A Hot Night Raised Anxiety and Disrupted Sleep in College Students
In a randomized crossover trial with 41 healthy college students (ages 18–25), researchers had participants spend time in controlled hot conditions during the day (32°C) or at night (30°C) and compared the effects against a comfortable 26°C. Both daytime and nighttime heat raised short-term anxiety scores by roughly 25–28%, while nighttime heat showed a broader biological footprint — higher inflammation and cortisol, lower BDNF, plus poorer sleep quality and shorter sleep. The effects were short-term and limited to young, healthy participants, so this is a clue about heat's immediate impact on mood rather than a finding about long-term mental health.
Source: News-Medical — A hot night changed sleep, anxiety and stress markers
Voice Clues Plus Questionnaire May Sharpen Depression Screening in Teens
In a cross-sectional study of 421 adolescents (with a separate test group of 105), researchers combined 21 acoustic features of speech — such as voice tone measures — with PHQ-9 questionnaire responses in a machine learning model to detect clinically relevant depressive symptoms. The combined model reached an area under the curve of 0.896 in the test set, outperforming the PHQ-9 alone (0.816), while speech features by themselves were weaker. Because participants came from a single urban school, the authors describe this as evidence for the technical potential of speech as a scalable add-on to screening, not a replacement.
Source: Psychiatry Advisor — Speech-Based Machine Learning May Improve Depression Screening in Adolescents
After Ketamine for Treatment-Resistant Depression, Insomnia and Anxiety Took Separate Paths
In a study of 71 patients with treatment-resistant depression, researchers measured depression, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms before and 24 hours after a single intravenous ketamine infusion. All three symptom domains improved, but improvements in anxiety tracked closely with improvements in depression, while insomnia improved on its own independent path — and patients who slept worst at baseline saw the largest sleep gains. The study followed patients for just one day after treatment, so it tells us about the first day after ketamine rather than longer-term recovery.
Source: Translational Psychiatry (Nature) — Insomnia and anxiety exhibit distinct short-term associations following ketamine in treatment-resistant depression