Comprehensive research review identifies most promising interventions to boost workplace mental health

Why an evi­­dence-dri­ven approach is the best way for busi­ness­es to sup­port work­place men­tal health (World Eco­nom­ic Forum): Men­tal health has nev­er been high­er on the agen­da for busi­ness­es. It is easy to see why, as even pri­or to COVID-19, anx­i­ety and depres­sion were esti­mat­ed to cost the glob­al econ­o­my over $1 tril­lion every year in…

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Study: Higher mental wellbeing (in 2016) seen to lower healthcare costs (in 2017)

There are many rea­sons why men­tal well­be­ing is impor­tant. Not only is it pro­tec­tive against phys­i­cal ill­ness­es and linked to greater pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, but the men­tal well­be­ing of a pop­u­la­tion is essen­tial for a country’s sus­tain­abil­i­ty, long-term growth and devel­op­ment. But despite the clear ben­e­fits, gov­ern­ments tend to focus pub­lic spend­ing on treat­ing and pre­vent­ing disease,…

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The landscape of digital mental health apps: huge unmet needs, quality concerns, app stores asked to ensure transparency

Address­ing the men­tal health cri­sis (Phar­ma Field): Each day we find out more about the men­tal health effects of the pan­dem­ic. Ear­ly on, the Office for Nation­al Sta­tis­tics found that one in five Britons report­ed symp­toms of depres­sion, com­pared with one in 10 before. And, accord­ing to a recent study led by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Nottingham…

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New book shares science and techniques to breathe better and promote calmness not anxiety

Scrolling social media, amid fran­tic elec­­tion-relat­ed posts and news of esca­lat­ing COVID-19 cas­es, you may have come across a friend remind­ing every­one to just breathe. But can just-breath­ing real­ly make a dif­fer­ence? In his new book Breath: The New Sci­ence of a Lost Art, jour­nal­ist James Nestor argues that mod­ern humans have become pret­ty bad…

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On neurons, lifelong learning, meditation, humility, “empty brain calories” and more

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing 12 fas­ci­nat­ing neu­ro­science find­ings and open questions–and the beau­ti­ful image above. #1. “With this image I want to illus­trate the large advances made in imag­ing meth­ods over the past cen­tu­ry, allow­ing mod­ern neu­ro­sci­en­tists to look at neu­rons in ways that Cajal could have only dreamed of.” –…

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Debate: Can mindfulness and meditation be harmful?

Yes (in per­haps 8% of indi­vid­u­als). Can mind­ful­ness and med­i­ta­tion be harm­ful? (Sci­ence Focus): Med­i­ta­tion has escaped both the reli­gious cells of monks and nuns and the labs of sci­en­tists. An increas­ing num­ber of peo­ple are using med­i­ta­tion apps to deal with men­tal health prob­lems, such as depres­sion and anx­i­ety. Although there is no clear estimate…

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