While depression and anxiety are often considered to be “diseases” of the affluent, new studies find them to be just as common in poorer countries. Can a Western model of interpreting and treating mental distress be applied to other cultures?

The shocking mortality rate for anorexia — higher than for any other psychiatric disorder — is not due just to starvation or physical deterioration, says new research, but to sufferers committing suicide in the most violent and determined of ways.

Research on the effects of anger expression on speed of wound healing shows that bottling it up and expressing anger in a controlled way do not affect the healing process adversely, but losing your temper sure does.

Compared with placebo, the new-generation antidepressants do not produce clinically significant improvements in depression in patients who initially have moderate or even very severe depression. That’s according to a new meta-analysis of clinical trials research. A triumph for the placebo effect! How does it work?

Should happiness and fulfillment be subjects on the school curriculum? Is this a holistic way forward, or a case of “experts colonising our internal life”?

What is mindfulness? Why do we need it? And what does it have to do with therapy?

Although research in this area is in its infancy, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is generally revealed by a recent overview to be a promising therapy in terms of clinical effectiveness.