People living with major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder who show heightened brain activity when viewing fearful faces possess an elevated risk of psychiatric hospitalization within a year. A complementary tendency to recognize negative facial expressions more rapidly than positive ones also tracks with this heightened vulnerability. These findings emerged from a recent study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. Major depression and bipolar disorder represent two of the most common and persistent mood disorders globally. Both health conditions can severely disrupt a person’s life and sometimes lead to periods marked by intense psychological distress. The economic costs to society are immense, stemming from impaired occupational functioning and the need for intensive medical treatments. When symptoms escalate rapidly, individuals may require psychiatric inpatient hospital care for stabilization and safety. Predicting who might experience these severe relapses remains a massive challenge for medical professionals. Clinicians usually rely on a patient’s medical history, current symptom severity, and medication status to estimate their risk for future hospitalization. Mental health specialists suspect that deeper biological and psychological markers could offer …