Reference Terms
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Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a range of techniques which use only dialogue and communication and which are designed to improve the mental health of a client or patient, or to improve group relationships (such as in a family). Most forms of psychotherapy use only spoken conversation, though some also use various other forms of communication such as the written word, art work or touch. Commonly psychotherapy involves a therapist and client(s) - and in family therapy several family members or even other members from their social network - who discuss their issues in an effort to discover underlying problems and to find constructive solutions.
Therapy may address specific forms of diagnosable mental illness, or everyday problems in relationships or meeting personal goals. Treatment of everyday problems is more often referred to as counseling but the term is sometimes used interchangeably with "psychotherapy".
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August 1, 2026
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July 31, 2026 A gene involved in the brain’s overnight cleaning system may change how strongly poor sleep affects Alzheimer’s-related brain changes. The findings point toward more personalized prevention strategies based on both genetics and sleep ...
July 31, 2026 A person’s sleeping brain may reveal warning signs of dementia long before memory problems begin. Researchers used machine learning to analyze EEG recordings from about 7,000 adults and found that an older-than-expected “brain age” was tied to ...
July 30, 2026 Researchers have uncovered a possible biological pathway connecting obesity to Alzheimer’s disease. Obesity appears to raise levels of certain fat molecules that can travel to the brain, disrupt its immune defenses, and promote harmful amyloid ...
July 30, 2026 Keeping a regular daily schedule may help reduce pain and depression, especially among older adults with insomnia. Researchers found that consistent times for waking, eating, socializing, and sleeping were linked to better well-being regardless of ...
July 27, 2026 Eating within a shorter daily window may help protect certain thinking skills as people age. In a small six-month trial, older women who limited eating to about 8 to 9 hours a day performed better on planning and problem-solving tests than those who ...
July 26, 2026 Scientists have identified a possible tipping point that helps determine whether Alzheimer’s-related brain changes lead to dementia. The key may lie in how the brain’s immune cells respond to plaques and tau, offering a promising new target for ...
July 26, 2026 The Backrooms began as a single eerie image of empty yellow rooms, but internet users transformed it into a vast fictional world that feels disturbingly real. Through videos, games, maps, survival ...
July 25, 2026 A decades-old diabetes drug just got a surprising twist. Scientists have discovered that metformin doesn’t just work in the liver and gut—it also acts directly in the brain, where it taps into a hidden control center for blood sugar. By ...
July 25, 2026 Even mild inflammation during pregnancy led mouse offspring to develop persistent brain overactivity, sensory sensitivity, repetitive behaviors, and increased seizure risk. Remarkably, one dose of rapamycin improved nearly all of these problems ...
July 25, 2026 Scientists expected SuperAgers might simply inherit fewer Alzheimer’s-related risks, but their genes looked much like those of typical older adults. Their extraordinary memories may instead come from still-unknown protective forces involving the ...
July 25, 2026 Newer oral drugs related to semaglutide medications such as Ozempic reduced pleasure-driven eating in mice by quieting a deep brain reward circuit. The finding could open new avenues for understanding food cravings and potentially treating substance ...
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July 30, 2026 Christof Koch is taking on one of science’s deepest mysteries: how the brain creates conscious experience, or whether it creates it at all. He argues that materialism has yet to solve this “hard ...
July 29, 2026 Signals traveling from the gut to the brain may help turn meals into lasting memories. Rats showed stronger memory activity after consuming nutritious foods, but not after drinking sweet liquids with ...
July 27, 2026 Dreams are not random mental noise. A large study of more than 3,700 dream and waking reports found that what we experience during sleep is shaped by both our personalities and the world around us. ...
July 24, 2026 The longevity-linked APOE2 gene appears to protect brain cells by reducing DNA damage and helping neurons recover from stress. The finding could open a new path toward treatments that mimic APOE2’s ...
July 22, 2026 Researchers found that specific brain circuits help decide which jobs bees perform as they age. When those circuits were switched off, older worker bees began caring for the queen again instead of ...
July 22, 2026 Miniature brain models grown from patients’ cells revealed striking differences in how Alzheimer’s-related tissue responds to an antidepressant. The organoids and the particles they release could ...
July 22, 2026 A single dose of psilocybin produced measurable changes in brain activity and possible changes in brain structure that lasted for up to a month. Participants who experienced the greatest increase in ...
July 21, 2026 Watching television very often in midlife may be linked to troubling brain changes decades later. In a study of about 1,700 adults, frequent TV viewers later showed smaller brain regions involved in ...
July 20, 2026 Researchers have uncovered a surprising culprit behind sleep loss in Alzheimer’s disease: the brain’s own immune cells. In mice with amyloid ...
July 20, 2026 A protein called SORLA may act as a powerful defense against the toxic tau tangles involved in Alzheimer’s disease. Mice with extra SORLA had less ...