News

09 Apr 2025
Abuse of NZ female MPs commonplace, researchers find
Female Members of Parliament in New Zealand are being assaulted with weapons, threatened with rape and subjected to deat...

13 Dec 2024
Mental Health Bill a wasted opportunity, experts warn
A group of mental health professionals has denounced the new Mental Health Bill as being “the old Act with some new lips...

07 Aug 2024
Project hopes to shift Pacific ideas on food
Making positive shifts today to improve the nutrition of Pacific communities in the future is the hope of a University o...

09 Jul 2024
Call for better criteria for suspicion of elder abuse
Despite one in six older adults being a victim of elder abuse, its prevalence is often undetected and under-reported, so...

25 Jun 2024
Trial offers hope for cheaper, more tolerable, ketamine treatment
For those suffering from treatment-resistant depression, the anaesthetic drug ketamine offers hope, but it has side effe...

07 Mar 2024
Personality and mental health factors linked to vaping uptake
University of Otago researchers have discovered three psychological factors that predict if a non-smoker will start vapi...

19 Sep 2023
Otago researchers rewarded for excellence
The breadth and strengths of University of Otago research is evident in this year’s Otago Research Awards.

04 Jul 2023
HRC grants $51 million to Otago researchers
Otago researchers have received a significant $51 million funding boost from the Health Research Council of New Zealand.

27 Jun 2023
New psychedelic-assisted therapy trial aims to help cancer patients
Finding a way to help terminal cancer patients struggling with depressive thoughts and emotions is the aim of a new clin...

20 Jun 2023
Māori-centred approach to mental health care highlights role of whānau
Researchers have developed a “groundbreaking” health model to ensure the cultural differences and needs of Māori mental...

17 Nov 2022
Power to the princess – study shows speedy way to reduce gender stereotypes
Children’s animated movies often enforce gender stereotypes, but they also hold the power to quickly shift them, a Unive...

26 Oct 2022
Dr Kobus Du Plooy speaks to Newshub about overthinking
Newshub featured comments by Dr Kobus Du Plooy in a recent article about overthinking, as part of its coverage of Mental...