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Equity is often depicted as individuals of varying heights, abilities or vantage point as they seek to watch a ballgame or to pick fruit from a tree. A simplified description of equity, as opposed to equality, is to “meet people where they are”. Mental health equity, where individuals are allowed the opportunity for the best state of mental health they can achieve, is not an end point, but a process that calls for all stakeholders to take part. The cover image represents the layers of active commitment that go into cultivating mental health equity and the role of community alongside individuals.
See our Editorial for more on Nature Mental Health’s commitment to mental health equity.
Despite the many modern challenges to mental health, opportunities for improving outcomes abound. Multidisciplinary and structural approaches to mental health research provide promise and a call to work toward mental health equity. Nature Mental Health hopes to be part of that progress.
Neurotechnologies that measure and modulate brain activity have not yet reached widespread clinical relevance. To accelerate translation into patient care, we propose three strategic adjustments in neurotechnology research — to consider the scope, scalability and stakeholders.
Multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease that involves white matter lesions throughout the brain, and depression is a common comorbidity. In this paper, Siddiqi, Kletenik et al. propose the use of a recently developed technique known as lesion network mapping to identify a common depression network that may represent a treatment target for neuromodulatory approaches to treating depression.
People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are at increased risk of suicide and face a shortage of efficient treatments options. A new study shows that brain stimulation by magnetic seizure therapy, combined with dialectical behavioral therapy, reduces suicidality, depressive symptoms and interpersonal symptoms in people with BPD.
In this Perspective, the authors propose a new approach to addressing mental health globally that encompasses a breadth of disciplines, from neuroscience to intervention and implementation sciences.
Osimo et al. developed two models to predict the risk of treatment-resistant schizophrenia in patients with a first-episode psychosis using blood-based biomarkers and sociodemographic data routinely collected at psychosis onset in psychosis early intervention services in the United Kingdom. They used clozapine treatment as a proxy for treatment-resistant schizophrenia using data from 785 patients for model development and 1,110 patients for external validation.
Traynor, Ruocco et al. find that the conjoint magnetic seizure therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy lead to a rapid, significant and clinically meaningful reduction in suicidal ideation in individuals with comorbid borderline personality disorder and treatment-resistant depression.
In this network and pairwise meta-analysis of 498 brain imaging studies, McCutcheon et al. demonstrate patterns of distinct and overlapping brain volume changes across psychiatric disorders.
Man, Gao and colleagues find that methylphenidate treatment in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is associated with reduced risk of physical abuse.