While it is commonly understood that a difficult childhood can lead to mental health issues, research has now exposed deeper, more troubling impacts of early life adversity: that these experiences can reshape the brain and body at a cellular level. Physiological effects like these are at the core of the McGill-Douglas-Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry International Collaborative Initiative in Adversity and Mental Health (AMH Initiative).

Despite growing awareness about the high rates of suicide among men, research is still needed to examine men’s mental health challenges. Existential psychology, with its focus on questions of meaning and value, may bring new insights that can aid in this examination.

COVID-19 has taken a relatively limited toll on the mental health of most people around the globe, according to a paper published today in the BMJ by a McGill University-led research team involving collaborators from McMaster University, the University of Toronto, and other institutions.

The team reviewed data from 137 studies in various languages involving 134 cohorts of people from around the world. Most of the studies were from high or middle-income countries, and about 75% of participants were adults and 25% were children and adolescents between the ages of 10-19.

It’s easy to imagine the emotional distress of both parents and children in families where there isn’t enough to eat. Especially if it happens regularly. An increasing number of studies have shown an association between food insecurity and adverse mental health outcomes. Now, new research from McGill University has looked at the impacts of food insecurity on the mental health of both parents and children separately.

Applying machine learning to a database of testimonials uncovers how drug-induced changes in subjective awareness are mechanistically rooted in the human brain

Psychedelics are now a rapidly growing area of neuroscience and clinical research, one that may produce much-needed new therapies for disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Yet there is still a lot to know about how these drug agents alter states of consciousness.

A research study from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, where Dr. Christina Wolfson, a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health is a co-PI was featured by Big News Network.

Visible minorities, health-care workers and young people in Quebec have been at higher risk of experiencing COVID-19-related discrimination and more likely to suffer from poor mental health in the past year, according to a collective of researchers from McGill University, Concordia University and the University of Ottawa.

The researchers set out to study how factors such as people’s socioeconomic and minority status, discrimination, stigmatization and mental health impact their understanding and adoption of public health measures to combat the coronavirus.