Psychology

Those who spend their entire teenage years playing violent computer games need not expect harmful psychological consequences. This is the result of a U.S. study now published in the journal "Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking," in which scientists observed a group of children and adolescents between the ages of ten and 23 over a total period of ten years and assessed their behavior.

The Imperial College London's Centre for Psychedelic Research will run the first clinical trial of depression treatment with the psychedelic and illegal substance dimethyltryptamine (DMT). It will be held in in collaboration with Small Pharma, with a neuropharmaceutical company.

Small Pharma stated that the approval is a "truly ground-breaking moment" in the treatment of depression and the chief medical and scientific officer at the company, Carol Routledge, has added that she believes that "Psychedelic assisted therapy will revolutionise the treatment of depression because it gets right to the root cause of the illness".

Researchers from Britain’s Oxford University have found that 20% of Covid-19 patients are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within 90 days. The study analyzed over 62,000 cases of Covid-19 in the United States and has been published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.

Mental health specialists not directly involved with the study evaluated the findings and stated that it adds to growing evidence that Covid-19 can increase the risk of a range of psychiatric illnesses as it can affect the brain and mind. People who had recovered, including those no longer reporting symptoms, exhibited significant cognitive deficits when controlling for age, gender, education level, income, racial-ethnic group and pre-existing medical disorders.

The course with the title "Psychology and the Good Life" was originally taught in spring 2018 by the psychology professor Laurie Santos. Since then it has become the most demanded course at the university with over 1,182 enrolled students. Due to the huge request, Laurie Santos has adapted the course for online learning and published it on Coursera, gathering over 600,000 enrolled students.