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Pet owners have long known — or rather, felt — that spending time with their beloved animal companion lowers stress and improves mood.

An extensive review that Medical News Today reported on included several testimonials from people living with mental health conditions who vouched for the emotional comfort and psychological benefits that their pets brought them.

In fact, the review concluded that pets should be part of patient care plans because of their valuable contribution to people’s mental health and well-being.

Now, new research adds more scientific credibility to these claims. Researchers Patricia Pendry, an associate professor in the Department of Human Development at Washington State University in Pullman, and Jaymie L. Vandagriff, of the same department, set out to examine the effect of pets on the physiology of college students.…

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In 2017, around 17.3 million adults in the United States experienced an episode of major depression.

Alongside talking therapies such as psychotherapy, many people with depression take antidepressants.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a 2011–2014 survey found that 12.7% of U.S. individuals aged 12 or above had taken antidepressant medication in the previous month.

That equates to almost 1 in 8 people.

Of these individuals, one-quarter had been taking antidepressants for at least 10 years.

Although many people use these drugs, there is still a great deal of controversy surrounding how well they work — and studies have generated conflicting results.…

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The practice of microdosing — that is, taking small doses of psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin or N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), to improve mental health, well-being, or productivity — has garnered more and more attention in recent years.

Medical News Today have reported on studies that revealed benefits of magic mushrooms and Ayahuasca for treating mental health disorders, often while avoiding the side effects of more conventional treatments.

Anecdotal evidence in online forums speaks of additional benefits, such as “improvements in energy, mood, cognition, concentration, management of stress, creativity, spiritual awareness, productivity, language capabilities, relationships, and visual capabilities.”

Also, the practice has garnered more popularity after prominent figures, including Steve Jobs, praised the benefits of microdosing lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for creativity and cognition.…

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Contact with nature can demonstrably help improve and maintain our health, according to scientific research.

Last year, for example, a randomized controlled trial found that spending time walking in nature helped lower cortisol (stress hormone) levels and significantly improve mood.

And, earlier this year, a study that we covered on Medical News Today concluded that even just having access to green spaces throughout childhood decreased a person’s risk of developing mental health problems later in life.

Now, research by investigators from the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom suggests that the passive enjoyment of green spaces — for instance, being able to see the trees in your back garden from your bedroom window — can help reduce the frequency and intensity of cravings with potentially harmful effects, such as those for unhealthful snacks, alcohol, or tobacco.…

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Deborah L. Levy, Ph.D. — from the McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA — led the new study, the findings of which now appear in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

It revealed that people who had additional copies of a certain gene, instead of the regular two, benefited from the treatment.

The mutation, called a copy number variant (CNV), affects the glycine decarboxylase gene.

One hypothesis is that the doubling of this gene might reduce glycine, an amino acid and neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Researchers believe that a reduction of glycine is a factor in schizophrenia.

Boosting glycine

The new study focused on two participants, a mother and her son, with this particular mutation.…

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Throughout history — both recent and distant — doctors have made many mistakes.

In some cases, they meant well, but they did not yet have the knowledge or technology to assess a person’s health condition correctly.

In other cases, however, they diagnosed non-existent medical conditions or disorders as a means of backlash against social outliers.

Some “conditions” that we will discuss in this Spotlight feature, such as “bicycle face,” may sound amusing, while others, such as dysaesthesia aethiopica, may sound scary.

But all of these fabricated “conditions,” and especially the fact that some doctors and members of the public took them very seriously at the time, likely had a substantial adverse effect on the lives of the people who received a diagnosis for one of them.…

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