An estimated 50% or more of parents with ADHD have a child with ADHD. The high heritability of the illness is of particular concern because some of its primary symptoms include impairments in executive functioning and emotional regulation—two factors that are likely to affect how parents respond to therapies designed to help them better manage their children, especially those who have ADHD.

The continuing search for more effective schizophrenia treatments is directly related to efforts by researchers to more precisely understand mechanisms underlying major symptoms such as psychosis and cognitive dysfunction, as well as patients’ varying response to antipsychotic medicines. (An estimated 30% of first-episode psychosis and recently diagnosed schizophrenia patients do not respond adequately to antipsychotics.)

Friday, October 30, 20269:30AM EDT - 12:30PM EDT Kaufman Music Center129 West 67th Street, New York City, 10023 Join us for presentations on leading research discoveries across brain and behavior disorders by the Foundation’s 2026 Outstanding Achievement Prizewinners PRESENTATIONS: WelcomeJeffrey Borenstein, M.D.President & CEO, BBRF

In the continuing search for new and more effective methods of treating addiction, researchers in the U.S. and around the world have been testing various modes of non-invasive brain stimulation, reporting mixed success. In a newly published paper, a team led by a BBRF grantee reports encouraging preliminary results in a randomized, blinded clinical trial of a non-invasive brain stimulation method called theta-frequency transcranial alternating current (tACS), in a people with opioid use disorder (OUD).

New findings from the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) show that the prevalence of cannabis use disorder (CUD) among American adults, both male and female and across multiple age groups, has increased significantly in recent years, while the prevalence of alcohol use disorder (AUD) has remained stable and even declined a bit in some subgroups over the same period.

Dr. Conor Liston explains how antidepressant treatments, including ketamine, increase neural connections and modify functional connectivity in the brain, insights that may help predict and improve outcomes.

Various mobile technologies and apps are making possible enhanced diagnosis and treatment of several brain and behavior disorders.

Talking about Alzheimer’s disease can be difficult. A diagnosis may bring fear, grief, uncertainty, and questions about what the future will hold. Friends and family members may worry about saying the wrong thing, while the person living with Alzheimer’s may feel embarrassed, anxious, frustrated, or excluded. Yet avoiding the subject can deepen isolation. Thoughtful, respectful communication can help preserve connection, reduce distress, and remind a person that they remain valued and understood.

A research team led by BBRF grantees has reported the first randomized, controlled trial in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) to demonstrate that a pharmacological intervention—follow-on treatment with low-dose buprenorphine—can maintain and enhance the anti-suicidal effects of a single ketamine infusion over the course of a month.

Newly published research by a team led by BBRF grantees finds distinct age-related patterns in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that may help explain challenges in social communication that characterize the disorder and how they change over time.

Over the last quarter-century, a number of pivotal studies focusing on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have powerfully documented the cumulative effects of exposure to potentially traumatic experiences on a wide range of health conditions affecting the brain and body. Abuse, neglect, and exposure to violence in and beyond the household setting are now understood to take a heavy toll on young people, with impacts often extending far beyond childhood.

A team led by BBRF grantees and Scientific Council members has reported the first-ever randomized, controlled trial to assess the effects of a ketogenic diet on psychiatric symptoms, metabolism, and cognition in people with schizophrenia spectrum and bipolar I disorders.

Talking about Alzheimer’s disease can be difficult. A diagnosis may bring fear, grief, uncertainty, and questions about what the future will hold. Friends and family members may worry about saying the wrong thing, while the person living with Alzheimer’s may feel embarrassed, anxious, frustrated, or excluded. Yet avoiding the subject can deepen isolation. Thoughtful, respectful communication can help preserve connection, reduce distress, and remind a person that they remain valued and understood.

Studies in both animals and humans have suggested that adolescence is a vulnerable time in which to begin using cannabis, owing to various ways it is thought to modify the brain’s development process. Of course, the adolescent years are precisely those in which young people so inclined will typically begin to experiment with cannabis or begin using it regularly.

It has long been thought that people diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (AN), and perhaps those with other eating disorders, have problems properly sensing and interpreting signals from within the body—what researchers call interoception.

A clinical trial led by BBRF grantee and prizewinner Joseph J. Taylor M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard and Mass General Brigham, has generated head-to-head evidence that neuroimaging can be used to improve clinical outcomes in psychiatry. Prior research has suggested such efficacy, but not in patient trials directly comparing use vs. non-use of neuroimaging-based targeting to achieve therapeutic results.

Many psychiatric disorders are what doctors call “comorbid”—they co-occur with other disorders, whether other brain-based disorders or those affecting other parts of the body. Depression, for example, is often comorbid with anxiety. In such cases, one question that intrigues researchers is how treatment for one set of symptoms affects symptoms of the comorbid condition, if at all.

Sign up for the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation email list and receive weekly updates on the latest mental health research bringing us closer to improved treatments, better diagnostic tools, and ultimately cures for mental illnesses.

Protecting our children’s mental health is one of the most important and urgent concerns for parents today. Whether your child is a preschooler, in elementary school, or navigating the teenage years, mental health plays a critical role in their overall development and well-being. Each stage of childhood brings different challenges and opportunities: moments to observe, to support, and — when needed — to intervene early. Why Early Attention Matters

BBRF-funded researchers search for ways of harnessing potentially therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs while minimizing or eliminating hallucinations and other unwanted side effects.

Researchers led by a BBRF grantee report results of experiments that have potentially valuable precision-medicine implications for treating people with alcohol-use disorder (AUD).

In a what could be a major step forward in depression research, a team led by BBRF grantees has reported the results of experiments that they say reveals the mechanism through which the rapid anti-depressant effects of ketamine are initiated, within minutes of the drug’s arrival in the brain.

Dr. Stephen Hinshaw, a world expert on ADHD, suggests ADHD is not an “attention deficit” per se, but rather, more of a regulatory disorder, often reflected in difficulty shifting gears between tasks, particularly those that are highly engaging vs. those that are routine. He offers advice on how parents and teachers can work with the child to maximum benefit.

A new study based on MRI data from a large cohort of children diagnosed with ADHD and controls has identified three distinct ADHD “biotypes.” These biotypes indicate various ways in which specific and contrasting patterns of variation in brain structure and function manifest across a large set of ADHD patients.

Researchers have reported positive results in the first clinical trial testing the diabetes and weight-loss medicine semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) in treatment-seeking patents with alcohol use disorder (AUD) who were also obese.

In recent weeks, researchers led by two BBRF grantees have reported encouraging results of a small pilot trial comparing the clinical and cognitive effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) vs. magnetic seizure therapy (MST) in patients experiencing an episode of bipolar depression. Separately, the same investigators and colleagues reported results of a much larger trial confirming MST’s “non-inferiority” vs. ECT in treating major depressive disorder (MDD), again with a notable safety advantage. (Results of this depression trial are discussed at the end of this article.)

Sign up for the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation email list and receive weekly updates on the latest mental health research bringing us closer to improved treatments, better diagnostic tools, and ultimately cures for mental illnesses.