Mental health diagnoses mask the real problems

Dorothy Rowe: A textbook of mental health disorders makes it far too easy for doctors to label patients – and disregard the roots of suffering

How to beat depression – without drugs

A healthier lifestyle could banish the blues, suggests a new book

Do you know this man?

He was found by the bins of a Burger King, with no clothes and no memories. Six years on, Benjaman Kyle is still asking one question: who am I?

EEG test may help predict who will develop schizophrenia, claims scientist

Information from an EEG test could allow doctors to identify people at high risk of a mental disorder. They could then be treated pre-emptively

Even people with advanced Alzheimer’s are never ‘all gone’

Response: Dementia does not destroy all chance of meaningful communication, say Helena Roth and Janet Thomson

Is the web affecting the way our brains work? It’s a thought

Observer editorial: The internet may be changing the way we think. Perhaps we'll have to learn again how to concentrate

The raw horror of Alzheimer’s

Andrea Gillies thought she could care for her mother-in-law, who was gripped by dementia. It was a terrible mistake, the Orwell prize winner tells Amelia Gentleman

‘Loneliness swallowed me up’

Emily White: 'I sometimes felt so ungrounded, so unreal, that I thought I might just drift away'

Bone marrow transplants cure mental illness – in mice

Preliminary research involving bone marrow transplants in mice suggests an immune approach to treating mental illness

Bipolar disorder: the ‘stalking beast’

John O'Donoghue has suffered from bipolar since he was 17. Now he's helping the largest ever study into it

Why do so many women have depression?

Kira Cochrane: Novelist Allison Pearson is the latest in a long line of high-profile women to talk publicly about their depression. So what's wrong?