Translational Research Related Content

Longitudinal research into borderline personality disorder (BPD) has revealed a paradox: symptomatic remission is common, but doesn’t uniformly translate into improved psychosocial functioning. Psychosocial functioning is the ability to work, build, or maintain a supportive social network, or...

It is well established that dissociative experiences are commonly reported by adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and differentiate them from adults with other psychiatric disorders. In contrast, dissociation in adolescents with BPD has not been well studied. Researchers at McLean...

A new study led by researchers at McLean Hospital, a member of Mass General Brigham, and Washington State University used advances in digital testing to demonstrate that naturally occurring glucose fluctuations impact cognitive function in people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Results showed that...

Anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) use has become a major worldwide substance use disorder that threatens the health of tens of millions of individuals. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that lead certain people to start using these drugs. Researchers at McLean Hospital reanalyzed data...

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented exposure to stressors driven by fears of a novel and deadly disease, intense uncertainty, and resulting isolation measures, which in turn resulted in increases in anxiety for many. According to new research, however, individuals who were in...

Baszucki Group announced the launch of a new partnership with McLean Hospital for a clinical trial of a therapeutic ketogenic diet for bipolar disorder. A cross-disciplinary team at the McLean OnTrack™ program will investigate nutritional ketosis as both a novel treatment strategy and a critical...

Depression has become the leading cause of disability worldwide across all illnesses, according to the World Health Organization. In only a single year, 264 million people deal with depression , and 800,000 lives are lost to suicide . Yet psychiatrists are often forced to resort to a trial-and-error...

Irritability is the most common reason children are brought for psychiatric evaluation. It is a diagnostic criterion or associated symptom for multiple diagnoses listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Over the past 20 years, much has been learned...

An international team led by investigators at McLean Hospital analyzed the genes expressed in approximately 575,000 individual cells from the brains of people with and without post-traumatic stress and major depressive disorders (PTSD and MDD), revealing new insights into the mechanisms behind the...

Much research on treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs) focuses on reducing symptoms like depression and cravings. However, a growing body of literature examines the role of grit, gratitude, happiness, and other positive psychological constructs, including optimism. Dispositional optimism—the...

Cell therapy holds promise as a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease, but in many trials to date, most transplanted dopamine cells have failed to survive, raising a fundamental obstacle. Recent advancements led by researchers at McLean Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital could change this...

Former professional football players who reported experiencing concussion symptoms during their playing careers were found to perform worse on a battery of cognitive tests than nonplayers, according to a study led by Mass General Brigham investigators from McLean Hospital and Spaulding...

All too often, getting to the right diagnosis and treatment plan for a mental health disorder is a time-consuming, confusing, and stressful progression of guesswork, trial and error, and missed opportunities. This painful scenario is only intensified when it’s a child who is struggling. Dr. Alex De...

Black children in the United States are more likely to experience childhood adversity than white children, and these disparities are reflected in differential changes to regions of the brain linked to psychiatric diseases like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to new research led by...

Trauma can cause dissociative symptoms—such as having an out-of-body experience, or feeling emotionally numb—that may help an individual cope in the short term but can have negative impacts if the symptoms persist for a long period of time. In a new study recently published in...

Since the onset of the pandemic, scientists have been searching for existing, available medications that might be repurposed to treat COVID-19. Laboratory studies and observations in patients suggested that medications used to treat depression —especially so-called serotonergic antidepressants such...

One of the major challenges in health care today is addressing social determinants that can affect the quality of care a person receives. Central to improving that care is for patients to be able to see people who look like them—whether at the bench or the bedside. That’s the central premise of the...

Can early life stress contribute to how COVID-19 affects a patient? That’s a question being asked by a McLean Hospital researcher in a national mental health study of college students in his native Pakistan that will be conducted over the next two years. The project is one of two undertaken by...

One of the persistent questions surrounding the reluctance of some women to get COVID-19 vaccinations is the potential impact on their reproductive health. A McLean Hospital researcher and some colleagues are working hard to provide some answers. “Women and parents of girls are very concerned about...

Julianne Wilner Tirpak, PhD, an early career psychologist, understands that dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is the gold-standard treatment for young people who struggle to manage their emotions, particularly those who exhibit self-harm or suicidal behaviors. As the inaugural recipient of a unique...