psychology

Training people to get rid of unwanted thoughts can improve their mental health, according to a study from the University of Cambridge (UK). The research team stresses that these results "challenge the century-old wisdom" that trying to get rid of negative thoughts can have harmful effects on mental health. The study, published in Science Advances, involved 120 adults - some with major depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder - from 16 countries, who underwent a three-day online training to suppress certain thoughts. After the training, participants reported feeling less anxiety, negative emotions and symptoms of depression.

A systematic review published in Nature Human Behaviour shows that there is a lack of solid scientific research supporting strategies commonly recommended by the media to increase happiness. The research identifies the five strategies most commonly cited by the press: expressing gratitude, improving sociability, exercising, practising meditation or mindfulness and increasing exposure to nature. According to the study, which analysed the published scientific literature on these practices, their effectiveness in increasing happiness is uncertain, because most of the research lacked sufficient statistical power to detect noticeable benefits or had not been previously recorded - a common practice in psychology today.

Two decades of research has found no differences in psychological well-being and the quality of family relationships between children born through assisted reproduction with third-party intervention (gamete donation or surrogacy) and those born naturally. The results, published in Developmental Psychology, suggest that it is better to talk to them early, at preschool age, about their biological origins.

Scientists at the University of Granada question whether regular exercise has cognitive benefits as previously thought. Their work, published in Nature Human Behaviour, has analysed 24 meta-analyses and 109 primary studies on the subject.

A study published in NEJM that followed a cohort of more than 300 transgender and non-binary youth, aged 12-20, for two years concluded that hormone therapy led to improvements in their symptoms of depression and anxiety.

A study of hospitalised young people in the United States concludes that those with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria are four to five times more likely to be hospitalised for a suicide attempt or to have attempted self-harm. The research is published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.

A study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health shows that 98% of a cohort of trans adolescents in the Netherlands who started hormone treatment before adolescence continued to do so years later.

A study in mice published in the journal Nature has analysed the different responses to aggression and the consequences for subsequent behaviour. In general, animals that confronted the aggressor developed greater resilience than those that fled or avoided the aggressor, and the gain was greater as brain circuits associated with dopamine were activated.

Research among more than 7,000 US adults shows small changes in extraversion, agreeableness, openness to change and conscientiousness between the period before the covid-19 pandemic and the year 2022, especially in younger people. The study is published in PLOS ONE.

A study published in PNAS analyses changes in happiness in ten European countries, including Spain, from the 1980s to 2018, and relates them to the generosity of their welfare programmes.