The ventral striatum, a small part of the brain’s basal ganglia, directs behavior by assigning a reward dimension to everyday items, according to a recent study.

Novel research is changing the way we approach healthcare for mothers and their babies. Read the feature in Northwestern Medicine magazine.

Lesbian and gay youth showed significantly less psychological distress and were buffered against the negative effects of bullying and victimization when in a relationship.

Hans Breiter, ’88 MD, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is leading the development of a radical, proactive approach to stopping violence using advanced mathematical models of human emotion.

A new pathway in the brain can be manipulated to alleviate depression, offering a promising new target for developing a drug that could be effective in individuals for whom other antidepressants have failed.

Herbert Meltzer, MD, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Pharmacology and Physiology, has been chosen to receive a Pioneer in Psychopharmacology Award from the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Genetic factors and the environment cause depression via different molecular pathways in rats, according a new Northwestern Medicine study.

Northwestern Medicine scientists received a five-year, $3.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to determine the optimal drug doses for treating pregnant women with depression.

Scientists at Northwestern University are using a novel dimensional method for distinguishing misbehavior that is expectable in early childhood versus that which is cause for clinical concern.

A collaborative study that included Northwestern Medicine scientists has identified structural brain abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia, helping further understanding of the mental disorder.

Northwestern Medicine scientists, inspired by treatments used by traditional healers in Nigeria, have synthesized four new chemical compounds that may lead to therapies for psychiatric disorders.

A new study shows that teenagers who had previously been heavy users of marijuana performed worse on long-term memory tests than those who never used cannabis, and they had abnormally shaped hippocampuses.

Northwestern Medicine scientists found a genetic biomarker to pinpoint some patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, making it possible to give them an effective alternative therapy sooner.

Domestic violence occurs at least as frequently, and likely even more so, between same-sex couples compared to opposite-sex couples, according to a review of literature by Northwestern Medicine scientists.

Northwestern Medicine scientists developed the first blood test to diagnose major depression in adults and to predict who will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy.