Smiling can actually add years to your life, counteracting the effects of stress, alleviating pain, lowering blood pressure, and boosting the immune system.

Laughter actually triggers beneficial physical changes in the body, strenthening the immune system by decreasing hormones that compound stress and increasing the presence of antibodies that fight infections.

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.

Sometimes tragedies, losses, or terminal illnesses really galvanise us into action, make our priorities crystal clear, and give us a strength we did not know we had…

New research from the University of Chicago suggests that anthropomorphism — giving human characteristics to animals, things, or supernatural beings, and forming relationships with them — helps people deal with loneliness.