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Mental Health: Clinical Advances in Personalized Medicine
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Mental Health: Clinical Advances in Personalized Medicine

A special issue of Journal of Personalized Medicine (ISSN 2075-4426). This special issue belongs to the section "Personalized Therapy and Drug Delivery".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 April 2026 | Viewed by 3407

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hong Xie

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Neurosciences and Psychiatry, University of Toledo College of Medicine & Life Sciences, Toledo, OH 43614, USA
Interests: acute trauma; PTSD; MRI neuroimaging; mental illness and resilience; translational and clinical research
Dr. Jony Sheynin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine, Texas A&M University, Commerce, TX 77807, USA
Interests: functional MRI; task-based activation; functional connectivity; computational modeling; computational psychiatry; posttraumatic stress disorder

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One in eight people worldwide lives with a mental disorder, making it one of the most common health problems globally. Mental health is the ability to cope with the stresses in life, learn and remember, and adapt to the environment. Mental illness not only causes significant physical and emotional suffering but also increases the risk of premature death. Treatment for mental health conditions is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Mental health can be influenced by many factors at multiple levels—individual, familial, societal and environmental. Not everyone exposed to a risk factor will experience mental health problems, and the risk factors can vary across the lifespan. Understanding the brain's response to these risk factors and pathological neurocircuitry mechanisms underlying mental disorders is an important step for developing effective treatment plans and facilitating recovery for psychiatric patients. Therefore, innovative approaches to diagnose and treat mental illness are urgently needed.

The Special Issue “Mental Health: Clinical Advances in Personalized Medicine” aims to explore the mechanisms of mental illnesses of different etiologies and to discover advanced methods for diagnosis and treatment. This initiative aligns with the global efforts to improve mental health care and well-being while supporting those affected by mental illnesses.

We invite authors to submit original works in the above fields in the form of clinical research, literature review, translational research, meta-analyses, etc. This Special Issue will foster a deeper understanding of vulnerability and resilience in mental disorders and promote the development of effective and personalized treatments.

Dr. Hong Xie
Dr. Jony Sheynin
Guest Editors

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. Journal of Personalized Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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.

Keywords

  • mental health
  • risk biomarker
  • neurocircuitry
  • well-being and resilience
  • neuroimaging
  • personalized treatment

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

14 pages, 357 KB  
Article
Intolerance of Uncertainty Mediates the Relationship Between Social Anxiety and Problematic Smartphone Use Severity in College Students
by Sana Alavinikoo, Elyse F. Hutcheson and Jon D. Elhai
J. Pers. Med. 2025, 15(12), 599; https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm15120599 - 4 Dec 2025
Viewed by 915
Abstract
Objectives: Prior research has found that social anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) are both related to problematic smartphone use (PSU) severity. However, research about the mediating effect of IU from social anxiety to PSU is limited. Methods: We conducted a [...] Read more.
Objectives: Prior research has found that social anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) are both related to problematic smartphone use (PSU) severity. However, research about the mediating effect of IU from social anxiety to PSU is limited. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of self-report online data from 329 college students in the United States, evaluating IU, social anxiety, and PSU through structural equation modeling. Results: We found that confirmatory factor analytic models of social anxiety, IU and PSU each fit well. Our overall structural equation model also indicated good fit, and IU acted as a significant mediator of the link between social anxiety and PSU severity. To test model specificity, we compared it with an alternative model that added a direct path from social anxiety to PSU. Although the alternative model showed slightly better fit, the improvement was minimal, and theoretical grounds supported keeping the simpler initial model. Conclusions: These results indicate that IU may represent a critical cognitive–affective mechanism linking social anxiety to PSU. PSU might function as a coping mechanism for some individuals to alleviate the negative emotion associated with social anxiety and IU. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mental Health: Clinical Advances in Personalized Medicine)
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17 pages, 3482 KB  
Article
COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on STRESS, PTSD, and Prefrontal Cortical Thickness in Pre-Pandemic Trauma Survivors
by Sharad Chandra, Atheer Amer, Chia-Hao Shih, Qin Shao, Xin Wang and Hong Xie
J. Pers. Med. 2025, 15(4), 127; https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm15040127 - 26 Mar 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1162
Abstract
Background/Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic increased psychiatric symptoms in patients with pre-pandemic mental health conditions. However, the effects of pandemic on the brain, stress, and mental illness remain largely conjectural. Our objective was to examine how the pandemic affected prefrontal cortical thicknesses (CTs), [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic increased psychiatric symptoms in patients with pre-pandemic mental health conditions. However, the effects of pandemic on the brain, stress, and mental illness remain largely conjectural. Our objective was to examine how the pandemic affected prefrontal cortical thicknesses (CTs), stress, and PTSD symptoms in people with pre-pandemic trauma histories. Methods: Fifty-one survivors from a pre-pandemic trauma study who had completed a pre-pandemic PTSD Checklist-5 (PCL) to assess PTSD symptoms and a sMRI scan to measure prefrontal CTs were re-recruited after the pandemic. They subsequently completed the COVID Stress Scale (CSS) to assess stress, the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale-5 (CAPS) to diagnose PTSD, and a second sMRI scan. COVID-19 infection was self-reported. Associations between stress and symptom assessments and post-pandemic CTs, differences in CTs in PTSD vs. non-PTSD groups, and changes in pre- to post-pandemic CTs were examined. Results: Pre-pandemic PCL scores were positively associated with CSS scores which, in turn, were higher in the PTSD group. Thicker IFG-opercularis CTs were associated with COVID-19 infection. Post-pandemic rMFG and IFG-orbitalis CTs were positively associated with CAPS scores. rACC CTs were negatively associated with CSS scores. Pre- to post-pandemic rMFG and frontal pole CTs thickened in the PTSD group but thinned in the non-PTSD group, whereas rACC CTs thinned in the PTSD group but thickened in the non-PTSD group. Conclusions: These findings provide novel evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic had diverse effects involving prefrontal cortex structure, stress, and PTSD symptoms in subjects with pre-pandemic trauma history and suggest that treatments are needed to counter these diverse effects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mental Health: Clinical Advances in Personalized Medicine)
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Review

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13 pages, 255 KB  
Review
Neuroscience-Informed Creative Group Therapy for Processing Trauma and Developing Resilience During Wartime
by Sharon Vaisvaser, Yifat Shalem-Zafari, Neta Ram-Vlasov and Liat Shamri-Zeevi
J. Pers. Med. 2026, 16(3), 128; https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm16030128 - 25 Feb 2026
Viewed by 427
Abstract
Traumatic experiences can disrupt one’s sense of safety, self-efficacy, and relationships. Prolonged stress may lead to anxiety, depression, and diminished agency. The embodied, subjective manifestations of trauma call for personalized therapeutic approaches that address symptoms and foster resilience. Group Creative Arts Therapies (CATs) [...] Read more.
Traumatic experiences can disrupt one’s sense of safety, self-efficacy, and relationships. Prolonged stress may lead to anxiety, depression, and diminished agency. The embodied, subjective manifestations of trauma call for personalized therapeutic approaches that address symptoms and foster resilience. Group Creative Arts Therapies (CATs) offer relational aesthetic interventions that promote resilience and trauma recovery. Incorporating body-based methods, movement, materials and visual expression, CATs support interoceptive awareness, multisensory integration, embodiment, and emotional–cognitive processing. This article presents a review and conceptual framework of group CAT interventions during wartime, focusing on challenges related to body awareness, self-efficacy, and autobiographical memory. It examines how creative aesthetic approaches help process trauma and strengthen resilience. Drawing on predictive processing accounts of brain function, the article explores the neuropsychological impact of trauma and how creative group work may modulate related brain mechanisms. Creative techniques can foster bodily anchored self-awareness, self-efficacy and processes of traumatic memory reconsolidation. Aesthetic experiences are associated with changes in brain activation and connectivity through processes of embodiment, externalization, and meaning making. On an intrapersonal level, converging evidence highlights the role of sensory and sensorimotor processing, along with the dynamic interplay between Default Mode, Executive Control, and Salience networks, as conceptualized in the Triple Network Model. On an interpersonal level, the literature points to the dynamics of brain and body synchronization, as emerging phenomena during shared creative engagement. These neurodynamics provide a coherent framework for understanding how creative arts-based psychotherapeutic group work can support trauma processing and the cultivation of resilience. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mental Health: Clinical Advances in Personalized Medicine)
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