Open research questions in Mental Health and Psychiatry
39 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 2,155 Mental Health and Psychiatry papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.
What the literature leaves open
Negative Capability May Solve Psychiatry’s Credibility Crisis Helene Speyer1,2 · David Roe3,4 · Sue Estroff5 · John Strauss6 Received: 3 October 2025 / Accepted: 18 December 2025 / Published online: 22 January 2026 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer…
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31541780/ 3. Gore JC. Artificial intelligence in medical imaging. Magn Reson Imaging. [Internet]. 2020; May;68:A1-A4. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31857130/ 4. Tai-MacArthur S, Lombardi G, Shangaris P. The Theoretical Basis of In Utero Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Its Use in the Treatment of Blood Disorders. Stem Cells Dev. [Internet]. 2021;Jan 15;30(2):49- 58. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33280478/ 5. Stevenson R, Samokhina E, Mangat A, Rossetti I, Purushotham SS, Malladi CS, Morley JW, Buskila Y. Astrocytic K+ clearance during disease progression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Glia. [Internet]. 2023; Oct;71(10):2456-2472. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37395323/ 6. Tretter F, Wolkenhauer O, Meyer-Hermann M, Dietrich JW, Green S, Marcum J, Weckwerth W. The Quest for System-Theoretical Medicine in the COVID-19 Era. Front Med (Lausanne). [Internet]. 2021; Mar 29;8:640974. Available from: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.640974/full 54 ©Copyright 2024 by the author(s) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 7. Krenner HJ, Westerhausen C. Handy nanoquakes. Nat Mater. [Internet]. 2022; May;21(5):499-501. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35505228/ 8. Nogales C, Mamdouh ZM, List M, Kiel C, Casas AI, Schmidt HHHW. Network pharmacology: curing causal mechanisms instead of treating symptoms. Trends Pharmacol Sci. [Internet]. 2022; Available from: Feb;43(2):136- 150. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34895945/ Futurity Medicine │ Vol. 3, No. 2 9. Shi M, Shen Z, Zhang N, Wang L, Yu C, Yang Z. CRISPR/Cas9 technology in disease research and therapy: a from: [Internet]. 2021; Apr 25;37(4):1205-1228. Available review. Sheng Wu Gong Cheng Xue Bao. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33973436/ 10. Hu H, Feng W, Qian X, Yu L, Chen Y, Li Y. Emerging Nanomedicine-Enabled/Enhanced Nanodynamic Therapies beyond Traditional Photodynamics. Adv Mater. [Internet]. 2021; Mar;33(12):e2005062. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33565157/ 11. Papathomas TG, Nosé V. New and Emerging Biomarkers in Endocrine Pathology. Adv Anat Pathol. [Internet]. 2019; May;26(3):198-209. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30730313/ 12. Zhang B, Huang Y, Huang Y. Advances in Nanodynamic Therapy for Cancer Treatment. Nanomaterials (Basel). [Internet]. 2024; Apr 8;14(7):648. Available from: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/14/7/648. 13. Merker L, Bautsch BW, Ebert T, Guthoff M, Isermann B. Nephropathy in Diabetes. Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes. [Internet]. 2021; Aug;129(S 01):S60-S63. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33395705/ 14. Lanigan TM, Kopera HC, Saunders TL. Principles of Genetic Engineering. Genes (Basel). [Internet]. 2020; Mar 10;11(3):291. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32164255/ 15. Cacheiro P, Haendel MA, Smedley D; International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium and the Monarch Initiative. New models for human disease from the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium. Mamm Genome. [Internet]. 2019; Jun;30(5-6):143-150. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31127358/. 16. Zhao K, Kang SX, Yang YY, Yu DG. Electrospun functional nanofiber membrane for antibiotic removal in from: https://www.mdpi.com/2073- water: Review. Polymers (Basel). [Internet]. 2021;13(2):226. Available 4360/13/2/226 17. Chopra H, Mohanta YK, Mahanta S, Mohanta TK, Singh I, Avula SK, et al. Recent updates in nanotechnological advances for wound healing: A narrative review. Nanotechnol Rev [Internet]. 2023;12(1). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ntrev-2023-0129 18. Nauman S, Lubineau G, Alharbi HF. Post processing strategies for the enhancement of mechanical properties of enms (Electrospun nanofibrous membranes): A review. Membranes (Basel). [Internet]. 2021;11(1):39. 10.3390. Available from: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/11/1/39. 19. Déjardin LM, Perry KL, von Pfeil DJF, Guiot LP. Interlocking Nails and Minimally Invasive Osteosynthesis. Vet from: Jan;50(1):67-100. [Internet].
Is there one psyche that pervades the whole globe? In their introduction to this special issue, Dominique Béhague and Kenneth MacLeish dissuade any suggestion of either the global or the psyche as entities that could be examined like substances.
This raises the question that if everyday practices are not characterized by newness, what makes new psychoactive substances new? Comparing the discourses of pharmacologists and people who use them exposes contrasting claims about the “reality” of NPS: While pharmacologists describe their own ways of knowing as real, they often downgrade others as mere belief; those who use them do not do this.
New for Who?: Novelty and Continuity in Drug-Related Practices of People Who Use New Psychoactive Substances · 2019 · DOIAn infirmary text is not limited to all spatial narratives concerning medical experiences, but also touches on extreme emotional experience (the power of affect), the diseases of soma and psyche, the medical institutions and the professional and social roles within their premises, the histories of diseases (especially in the form of autobiographical narratives), affective constructs in which emotions carry the role of „playing the part” of the world and constituting identities.
For more than 20 years he had suffered from bipolar disorder, and his constant struggle with that terrible affliction probably contributed to his early death, though the actual cause remains uncertain.
Michael A. Thalbourne: 1955-2010 · 2010I critically evaluate and update earlier conclusions regarding deterioration effects in psychotherapy, outline methodological obstacles standing in the way of identifying potentially harmful therapies (PHTs), provide a provisional list of PHTs, discuss the implications of PHTs for clinical science and practice, and delineate fruitful areas for further research on PHTs.
65 The extent of Meckel's involvement with the principles of Naturphiloso- phie has not yet been adequately studied, and Temkin, for one, has recog- nized Meckel's opposition to speculative Naturphilosophie.
o r g / a t U n i v e r s i t y o f S u s s e x o n A u g u s t 1 6 , 2 0 1 5 DUFFY: Mental Strain in 19th Century Schools 79 were not clearly understood.
It seems to me that the fact that a theory, in its first statement, does not account for everything would not justify the charge of oversimplification. " I do not cite these conflicting and contradictory reports because I wish to cast doubt on the model that Dr. The therapist has access to some resources that are scarce, such as his special professional status, and some resources that are non-scarce, such as the use of the process of examining one's behavior.
68 Georget had foreseen the necessity of enlightening the judges on these little known forms of insanity, and it was the many examples of unhappy creatures who were insane but who had been executed which moved him, touched by such injustice, to bring together a large number of documents which have greatly influenced the verdicts given since that time.
The Influence of the Concept of Monomania on French Medico-Legal Psychiatry (from 1825 to 1840) · 1946 · DOIUUIyY 2% Ad- organism of the fever-excitant, the pyrogenic matter (be this conttaitn Zizvum or what it may), and the onset of the characteristic phenomena,has not yet been demonstrated; in other words, the proximate cause of fever remains undetermined.
For contested conditions where mechanisms remain uncertain, the space of admissible worlds and probability distributions correspondingly broadens, reflecting legitimate epistemic uncertainty rather than framework failure.
The critique of the hierarchical model of explanation is presented, but alternative frameworks for organizing multi-level medical explanations are not fully developed.
The paper examines the hypothetico-deductive and inductive-statistical models of scientific explanation but does not fully address their integration or relative applicability in medical contexts.
The specification of pathological boundaries is discussed through the case of hypertension, but broader application to other conditions remains unexplored.
The paper discusses the distinction between abnormal and pathological but does not fully resolve when being abnormal is advantageous, suggesting incomplete theoretical development.
This article critically examines the psychopathological theories and contributions of Antoni Kępiński - a seminal yet internationally under-recognized Polish psychiatrist.
The first problem is that currently there exist serious gaps in both images-our mainstream conceptions of depression are lacking and their reception by the general public is oversimplified and overoptimistic.
While the promises of addiction neuroscience have received considerable attention, relatively few studies have examined how neuroscientific discourses and promises play out in drug treatment settings.
Th e way to answer follows the length and breadth of therapeutic experience, to fi nally take the form of a question: must the art of helping the other, if not apparent, remain uncertain? Just as every art, it is not confi dent of what it already knows, possesses and is able to.
It's hard, of course, to quantify just how much attention is warranted, but Scull's own account gives reason to think psychoanalysis deserves plenty of attention.
Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity, from the Bible to Freud, from the Madhouse to Modern Medicine by Andrew Scull · 2017 · DOIThere is a belief in a deficit model of stigma – that stigmatizing attitudes among the general public and government are the result of insufficient knowledge of the biological causes of psychiatric disorders.
Plato, Aristotle, the Hippocratics, and Galen are all very well represented, but much remains to be done to expand the work done here to other medical authors.
Given disability’s ever-shifting definition and its wide sweep—current estimates claim that at least one in six Americans belongs to this one minority anyone can join at any time2—the understudied topic warrants serious, creative attention in every arena.
Most-cited papers in Mental Health and Psychiatry
- Psychological Treatments That Cause Harm · Perspectives on Psychological Science · 2007 · 659 citations
- Linking RDoC and HiTOP: A new interface for advancing psychiatric nosology and neuroscience · Clinical Psychology Review · 2021 · 208 citations
- Paradigm shift and theoretical implications for the era of global disorder · Journal of International Business Studies · 2023 · 100 citations
- Philosophy of psychiatry: theoretical advances and clinical implications · World Psychiatry · 2024 · 63 citations
- Ethical challenges in contemporary psychiatry: an overview and an appraisal of possible strategies and research needs · World Psychiatry · 2024 · 58 citations
- Participatory Interactive Objectivity in Psychiatry · Philosophy of Science · 2022 · 41 citations
- Precision Psychiatry: The Future Is Now · The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry · 2021 · 34 citations
- Introduction: Connecting criminology and sociology of health and illness · Sociology of Health & Illness · 2002 · 32 citations
- Exclusivity and Circularity in the Production of Global Governance Expertise: The Making of “Global Mental Health” Knowledge · International Political Sociology · 2022 · 28 citations
- When I say … neurodiversity paradigm · Medical Education · 2024 · 26 citations
Most recent work
- On Depression and Subjectivity: A Lacanian Approach · Research Output (Edinburgh Napier University) · 2026
- The imaginary divide between mental and “physical” health: Dismantling dualism and reductionism to address a monumental mistake in medicine · JCPP Advances · 2026
- A missed opportunity to examine reliability in computational psychiatry · Nature Mental Health · 2026
- Some Vicissitudes of playing related to containment and disruption · The Psychoanalytic Quarterly · 2026
- Negative Capability May Solve Psychiatry’s Credibility Crisis · Culture Medicine and Psychiatry · 2026
- The Age of Diagnosis: Sickness, Health and Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far. By S.O'Sullivan, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2025. 304 pp. £22 (hardback). ISBN: 978‐1‐39‐981963‐3 · Sociology of Health & Illness · 2026
- Will Precision Medicine Still Require Neuropsychiatric Phenotypes? · Neurology · 2026
- A shared grammar: a counterfactual dialogue between disease and illness · Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics · 2026
- Subspecialization in Psychiatry in Nepal: Necessity or Premature Transition? · Journal of Psychiatrists' Association of Nepal · 2026
- Putting dialectical approaches into motion in child and adolescent psychiatry · European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026
Find a gap in your own Mental Health and Psychiatry sub-topic
This page shows what the Mental Health and Psychiatry literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, run the guided finder — it searches the gap library on demand and checks candidates against 250M+ OpenAlex works.
Open the Research Gap Finder →