining economy or lack of social skills and education, has been frequently explored by many researchers in the past. However, not many have discussed the relationship between unemployment and the mental health of unemployed individuals. Therefore, this topic will help address the problems faced by individuals due to unemployment because of the mental blocks they are likely to develop and experience. In the future, it would lead to fewer people being depressed due to unemployment when further research is carried out.

Topic 14: The mental health problems of prisoners in the United Kingdom

Research Aim: While prisoners across the globe are criticised and studied for the negativity that goes on in their mindsets, one would rarely research the mental health problems they tend to develop when they become a prisoner for committing any crime. It is often assumed that it is the life inside the prison walls that impacts the prisoners’ mental health in a way that leads to them committing more crimes. Therefore, this research topic has been developed to study prison’s impact on prisoners’ mental well-being in the United Kingdom to eventually decrease the number of crimes that occur due to the negative environment inside the prisons.

Topic 15: Mental well-being of industry workers in China

Research Aim: While many research studies have been carried out regarding the conditions that the workers in China tend to be exposed to, there is very little supporting evidence regarding the impact such working conditions have on the mindset and mental health of the workers. Therefore, this study aims to address the challenges faced by industry workers in China and the impact that such challenges can have on their mental well-being.

Topic 16: Is the provision of mental health care services in the United Kingdom effective?

Research Aim: Many people have made different assumptions regarding the mental health care services provided across the globe. However, it seems that little to no research has been carried out regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of the provision of mental health care services in the United Kingdom. Therefore, this study aims to put forward research into the mental health care services provided in well-developed countries like the United Kingdom to gauge the awareness and importance of mental health in the region.

Topic 17: What are the mental health problems the minorities in the United Kingdom face?

Research Aim: It is believed that the minorities in the United Kingdom are likely to experience physical abuse, societal abuse and are often exposed to discrimination and unfair acts at the workplace and in their social circle. The study investigates the range of mental problems faced by minorities in the UK, which need to be addressed to have equality, diversity, and harmony.

Topic 18: The impact the Coronavirus has had on the mental health of the Chinese people

Research Aim: The spread of the deadly Coronavirus has led to many deaths in the region of China, and many of those who have been suspected of the virus are being put in isolation and quarantine. Such conditions tend to have hurt the mental health of those who have suffered from the disease and those who have watched people suffer from it. Therefore, the current study aims to address how the Coronavirus has impacted the mental health of the Chinese people.

Topic 19: How to create change in mental health organisations in China?

Research Aim: Research suggests little awareness about mental health in many Asian countries. As mental health problems are on the rise across the globe, it is necessary to change mental health organisations. Therefore, the study aims to discuss how to create change in mental health organisations in the Asian region using China’s example.

Topic 20: Addressing the mental health concerns of the Syrian refugees in the UK

Research Aim: This research project would address the concerns in terms of the refugees’ mental health and well-being, using an example of the Syrian refugees who had been allowed entry into the United Kingdom. This idea aims to put forward the negative effects that migration can have on the refugees and how further research is required to combat such issues not just in the United Kingdom but worldwide.

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Important Notes:

As a mental health student looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment on existing mental health theories – i.e., to add value and interest in the topic of your research.

Mental health is vast and interrelated to so many other academic disciplines like civil engineering , construction , project management , engineering management , healthcare , finance and accounting , artificial intelligence , tourism , physiotherapy , sociology , management , project management , and nursing . That is why it is imperative to create a project management dissertation topic that is articular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic based on your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

While developing a research topic, keeping our advice in mind will allow you to pick one of the best mental health dissertation topics that fulfill your requirement of writing a research paper and add to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and be practically implemented. Please look at some of our sample mental health dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure your Mental Health Dissertation

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

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Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems. An outline of the structure of a dissertation can also be added to this chapter.
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Methodology : The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter which usually includes research design , research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods, and data analysis strategy .
Findings and Analysis : Findings of the research are analysed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts, and tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
Discussion and Conclusion : The researcher presents his interpretation of results in this chapter, and state whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section of the paper is to draw a linkage between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regards to implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
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Reasons for hope

Solutions for the mental health crisis emerge through innovative research, diagnostics and treatments

By Nina Bai

Illustration by Jules Julien

Photography by Leslie Williamson

It’s the spring of hope for mental health, astir with novel discoveries, life-changing therapies and more openness than ever before — yet, for many, it feels like the winter of despair. The pandemic years, that crucible of stress, isolation and uncertainty, fueled and exposed mental health problems. In 2022, nearly 1 in 4 American adults (about 59 million people) said they experienced a mental illness in the previous year, but only half of those afflicted reported receiving any mental health treatment.

Among children and adolescents, the prevalence of mental illness, which had been steadily creeping upward, jumped during the pandemic, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In 2019, 15.7% of American adolescents aged 12-17 reported experiencing a major depressive episode in the past year. In 2022, that number was 19.5%. That same year, 13.4% of adolescents — just over 1 in 8 — seriously thought about killing themselves.

And even as the pandemic has stoked demand for mental health care, it also has worn down the mental health workforce, already short-handed, with early retirements and widespread burnout. Access to affordable, effective interventions remains a daunting barrier. People face long waiting lists and lack of insurance coverage. Many treatable conditions remain undiagnosed because people lack a way to obtain assessments.

Yet, below this perfect storm of mental health crisis, there is a strong undercurrent of hope that begins in the lab. Research is leading the way toward treatments that are more effective, more personalized and more accessible.

“The manner in which we know the brain now, compared with what we knew in previous decades, is incredibly different,” said Victor Carrión , MD, the John A. Turner, MD, Endowed Professor for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and vice chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

Direct impact on patients

New imaging technologies allow researchers to see the neural circuitry that goes awry in neuropsychiatric disorders, lab-grown clumps of brain tissue — known as organoids — can simulate the impact of genetics in autism, and artificial intelligence can surmise signals that predict the onset of depression and anxiety.

Moreover, these discoveries, rather than moving slowly through specialist silos, can now rapidly inform new treatments. “Collaboration is vital for translation, and our departmental awards and programs promote and emphasize synergy between research and clinical practice,” said Laura Roberts , MD, the Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor and chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

“Our bench scientists doing tremendous research also work alongside our clinicians to make sure that new knowledge translates to the clinical setting and has a direct impact on patient care,” she said.

Researchers developing transcranial magnetic stimulation, for example, work with clinicians who treat patients with severe depression to design clinical trials, and their techniques are informed by teams inventing new ways to measure the flow of brain signals and those building virtual reality models of the brain.

A clearer understanding of the biology of mental health disorders not only leads to breakthrough treatments — but just as powerfully, helps dissipate stigma.

“There’s been a large shift in stigma in the past 25 years,” said Heather Gotham , PhD, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, who leads the coordination of a nationwide network of centers dedicated to implementing evidence-based mental health care.

The Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, offers training in preventing school violence, substance use in the workplace, adolescent depression and more, and it offers support for mental health providers seeing refugees and asylum seekers.

“Collaboration is vital for translation, and our departmental awards and programs promote and emphasize synergy between research and clinical practice.” Laura Roberts, the Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor and chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences

“One thing that’s made a difference is the greater understanding that mental health disorders and substance use disorders are chronic, relapsing disorders of the body, just like diabetes and heart disease,” Gotham said.

With this new awareness, more people want to be mental health literate. In the past few years, Gotham has seen a surge of interest, from a broader community, in the network’s online courses — from teachers, for example, who want to be more responsive to the needs of students and reduce stigma in the classroom.

Less stigma also means more money for research and mental health services. Funding for mental health has become a rare bipartisan issue. In 2022, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which has provided $245 million to fund mental health services like training for school personnel, first responders and law enforcement and expanding the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline.

Stanford Medicine researchers know that to make the most impact with their discoveries they must reach those who need help the most — through online symptom screenings, virtual therapy, group therapy, inclusive clinical trials and community interventions.

They are training mental health professionals locally and globally in new evidence-based techniques. Providers in more than 38 countries, for example, have been trained in cue-centered therapy, a 15-week treatment program developed at Stanford Medicine to help children and teens recover from chronic trauma. Recently, pro bono training in cue-centered therapy was provided to clinicians in Ukraine.

What gives Roberts hope is that a more open conversation on mental health is drawing together experts from different fields with a shared purpose. “It used to be that clinicians would stay in their clinical practice and refer to journals for new research, and researchers would stay in the lab and never see a patient — and we don’t have that now,” she said. “I see more openness and more flexibility from the current generation of researchers and clinicians.”

Read on in this issue of Stanford Medicine to learn about some of the ways Stanford Medicine researchers and clinicians are advancing the understanding of mental health and sharing that knowledge.

Nina Bai is a science writer in the Stanford Medicine Office of Communications.

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Understanding Black and African American Grief Following Inclusion of Prolonged Grief Disorder in the DSM-5-TR

Published: 01 August 2023

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Jasmine R. Jamison-Petr 1 , 2 &
Joah L. Williams ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6745-4221 1 , 3

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Black and African Americans experience bereavement more frequently and earlier in life than White Americans and thus may be more impacted by prolonged grief disorder (PGD). With the revision of the DSM-5 and the inclusion of PGD as a recognized psychiatric syndrome, researchers have an opportunity to further the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of PGD in Black grievers residing in the United States. Relatively little research has been devoted to the specific risks and resiliencies impacting bereavement-related mental health outcomes among these individuals. Participants in our study were invited to participate in a Qualtrics-based survey disseminated through Centiment. A total of 259 participants were included in the final sample. Overall findings suggest demographic factors such as educational attainment and gender were not significantly associated with PGD. Factors such as younger age, prior trauma exposure, and violent circumstances of the death were associated with PGD, though only PTSD and anxiety symptoms were associated with PGD after adjusting for co-occurring mental health symptoms. These findings point to identifiable risk factors and resilience factors that may contribute to grief trajectories among Black grievers.

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This work was supported by a grant from the UMKC School of Graduate Studies to Jasmine R. Jamison-Petr.

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Jasmine R. Jamison-Petr. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jasmine R. Jamison-Petr and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Joah L. Williams .

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Jamison-Petr, J.R., Williams, J.L. Understanding Black and African American Grief Following Inclusion of Prolonged Grief Disorder in the DSM-5-TR . J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01727-x

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Received : 08 May 2023

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01727-x

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Physical Fitness Linked to Better Mental Health in Young People

A new study bolsters existing research suggesting that exercise can protect against anxiety, depression and attention challenges.

By Matt Richtel

Physical fitness among children and adolescents may protect against developing depressive symptoms, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a study published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.

The study also found that better performance in cardiovascular activities, strength and muscular endurance were each associated with greater protection against such mental health conditions. The researchers deemed this linkage “dose-dependent,” suggesting that a child or adolescent who is more fit may be accordingly less likely to experience the onset of a mental health disorder.

These findings come amid a surge of mental health diagnoses among children and adolescents, in the United States and abroad, that have prompted efforts to understand and curb the problem.

Children run in a field outside a small schoolhouse.

The new study, conducted by researchers in Taiwan, compared data from two large data sets: the Taiwan National Student Fitness Tests, which measures student fitness performance in schools, and the National Insurance Research Databases, which records medical claims, diagnoses prescriptions and other medical information. The researchers did not have access to the students’ names but were able to use the anonymized data to compare the students’ physical fitness and mental health results.

The risk of mental health disorder was weighted against three metrics for physical fitness: cardio fitness, as measured by a student’s time in an 800-meter run; muscle endurance, indicated by the number of situps performed; and muscle power, measured by the standing broad jump.

Improved performance in each activity was linked with a lower risk of mental health disorder. For instance, a 30-second decrease in 800-meter time was associated, in girls, with a lower risk of anxiety, depression and A.D.H.D. In boys, it was associated with lower anxiety and risk of the disorder.

An increase of five situps per minute was associated with lower anxiety and risk of the disorder in boys, and with decreased risk of depression and anxiety in girls.

“These findings suggest the potential of cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness as protective factors in mitigating the onset of mental health disorders among children and adolescents,” the researchers wrote in the journal article.

Physical and mental health were already assumed to be linked , they added, but previous research had relied largely on questionnaires and self-reports, whereas the new study drew from independent assessments and objective standards.

The Big Picture

The surgeon general, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, has called mental health “the defining public health crisis of our time,” and he has made adolescent mental health central to his mission. In 2021 he issued a rare public advisory on the topic. Statistics at the time revealed alarming trends: From 2001 to 2019, the suicide rate for Americans ages 10 to 19 rose 40 percent, and emergency visits related to self-harm rose 88 percent.

Some policymakers and researchers have blamed the sharp increase on the heavy use of social media, but research has been limited and the findings sometimes contradictory. Other experts theorize that heavy screen use has affected adolescent mental health by displacing sleep, exercise and in-person activity, all of which are considered vital to healthy development. The new study appeared to support the link between physical fitness and mental health.

“The finding underscores the need for further research into targeted physical fitness programs,” its authors concluded. Such programs, they added, “hold significant potential as primary preventative interventions against mental disorders in children and adolescents.”

Matt Richtel is a health and science reporter for The Times, based in Boulder, Colo. More about Matt Richtel

Understanding A.D.H.D.

The challenges faced by those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can be daunting. but people who are diagnosed with it can still thrive..

Millions of children in the United States have received a diagnosis of A.D.H.D . Here is how their families can support them .

The condition is also being recognized more in adults . These are some of the behaviors that might be associated with adult A.D.H.D.

Since a nationwide Adderall shortage started, some people with A.D.H.D. have said their medication no longer helps with their symptoms. But there could be other factors at play .

Everyone has bouts of distraction and forgetfulness. Here is when psychiatrists diagnose it as something clinical .

The disorder can put a strain on relationships. But there are ways to cope .

Though meditation can be beneficial to those with A.D.H.D., sitting still and focusing on breathing can be hard for them. These tips can help .

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How incentives could better treat stimulant use disorder

by Eric Horvath, University of Pennsylvania

Are gift cards and cash one way to help ease the drug overdose crisis?

The number of overdose deaths in the United States has doubled since 2015, exceeding 106,000 deaths in 2023. Although the overdose crisis is commonly referred to as the "opioid" overdose crisis, by 2021 approximately 50% of overdose-death toxicology reports showed evidence of recent use of cocaine or methamphetamine. This emergence of stimulants is often referred to as the "fourth wave" of the overdose crisis.

Although research has been underway for more than three decades to develop medications for people addicted to cocaine and methamphetamine, to date, none have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However, one group of Penn researchers advocates building on the success of a national program in the VA and efforts in California to increase access to a treatment called contingency management.

Contingency management (CM) is a form of behavioral economics developed in the 1990s that focuses on incentivizing behavior for patients, such as receiving a prize or a cash reward, when they prove through biological testing that they have not used stimulants.

The concept is as simple as it appears to be powerful: Pay for a desired outcome. Researchers at Penn regularly pursue incentives for everything from smoking cessation to improving patient services in a health care setting.

Building on early successes

While seemingly simple in principle, incentivizing someone to stop misusing stimulants can, in practice, be both misunderstood and difficult to manage.

Gabriela Khazanov, Ph.D., a research associate with the Penn Center for Mental Health and associate fellow with the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, and James McKay, Ph.D., a professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, published a viewpoint in the journal Addiction making the case that researchers and clinicians should consider updating CM protocols and dissemination practices.

"These are recommendations that should be considered alongside guardrails to ensure that CM is being delivered with fidelity to its basic principles," Khazanov noted. "This is an attempt to adapt CM to our current situation, as stimulant use is rising at a rate faster than current CM protocols can keep up."

Specifically, they recommend adaptations that include equal parts bureaucracy and technology: requiring Medicaid and private insurers to bill for CM services, using federal or state funds to pay for incentives, encouraging longer durations of CM (California uses a 24-week protocol instead of a more typical 12-week protocol), reconsidering guidelines for when patients can repeat CM or re-engage following periods of drug use, and modifying protocols to prioritize engaging and retaining patients in treatment.

Overcoming barriers and looking forward

While CM has been in place for some time, the practice has come with some questions.

"There have been concerns that CM is 'paying patients for something they should be doing anyway' but the fact is that incentivizing abstinence is effective and acceptable to patients and providers," McKay said. The next step, according to McKay, should be to further refine CM protocols and improve access to the treatment so that it has the potential to reduce population-level stimulant use.

Another more tangible roadblock to expanding the use of CM is a current $75 cap on the use of federal funds for CM incentives. The cap requires Medicaid and other federal agencies funding health care services to go through a process in each state to request a waiver to provide higher incentives that are consistent with evidence-based recommendations. Either lifting the cap and/or developing parameters for a CM safe harbor policy would allow clinics providing CM to do so without needing to worry about triggering a Medicaid fraud investigation.

According to Richard Rawson, Ph.D., research professor at the University of Vermont, who collaborated with McKay and Khazanov on this work, it's also not clear if money that is earned by patients during CM treatment is considered taxable income.

"For some patients who receive government support for housing and food, and/or Medicaid, receiving taxable income can jeopardize eligibility for these benefits. Guidance from the Internal Revenue Service on if and how CM would be taxed would add clarity," Rawson added.

The future of CM for stimulant use disorder

Looking ahead, the next phases of CM for stimulant use disorder are likely to include robust research, including expanding into virtual options for CM, using direct-to-consumer marketing to educate on the benefits of CM and generate demand from both patients and providers, as well as adapting CM to being culturally responsive—that is, shaping the intervention to a community's values and preferences while retaining its core elements.

However, the concept of CM for stimulant use disorder is one that appears to be gaining newfound momentum, with enough data to show its impact while still being open to refinement.

"It's a pretty unique treatment without a perfect analog," Khazanov said. "It's a simple concept that, when implemented correctly, is highly effective, enjoyable for providers and patients, and has the capacity to transform lives."

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Weekly Roundup for May 3, 2024: Recent Publications in Women’s Mental Health

Eve ry week we review the most recent publications in women’s mental health, covering topics related to premenstrual symptoms, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, use of medications in pregnant and breastfeeding women, perinatal substance use, and menopausal mental health.

For more detailed descriptions of many of these topics, you can sign up to receive our weekly CWMH NEWSLETTER which comes out every Thursday.

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