The purpose of this study was to examine the association between adiposity and depressive symptoms in ethnically and racially diverse early adolescents, age 11-14 years old.

The design was a cross-sectional observational study, with 78 participants from two middle schools in the southeast. Height, weight, and waist circumference were measured, and body fat percentage (BF%) was obtained using a bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) scale. Body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were calculated. Participants completed the Children's Depression Inventory II (CDI-2) measure. Estimates of effect size based on general multiple linear regression was used to assess the association between adiposity and depressive symptoms, controlling for gender, puberty, and physical activity.

Increased adiposity was associated with decreased depressive symptoms in the context of racially and ethnically diverse early adolescents, with a large effect size (ω² = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.03, 1.00) between depressive symptoms and BMI category, and small effect sizes for the associations for WHtR (ω² = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.00, 1.00) and BF% (ω² = 0.01, 95% CI = 0.00, 1.00) with depressive symptoms.

Our findings indicate an inverse association between adiposity and depressive symptoms among early adolescents, which contrasts with many prior studies and underscores the complexity of the relationship between adiposity and mental health during this developmental period. Given the pilot nature of the study and the small sample size, these findings should be interpreted cautiously and warrant confirmation in fully powered studies that include diverse populations across racial and ethnic groups.

Greater attention should be paid to overweight and obesity status, and improved screening for depression should be implemented.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a complex, chronic medical disease wherein patients have traditionally benefited from a multidisciplinary and comprehensive therapeutic approach, including a comprehensive treatment plan that addresses the psychological, behavioral, and social dimensions of the individual. Holistic health is a nontraditional system of wellness that focuses on well-being through body, mind, and spirit and aims to restore balance through combined physical, mental, and emotional care. This approach may incorporate nonpharmacological and alternative treatments alongside allopathic medicine. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in integrating holistic health strategies into addiction treatment.

The primary objective of this scoping review is to identify and characterize holistic health interventions currently used in the management of people with AUD. A secondary objective is to collate the reported efficacy of these interventions. Additionally, this review will identify gaps in the literature and suggest areas for future research.

This review will adhere to the Arksey and O'Malley methodological framework for scoping reviews. Published research and pilot clinical trials reporting on holistic health interventions in AUD will be included. Five databases will be searched: PubMed and MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Scopus. There will be no date restrictions, though only English-language articles will be included. To qualify, studies must include at least one holistic intervention (eg, meditation, homeopathy, and special diets). Excluded studies will include those that do not involve people with AUD and/or hazardous drinking or that only test pharmaceutical treatments without a holistic component. Two reviewers will independently screen and extract data with a third reviewer as a tiebreaker; discrepancies will be resolved through discussion.

This scoping review began in Covidence in December 2024 and is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program. Data collection was completed in February 2026, and data analysis was completed in June 2026. Results are expected to be published in late 2026.

This review will provide an overview of holistic approaches and interventions used in AUD treatment. It will highlight gaps in the literature and recommend directions for future research. Results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. No ethics approval is required because the review involves only publicly available literature.

Human cognition operates within distinct temporal windows spanning from very short to extremely long. Each cognitive function has its own processing speed range, beyond which performance deteriorates or even becomes impossible. Speech comprehension, as one of the most important cognitive functions in civilized societies, exemplifies this constraint: Performance declines markedly when speech rates exceed about 10 syllables per second. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this speed limit remain unclear. Here, by combining psychophysics, scalp-electroencephalography, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), repetitive sensory stimulation, and stereo-electroencephalography (sEEG), we showed that the intrinsic alpha band activity determined the maximum rate of speech comprehension. In healthy participants, individual alpha frequency (IAF) precisely predicted the speech recognition rate threshold. Crucially, causally accelerating endogenous alpha rhythms via high-definition tACS and rhythmic auditory stimulation shifted this threshold, enhancing comprehension of ultrafast speech. Furthermore, sEEG recordings from the human auditory cortex revealed that this speed-limiting mechanism was locally determined: Faster alpha band activity in the left auditory cortex facilitated stronger neural entrainment to the speech envelope. These findings identify alpha band activity as a fundamental, malleable temporal bottleneck for linguistic processing, suggesting that the brain's intrinsic sampling rate sets the physiological limit on human communication.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is characterized by high relapse rates, necessitating novel interventions. Continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) targeting the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) has been proposed to reduce relapse risk by modulating prefrontal control networks implicated in craving and self-regulation, but its efficacy and mechanisms remain to be established. In a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial at the First Special Hospital of Harbin, 50 AUD patients (aged 18-60 years) received active cTBS or sham stimulation over 2 weeks (10 treatment days; two applications/day). Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores were assessed before and after intervention, and relapse status was monitored during the 1-year follow-up. Resting-state fMRI data were analyzed using non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) and Tabular Prior-data Fitted Network (TabPFN) to identify relapse-associated neural patterns. Network control theory (NCT) was used to quantify the control energy required to regulate frontoparietal network (FPN) to subcortical network (SUB) transitions, constrained by structural connectomes. Transcriptomic analysis and TransBrain-based cross-species phenotype mapping were used to link control energy changes to gene expression and investigate the evolutionary conservation of the identified network-control targets. Compared with sham treatment, active cTBS was associated with a lower risk of relapse over one year (hazard ratio = 0.426, 95% CI [0.189, 0.964], p = 0.041). NMF revealed an abstinence-associated pattern in the prefrontal-subcortical regions, enhanced by cTBS (p = 0.042). NCT showed a reduction in FPN-to-SUB control energy (p = 0.003), mediating changes in AUDIT-assessed alcohol-use severity (95% CI [-0.302, -0.014]). Changes in the control energy correlated with gene expression profiles enriched for genes related to neuroplasticity (p < 0.001, FDR corrected) and mapped specifically to the murine infralimbic and prelimbic areas. rDLPFC-targeted cTBS may be associated with lower relapse risk through modulation of FPN-to-SUB regulation, a network-level effect linked to neuroplasticity-related gene expression and evolutionarily conserved prefrontal circuits. These findings support further evaluation of network-informed neuromodulation strategies for AUD.

Emotion regulation is a crucial ability for athletes, given it can influence mental health. Research suggests individuals' beliefs about emotions - specifically their perceived goodness and controllability - may shape use of emotion regulation strategies, subsequently, impacting their mental health outcomes. However, little is known about whether this is the case among athletes, where the prevalence of poor mental health is concerning. Aiming to address this gap, the hypothesised model tested beliefs about emotions predicting emotion regulation strategy tendencies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and distraction), which in turn predicted mental health outcomes (depressive symptoms and vitality). An alternate model tested emotion regulation strategy tendencies predicting beliefs about emotions which in turn predicted mental health outcomes. 416 UK athletes (18 to 25 years; Mage = 19.44, SD = 1.32) representing a range of sports completed questionnaires measuring beliefs about emotions (goodness and controllability), emotion regulation strategy tendencies, and mental health outcomes. After assessing model fit indices, a direct relationship between beliefs about emotions and mental health outcomes was added demonstrating an improved model fit (X² (1) = .889, p = .346, SRMR = .008, CFI = 1.000, TLI = 1.004, RMSEA < .001 (90% CI < .001 to .128)) and indicated that beliefs emotions were controllable and good predicted lower depressive symptoms and greater vitality directly, and indirectly through expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal (p's < .05). The alternate model showed similar fit (X² (1) = .576, p = .448, SRMR = .009, CFI = 1.000, TLI = 1.016, RMSEA < .001 (90% CI < .001 to .119)), and indicated that cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression predicted mental health directly, and indirectly through goodness and controllability beliefs (p's < .05). These findings highlight the importance of the relationship between athletes' beliefs about emotions and emotion regulation and their mental health outcomes.

Using sentiment analysis of 44,216 public health-related posts from the FedNews Reddit forum (2020-2025), we found that fear and anger scores rose 32% and 63%, respectively, in 2025 over 2024. These results underscore the adverse mental health impact of federal workforce changes and funding cuts on public health employees.

Mobile mindfulness interventions have shown promise for reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms, but sustaining engagement remains a persistent challenge. Many digital programs still rely on formal practice that requires dedicated time, which may be difficult to integrate into daily life.

This randomized controlled trial evaluated Habitual Mindfulness Practice (HMP), a self-guided mobile mindfulness intervention that embeds brief practices into recurring daily routines, among adults with mild to moderate psychological distress. Outcomes were compared with those of Traditional Mindfulness (TM), Mindfulness-Based Psychoeducation (MBP), and a waitlist control (WL).

Adults aged 18 to 65 years with mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety or depression were randomly assigned in a 1:1:1:1 ratio to HMP, TM, MBP, or WL (N=686). All procedures were conducted online, and the intervention was fully self-guided, with outcomes assessed using self-report measures. The intervention lasted 21 days, with assessments conducted at baseline, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up. Primary outcomes were depressive and anxiety symptoms. Secondary outcomes included mindfulness, cognitive emotion regulation, affective balance, and interpersonal difficulties. Postintervention group differences were examined, controlling for baseline scores, and longitudinal trajectories were evaluated across the active intervention conditions.

At postintervention, significant group effects were observed for depressive symptoms (F3,681=28.67, P<.001, ηp²=0.11) and anxiety symptoms (F3,681=30.11, P<.001, ηp²=0.12). Both HMP and TM showed lower depressive and anxiety symptom scores than MBP and WL. TM showed lower postintervention anxiety than HMP (P=.04), whereas depressive symptoms did not differ significantly between HMP and TM (P=.63). The mindfulness practice conditions also showed more favorable postintervention outcomes for mindfulness, affective balance, interpersonal difficulties, and emotion regulation. Improvements in depressive and anxiety symptoms were generally maintained at follow-up among the active intervention conditions, although maintenance of secondary outcomes varied across measures. Postintervention outcome data were available for 55.2% (379/686) of randomized participants, and follow-up outcome data were available for 24.1% (124/515) of participants in the active intervention conditions. HMP and TM did not differ significantly in practice duration, engagement, or satisfaction.

A routine-embedded, self-guided mobile mindfulness intervention may be a feasible approach for reducing mild to moderate psychological distress. HMP produced benefits broadly comparable to those of traditional app-delivered mindfulness, but it did not confer advantages in engagement or short-term efficacy.

Loneliness and social isolation are important public health concerns due to their associations with a range of health outcomes. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether any effects are biased by confounding and reverse causation. We use a triangulation approach combining observational, sibling control, and Mendelian Randomisation analyses (a genetically informed analysis), to draw robust conclusions about these relationships. Using a combination of UK Biobank data (N = 8,004 to 414,432) and genome-wide association studies (N = 17,526 to 2,083,151), we examine relationships between loneliness and social isolation and outcomes related to physical health, mental health and wellbeing and general health (e.g., multimorbidity capturing both mental and physical health). We find evidence for effects of loneliness and social isolation on poorer mental health and wellbeing and of loneliness on poorer general health. We do not find evidence of effects on specific physical health outcomes; however, these effects cannot definitively be ruled out.

The association between metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and serum lipoprotein(a) (Lp[a]) levels remains controversial, with no sex- or menopausal status-stratified analyses. We aimed to analyse the associations between MASLD, liver fat content (LFC) and transaminases with Lp(a) concentrations stratified by sex and menopausal status.

We analysed data from 3825 individuals (1961 females; 51.3%) aged 32 to 70 years from the SHIP-START-0 cohort, and from 28,504 individuals (14,926 females; 52.4%) aged 38 to 72 years from the UK Biobank cohort. MASLD was determined by liver ultrasound examinations in SHIP-STAR-0 and by magnetic resonance imaging in UK Biobank. We examined sex- and menopausal status-specific associations of MASLD, LFC, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) with lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] concentrations, after adjustment for age, body mass index, haemoglobin A1c, glucose-lowering medication use, hypertension, smoking, and alcohol consumption.

In SHIP-START-0, MASLD, higher ALT, AST, and GGT levels were independently associated with lower Lp(a) concentrations only in males but not in females. However, after stratification by menopausal status, higher ALT levels were associated with lower Lp(a) concentrations in postmenopausal females, but not in premenopausal females. In UK Biobank, MASLD severity (moderate and severe), higher LFC, and higher serum transaminase levels were independently associated with lower Lp(a) concentrations in males. Higher LFC was also associated with lower Lp(a) concentrations in females, but serum liver enzymes were not. After stratification by menopausal status, MASLD severity and higher LFC were associated with lower Lp(a) concentrations in postmenopausal females, but not in premenopausal females. Males with MASLD had 24% and 9% lower Lp(a) concentrations than those without MASLD in SHIP-START-0 and UK Biobank.

Our findings from two large community-based studies show that MASLD and higher LFC and ALT values were independently associated with lower Lp(a) concentrations in postmenopausal females and males. Future studies are needed to determine whether the cardiovascular risk in patients with MASLD remains elevated even when Lp(a) concentrations are reduced and whether these patients require more intensive treatment to further reduce Lp(a) concentrations below the currently recommended cut-off values.

Individuals with prior tuberculosis (TB) infection represent a high-risk group for lung cancer due to chronic pulmonary damage. Although associations between TB and lung cancer have been established, this study aimed to explore specific risk factors of lung cancer development in TB survivors.

Data from 9,734 TB survivors within the Kangbuk Samsung Cohort Study (2011-2021) were analyzed. Pulmonary function was assessed by spirometry and classified as normal, restrictive, or obstructive. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the relationships among lung function, smoking, alcohol consumption, comorbidities, and lung cancer incidence.

Participants were mostly male (65.4%), with an average age of 41.2 years. Over a median follow-up of 12.3 years, 22 lung cancer cases were identified. Univariate analysis revealed significant associations with restrictive (hazard ratio [HR] 2.58, 95% CI 1.00-6.65; p = 0.050) and obstructive (HR 6.48, 95% CI 2.05-20.43; p < 0.001) lung function, age (HR 2.35 per 5-year; p < 0.001), heavy smoking (HR 6.62; p < 0.001), alcohol (HR 3.05; p = 0.019), and diabetes (HR 6.40; p = 0.003). In multivariable models, restrictive lung function (HR 2.94, 95% CI 1.00-8.65; p = 0.050), age (HR 1.73; p < 0.001), and heavy smoking (HR 4.09; p = 0.010) persisted as independent risk factors. Obstructive lung function initially showed a strong association but was not significant after adjusting for covariates, indicating confounding.

Restrictive lung function, likely indicative of post-TB fibrotic changes, heavy smoking, and older age significantly predict lung cancer development in TB survivors. These results highlight the need for surveillance using spirometry for TB survivors.