Astronauts’ mental health risks tested in the Antarctic

Astronauts who spend prolonged time alone in space face mental health stressors like loneliness, isolation and more. A psychologist developed the Mental Health Checklist, a self-reporting instrument for detecting mental health changes in isolated, confined, extreme environments. She's reporting results that show significant declines in positive emotions.
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Psychedelic experience may not be required for psilocybin’s antidepressant-like benefits

Researchers have shown that psilocybin -- the active chemical in 'magic mushrooms' -- still works its antidepressant-like actions, at least in mice, even when the psychedelic experience is blocked. The new findings suggest that psychedelic drugs work in multiple ways in the brain and it may be possible to deliver the fast-acting antidepressant therapeutic benefit without requiring daylong guided therapy sessions.
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Profound loss of pleasure related to early-onset dementia

Loss of the ability to experience pleasure - or anhedonia - has been revealed as a key feature in frontotemporal dementia, in contrast to Alzheimer's disease. The findings from brain scans, believed to be a first, show grey matter deterioration in the so-called pleasure system of the brain - these regions were distinct from those implicated in depression or apathy, suggesting a possible treatment target for the early-onset dementia that affects people from 40-65 years.
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