Among the week's psychiatry news, a small pilot trial published in npj Acoustics found that a single 10-minute session of transcranial ultrasound produced a modest but statistically significant reduction in delusion scores among people with schizophrenia, compared with a sham procedure. The effect was described as modest, and the trial was sham-controlled, but the results offer an early signal for a noninvasive brain-stimulation approach.
Separately, a cross-sectional study in the British Journal of Psychiatry identified a 'circadian subtype' of depression in roughly a quarter of adults with severe, recurrent depressive disorders, marked by disrupted 24-hour sleep-wake cycles. The finding adds to evidence that sleep-wake rhythm disturbances may define a distinct subgroup of patients who could benefit from chronobiological treatments.
The roundup also highlights concerns about GLP-1 drugs and eating disorders. The New York Times reported that few safeguards exist to protect patients with eating disorders amid the GLP-1 boom, and People magazine covered influencer Emilie Kiser's account of a 7-year battle with an eating disorder. The source does not provide data on the scale of the problem, but the anecdotal and expert concerns point to a gap in oversight.