UK families lose bid for compensation over Primodos pregnancy test drug

High court rules there is insufficient new evidence of causal link between hormone-based test and birth defects

Psychonauts by Mike Jay review – the drug-takers who changed history

Humphry Davy on laughing gas, Sigmund Freud on cocaine … how self-experimentation shaped science and art

The trauma doctor: Gabor Maté on happiness, hope and how to heal our deepest wounds

The physician, author and self-help guru came to worldwide prominence when he appeared with Prince Harry last month. He discusses the mind-body connection, the reality of addiction and why trauma can be treated

The big idea: should doctors be able to prescribe psychedelics?

A move to allow Australian psychiatrists to treat depression with psilocybin may herald a new era

You can’t just cheer up people who have depression. There’s a key role for antidepressants

The NHS is planning to offer patients art, music and gardening classes rather than antidepressants. Nice idea, but it won’t work, writes psychotherapist Lucy Cavendish

‘This looks like the real deal’: are we inching closer to a treatment for Alzheimer’s?

After years of setbacks, dementia researchers are getting excited about a new antibody drug called lecanemab. No one expects it to stop cognitive decline, but even slowing it would be a breakthrough

Time for your medicine: unlocking the power of our body clocks

It’s long been known that certain drugs work better when taken at specific times of day. But now scientists are learning that our circadian rhythms affect everything from vaccines to meals – and even the results of exercise

‘I’m not a shaman – I just want to help people’: shoe designer Patrick Cox on his psychedelic toad awakening

The celebrity shoemaker was a fixture of the 90s London scene, then after the breakdown of his business – and his mental health – he found salvation from a very unlikely source ...

My adult ADHD drugs felt like a lifeline. Then came the scary side-effects …

After a year on prescription stimulants, I started to unravel. Would a desperate experiment with street narcotics make me see things differently?

HRT products could be sent to UK from mainland Europe next week

Regulator expected to consent to import of hormone replacement pills and patches from France

‘A massive spiritual shift’: how the mindful movement of qigong can treat addiction

The gentle motion, breathing and meditation stop the mind ‘wandering to negative thoughts’, says a recovering Victorian addict

The Urge by Carl Erik Fisher review – against the war on drugs

A psychiatrist and former addict cautions against conflating drug use with harm in this fascinating historical survey

I was a heroin addict and had given up on myself. Then suddenly, briefly, I felt a desire to live

At my lowest point, I sought self-annihilation. I was saved at the last moment by two of the few people I had not pushed away

This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan review – the trip of a lifetime

This fascinating insight into our relationship with mind-altering plants weaves personal experimentation with cultural history

Marc Thompson: how an HIV diagnosis at 17 helped him change Britain

In 30 years as an activist, he has fought to stop black gay men being forgotten, broken taboos about homosexuality and campaigned to make life-changing PrEP medication available on the NHS