The Relationship Between Mental Health and Psychological Trauma

Dear Colleagues,

Psychological trauma represents one of the most pressing public health challenges worldwide. Its impact extends far beyond the immediate aftermath of adverse experiences, shaping emotional functioning, cognitive processes, physical health and social wellbeing across the lifespan. Growing evidence demonstrates strong links between trauma exposure and a range of mental health outcomes, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, dissociation, and other disorders. Despite substantial advances, important gaps remain in understanding the mechanisms underlying these associations and in identifying effective, culturally sensitive, and scalable interventions.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue on “The Relationship Between Mental Health and Psychological Trauma”.

This Special Issue aims to advance multidisciplinary knowledge on how traumatic experiences affect mental health, integrating findings from clinical psychology, psychiatry, public health, neuroscience, and community-based research. The topic aligns closely with Healthcare’s mission to improve health outcomes across diverse populations through high-quality empirical work, innovative methodologies, and clinically relevant insights.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to): resilience and protective factors, trauma assessment, complex trauma, trauma-informed care, intervention development, digital tools for trauma treatment, and cross-cultural perspectives.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Jose I. Baile
Guest Editor

Dr. María Frenzi Rabito
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.