Science careers and mental health

With youth suicide rates rising, it’s vital that mental health forms part of global well-being targets, says Shekhar Saxena.

Annapoorna P. K. tells Nature about her work on understanding depression both in and outside the lab.

Researchers must find personal ways to cope with impending losses — one way is by taking small solutions-oriented actions, says Kimberley R. Miner.

I spent more than a year in a manic state, burning out for the sake of my job. Here’s how I found balance again.

Finding time and space to grieve for a partner, child or friend can be complicated for researchers — and the peers who support them.

Work felt unmanageable, and I was always angry and constantly tired. Here’s how I stepped back, says Kelly Korreck.

Cell biologist Keisha Hardeman describes her journey with mental-health challenges, and the power of therapy.

Group leaders voice their struggles with mental health to remove stigma and bolster institutional support.

Heavy workloads, bullying and a lack of support add to falling job satisfaction for postdocs, junior faculty members and other young scientists.

Survey finds that students and postdocs report verbal and sexual abuse, unpaid labour and dangerous work conditions.

Opening up about my feelings during my PhD was powerful and cathartic.

Scientists can take practical steps to prevent or pre-empt problems on social media.

Saying no is a skill — and practising it improved our science.

A proposal to change how academic performance is measured at an Australian university spurred one department into action.

A new survey underscores mental-health risks for doctoral researchers.

For two decades, mycologist Matt Kasson’s hyperactivity and anxiety felt like a superpower. Then COVID struck.

Most scientists love what they do, but job satisfaction levels hit a new low, Nature’s survey finds.

Researchers with children or carer roles have struggled more than others during the pandemic, amplifying existing inequalities, argue Edyta Swider-Cios and colleagues.

Too few resources exist to help early-career scientists deal with the stresses encountered in today’s ‘publish or perish’ culture.

By taking positive action, as well as by protecting others from subtle slights, we can foster a better academic culture.

Aine Lehane’s dog taught her the value of taking a break.

Nature gets advice on mental well-being from researchers grappling with the pandemic.

Kevin Boehnke and Richard E. Harris introduced a course in meditation, yoga and mindfulness to the neuroscience programme at their institution.

Emotional intelligence is a crucial component of successful professional relationships. Here’s how to boost yours.

Remote working, research delays and childcare obligations are taking their toll on scientists, causing stress and anxiety.

When bowling, shared meals and frisbee were off the table, Michael Nguyen-Truong found a better way than virtual meetings to socialize with his colleagues.

Scientists offer their views on what’s important for the coming year.

Mindfulness has helped Ana Pineda to juggle the demands of academic research in a foreign country alongside parenting responsibilities.

There are ways to shut up that insidious inner critic, says Paris Grey.

Fernando T. Maestre was diagnosed with anxiety during Spain’s coronavirus lockdown. A change in approach to work, life and parenting helped to restore his health.

Desiree Dickerson risked burning out while creating a series of online well-being workshops. During lockdown, she was forced to put her perfectionism in its place.

They have an idea for a new experiment now, says Jeremy Grabbe.

I was cynical at first, but it’s proved a powerful tool, says Ellen J. Wehrens.

Clinical psychologist Luana Marques shares skills and advice to help scientists build resilience and mental and physical health.

An inability to focus during a weekend trip forced Jeff Clements to ponder often-overlooked drivers of academic mental health.

Jokes about productivity hide the toxicity of academic ‘always on’ culture, says Daphne S. Ling.

Scientists with fieldwork experience in remote areas share stories of social isolation, staying positive and eking out supplies.

Hilal A. Lashuel’s experiences have taught him that maintaining good mental health and balancing life and work is a struggle everywhere in academia.

Nature’s biennial doctoral-student survey reveals struggles for work–life balance, career guidance and emotional support.

Nature’s survey of more than 6,000 graduate students reveals the turbulent nature of doctoral research.

Desiree Dickerson discusses learning to control the voice in her head that insisted she wasn’t good enough.

A consortium of US universities aims to examine how best to help a vulnerable population that is affected by anxiety and depression.

Stress and long working hours are regrettably common among early-career researchers, reveals a survey by the Young Academy of Europe.

The first international meeting on postgraduate mental health opens this week, but much more is needed to solve academia’s crisis.

The medical programmes we see in our training as physician-scientists are becoming more progressive and supportive of students. Here’s what academia can learn from them, say Yoo Jung Kim and Erik Faber.

Fears over the impact on mental health of smartphones, social media and other trappings of the digital world are driving tech companies to change, but the evidence remains sketchy.

Research group leaders should learn how to recognize if colleagues are experiencing problems at work, says James Turner.

Confronting loss can give rise to difficult career choices, says Summer Praetorius.

A well-crafted set of guidelines and advice can save time, reassure trainees and promote a positive lab culture, argues Mariam Aly.

How a study on the high rate of anxiety and depression in PhD students is helping to erase the stigma around mental-health issues.

Greater awareness must be matched with steps such as better training for supervisors.

Twenty years on, Dave Reay speaks out about the depression that almost sunk his PhD, and the lifelines that saved him.

Mental illness can be devastating — but there are ways to fight it, say four researchers who have known those bleak times.

An outpouring on Twitter highlights the acute pressures on young scientists.

With mental illness a growing concern within graduate education, data from a new survey should prompt both academia and policy makers to consider intervention strategies.

Researchers reflect on an initiative in New Zealand to make science more inclusive.

The pressures of a scientific career can take their toll on people's ability to cope.

In the face of routine rejection, many scientists must learn to cope with the insidious beast that is impostor syndrome.

The rapid antidepressant activity of ketamine results from reversal of increased burst firing and synchronization in the lateral habenula in rat and mouse models of depression.

Increased expression of the potassium channel Kir4.1 on astrocytes in the lateral habenula drives neuronal bursting in rodent models of depression.

WebSchizophrenia is associated with genetic variation at the major histocompatibility complex locus; this study reveals that alleles at this locus associate with schizophrenia in proportion to their tendency to generate greater expression of complement component 4 (C4A) genes and that C4 promotes the elimination of synpases.

Salvos of neuronal activity in the brain’s lateral habenula, regulated by astrocyte cells, drive depression-like behaviours in rodents. The finding might help us to understand one antidepressant and to develop more.

The metabolism of ketamine to (2S,6S;2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine (HNK) is essential for its antidepressant effects, and the (2R,6R)-HNK enantiomer lacks ketamine-related side effects but exerts rapid and sustained antidepressant actions in mice; these antidepressant effects are independent of NMDAR inhibition but require AMPAR activity.

A neuronal model of bipolar disorder based on induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology finds hyperactive action-potential firing and differential responsiveness to lithium in iPSC-derived neurons from patients with bipolar disorder.

Surface area expansion from 6–12 months precedes brain overgrowth in high risk infants diagnosed with autism at 24 months and cortical features in the first year predict individual diagnostic outcomes.

An X-ray structure of the D2 dopamine receptor bound to the atypical antipsychotic drug risperidone reveals an extended binding pocket and indicates structural features that could be used to design drugs that specifically target the D2 receptor.

The discovery in 1936 that rats respond to various damaging stimuli with a general response that involves alarm, resistance and exhaustion launched the discipline of stress research.

Alison Abbott considers a persuasive case for the link between body and mind.

Alex Haslam appraises an account of key experiments on the psychology of conflict and cooperation.

Christian Lüscher considers an alarming career from the early days of psychiatry.

Barbara A. Spellman hails an analysis of reproducibility in psychology by a champion for change.

Ananyo Bhattacharya looks back at a science-fiction touchstone on the ethics of experimental biology.

Andrew Steptoe applauds a cogent exploration of Britain's groundbreaking longitudinal birth-cohort studies.