Latest Research News

Adults over age 65 who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia are more than twice as likely to die from suicide compared to older adults who do not suffer from dementia, according to a new study led by Timothy Schmutte, PsyD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Women’s Health Research at Yale today announced funding for three new studies investigating a method for improving the diagnosis of heart disease in women, a therapy for clinically significant sleep disruption common in Black women, and the influence of biological sex on the underlying brain patterns that link pain and opioid use.

Miraj Desai, PhD, Instructor in Psychiatry, is first author of a paper in American Psychologist that aimed to better understand the sources of barriers to care for Latinx and Asian patient populations by examining shared themes across providers’ descriptions of their encounters.

Daniel Levey, PhD, Associate Research Scientist in Psychiatry, and Joel Gelernter, MD, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and of Neuroscience, are among the authors of a study relating DNA variations and anxiety disorders which has revealed several previously unidentified locations in the human genome where variations in the sequence tend to occur in people with anxiety, compared with people who don't have anxiety.

While researchers have known about the mental health costs of chronic stress, they say this situation is unique because during the pandemic people have also lost many of the social connections and outlets needed to help manage their stress loads.

Yale Department of Psychiatry and Yale Child Study Center researchers conducted the first randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial of intravenous ketamine in adolescents with depression.

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, in a pair of complementary studies, investigated eating disorders in Iraq and Afghanistan war-era veterans, a group thought to be at high risk for the disorders.

Older patients recently diagnosed with dementia are at a significantly increased risk for suicide compared to their peers without dementia. Investigators found that individuals who were diagnosed with dementia had a 54% increased risk for suicide within the first year after diagnosis. The risk was particularly high among those aged 74 years and younger. Timothy Schmutte, PsyD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, was the study investigator.

Dr. Sarah Lichenstein is leading a study on how CBD may affect behavior and the brain to determine how it affects women and if it affects women and men differently.