A looming presidential election, continued economic struggles and the threat of gun violence have a rising number of Americans more anxious this year compared to last, a new poll finds. The survey, conducted in early April among 2,000 adults by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), found 43% of respondents saying they were more anxious this year than last. That’s a higher percentage than was found in polls conducted in 2023 (37%) or 2022 (32%) , the APA noted. Seventy percent of adults say they’re worried about current events, particularly the economy (77%), the upcoming election (73%) and news of gun violence (69%). “Living in a world of constant news of global and local turmoil, some anxiety is natural and expected,” APA president Dr. Petros Levounis said in a news release. “But what stands out here is that Americans are reporting more anxious feelings than in past years. This increase may be due to the unprecedented exposure that we have to everything that happens in the world around us, or to an increased awareness and reporting of anxiety.” Other issues weighing heavily on Americans’ minds: Keeping themselves or their families safe, 68% Keeping their identity safe, 63% Their health, 63% Paying bills or expenses, 63% The opioid epidemic, 50% The impact of emerging technology on day-to-day life, 46% Climate change, 55% When asked what daily factors…  read on >  read on >

The active chemical in magic mushrooms could prove to be a powerful antidepressant, a new review finds. Psilocybin outperformed a variety of “control” treatments in easing symptoms of depression, researchers reported May 1 in the BMJ. Those control groups received either placebo medications, the dietary supplement niacin (vitamin B), or microdoses of psychedelics. “This review’s findings on psilocybin’s efficacy in reducing symptoms of depression are encouraging for its use in clinical practice as a drug intervention for patients with primary or secondary depression, particularly when combined with psychological support and administered in a supervised clinical environment,” concluded the research team led by Athina-Marina Metaxa, a master’s student with the University of Oxford’s Department of Medicine in the U.K. Depression affects an estimated 300 million people worldwide, an increase of nearly 20% over the past decade, researchers said in background notes. Psilocybin has shown promise in reducing depression symptoms after one or two doses, with few side effects and no apparent risk of addiction, researchers said. To provide an overview of where research now stands, a U.K. team examined data from seven clinical trials involving 436 people with depression. Psilocybin provided a significantly greater change in depression scores than any of the control treatments, results show. The treatment effects of psilocybin were significantly more powerful among patients who had depression alongside another mental illness, and when…  read on >  read on >

Women approaching menopause appear to be at higher risk of depression, a new review indicates. Women in the transition period prior to menopause are 40% more likely to experience depression than premenopausal women, according to pooled data from seven studies involving more than 9,100 women around the world. The results show that women heading into menopause “are significantly more likely to experience depression than either before or after this stage,” said senior researcher Dr. Roopal Desai, a clinical fellow in psychology with University College London. “Our findings emphasize the importance of acknowledging that women in this life stage are more vulnerable to experiencing depression,” Desai added in a university news release. “It also underlines the need to provide support and screening for women to help address their mental health needs effectively.”  This transition period, called perimenopause, usually occurs three to five years before the onset of menopause, researchers said in background notes. During this transition, the ovaries begin producing fewer female hormones, and fluctuating hormone levels can cause mood changes along with irregular menstrual cycles and other symptoms, researchers said. This stage of menopause continues until a year after a woman’s last period, and can often last between four and eight years overall, researchers said. The analysis included studies involving women from the United States, Australia, China, the Netherlands and Switzerland, researchers said. Menopause symptoms…  read on >  read on >

At what age does loneliness strike adults the hardest? A new review maps it out, finding that people are more lonely as young adults, grow less lonely as they approach middle age, and then fall back into loneliness in old age, researchers reported April 30 in the journal Psychological Science. “What was striking was how consistent the uptick in loneliness is in older adulthood,” said researcher Eileen Graham, an associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “There’s a wealth of evidence that loneliness is related to poorer health, so we wanted to better understand who is lonely and why people are becoming lonelier as they age out of midlife, so we can hopefully start finding ways to mitigate it,” Graham said. Social isolation can increase the risk of premature death to levels comparable to daily smoking, according to the U.S. Surgeon General. For the review, researchers evaluated data from nine long-term studies conducted around the world. All of the studies showed a U-shaped loneliness curve, even though they tested different groups of people from the United States, the U.K., Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia and Israel, researchers said.   “Our study is unique because it harnessed the power of all these datasets to answer the same question — ‘How does loneliness change across the lifespan, and what factors…  read on >  read on >

Current and former smokers might lower their risk for emphysema if they adopt a highly nutritional plant-based diet, a new study shows. People with a history of smoking who adopted a plant-based diet had a 56% lower risk of developing emphysema, compared to those who ate more meat, researchers report. Further, the more veggies and fruits people included in their diet, the lower their risk of emphysema. “Identifying these modifiable factors, such as diet, is vital for helping reduce the risk of developing chronic lung disease in those with a history of smoking,” said lead researcher Mariah Jackson, a registered dietitian nutritionist and assistant professor with the University of Nebraska Medical Center. These findings jibe with earlier studies that “show an association between an individual’s dietary choices and lung health, including reducing wheezing in children and lowering asthma occurrence in children and adults,” Jackson added. For the study, researchers followed more than 1,700 participants in a long-term heart health study, all of whom were recruited between the ages of 18 and 30 and followed for three decades. They all were current or former smokers by year 20 of the study, and had filled out questionnaires tracking their diet history and quality. More than 1,300 of those participants had a CT scan at year 25 of the study to see whether they’d developed emphysema, among other…  read on >  read on >

Cancer survivors in the throes of loneliness are more likely to die compared to those with companionship, a new study finds. Further, people who are the most lonely are the most likely to die, results show. “Loneliness, the feeling of being isolated, is a prevalent concern among cancer survivors,” said lead researcher Jingxuan Zhao, a senior associate scientist in health services research at the American Cancer Society. Cancer diagnosis and treatment tends to isolate people as they engage in a personal struggle with the dreaded disease, straining their social relationships, Zhao explained. “There are more than 18 million cancer survivors in the U.S. and that number is expected to increase to 22 million by 2030,” Zhao said. “We need to address this critical issue now.” For the study, researchers tracked more than 3,400 cancer survivors aged 50 and older who responded to a federally funded study on retirement and health between 2008 and 2018. About 28% of the survivors reported severe loneliness, and another 24% reported moderate loneliness. Those reporting the highest level of loneliness were 67% more likely to die than the least lonely, researchers found. The new study was published April 25 in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. “What’s needed is the implementation of programs to screen for loneliness among cancer survivors and to provide social support to those in…  read on >  read on >

The emotional turmoil caused by a stolen dog is akin to that of a parent losing a child, a new study finds. The findings support the idea that pets truly become family members to their owners, researchers said. When faced with the theft of a pet, owners tend to feel a similar sense of powerlessness, grief and loss. In fact, some study participants felt the loss of a dog was more intense than the death of a friend or relative, owing to the closeness of the bond they had with their pet but not with some family members. “It provides evidence of the intense love of dogs and the parental accountability of guardians,” said lead researcher Akaanksha Venkatramanan, an assistant psychologist with the Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K. For the study, published April 25 in the journal Animal-Human Interactions, researchers conducted interviews with four people who’d had their dogs stolen. The people were recruited through social media. “This research was launched when my friends’ dog, Lola, was stolen from under her nose in her back garden by someone we presume was posing as a delivery driver,” researcher Lindsey Roberts, a senior lecturer at the University of the West of England, said in a journal news release. “The distress rocked everyone, and I felt more had to be done to support those who…  read on >  read on >