Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Special Report

The Future of Mental Health

Smithsonian magazine brings you stories about the latest advancements in treatments and understanding of mental illness

A pregnant mother’s mental wellness can impact her child’s future physical, mental and behavioral health

Science

Can a Mother’s Mental Health Impact a Baby in the Womb?

Growing research indicates a pregnant woman’s stress level and overall mental well-being can affect fetal and child development, yet access to prenatal mental health care remains inadequate

Ketamine and esketamine are the only psychedelics currently being used clinically with eating disorder patients.

Science

Are Psychedelics the Future of Eating Disorder Treatment?

The drugs have been shown to reduce depression and anxiety symptoms and make individuals more flexible in their thinking

Many new digital psychiatry solutions have attracted funding in recent years, and experts have questions about how helpful or harmful they will be.

Science

Can Digital Psychiatry Really Fill the Mental Health Care Gap?

Thousands of new tools with unproven results are entering the fold to help Americans in need

More Stories

People with a rare form of epilepsy have reported feelings of bliss just before having a seizure. A French Swiss neurologist has pinned down where this “aura” originates in the brain in hopes that one day, that feeling might be reproduced non-invasively in others.

Science

Some People Experience Blissful Ecstasy Right Before a Seizure. Could Understanding This Feeling Help Treat Depression?

A neurologist shares her thoughts and research about “ecstatic epilepsy” in a wide-ranging conversation on how we perceive the world—and create the world we perceive

“Brain rot” was the Oxford Word of the Year 2024.

Science

Can You Really ‘Rot’ Your Brain by Scrolling Too Much on Your Smartphone?

While that message has been spread on social media, researchers are just beginning to understand how the devices affect the mind

Scientists are currently studying whether cannabis use may cause schizophrenia.

Science

Inside the Quest to Understand the Link Between Cannabis and Schizophrenia

Recent studies have examined the relationship between the drug and psychoses and looked at how the brain responds to the substance

Girls' ADHD symptoms are often mistakenly attributed to other issues, like anxiety or depression, and it may take until adulthood for women to be accurately diagnosed.

Science

Why Are So Many More Women Being Diagnosed With ADHD?

Experts once thought ADHD was something only boys experienced. The research is finally starting to catch up with reality

Ibogaine extract is pictured next to the iboga root it is derived from. The psychedelic drug has shown potential to treat traumatic brain injury and opioid addiction.

Smart News

Texas Will Invest $50 Million in Ibogaine Research, Testing the Psychedelic Drug’s Medical Potential

The state’s new law marks one of the largest government investments into psychedelics to date, with advocates citing the drug’s potential to help veterans with traumatic brain injury and PTSD

Researchers developed a wearable device to monitor participants' breathing.

Smart News

The Way You Breathe Is Unique to You, Like a Fingerprint, New Study Suggests

Researchers could identify people with almost 97 percent accuracy based on 24 hours of their recorded breathing patterns, and they also found links to a person’s mental and physical condition

Psychiatric neurosurgery, originally known as psychosurgery, involves operating on the brain to alter its function.

Science

What Does the Future Hold for Psychiatric Brain Surgery?

For some patients, removing brain tissue can help treat OCD and other disorders. But ethical concerns remain

More than a third of endometriosis patients are misdiagnosed with mental health conditions.

Science

For Some Women With Serious Physical Ailments, Mental Illness Has Become a Scapegoat Diagnosis

Patients with difficult-to-diagnose conditions like endometriosis are often sent home with diagnoses like anxiety or bipolar disorder

A new study suggests that among adolescents mental health disorders could be “socially transmitted,” though its researchers could not establish any direct cause.

Science

Is Depression Contagious?

The science about whether mental health conditions can spread socially is uncertain, but exposure to an affected peer can drive awareness