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How to Allow Your Kids to Stay Connected and Protected: Strategies for Healthy Social Media Use in Schools and Homes
Over the last few years, as my boys became adolescents and entered high school (right smack in the middle of the COVID pandemic), as a parent and a psychiatrist, I have witnessed firsthand the impact of smartphones and social media. There has been a flurry of articles on this topic as well...
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Using Big Data Analytics to Predict and Prevent Mental Health Crises
In recent years, mental health crises and suicide rates have surged across America. This concerning trend spans demographics, with 11.5% of youth (over 2.7 million people) reporting severe major depression and 20.78% of adults (over 50 million people) facing some form of mental illness. The...
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Digital Technologies Hold Promise for Behavioral Health Service Providers and Recipients
Our healthcare and social welfare systems face grave challenges amid an unprecedented demand for services. The acute economic instability of recent years, environmental degradation attributable to global climate change, and chronic sociopolitical upheaval have compromised public health and...
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Empowering Patients through Accessible Electronic Health Records: Benefits and Challenges
The integration of digital technology in healthcare has ushered in a new era of patient empowerment, providing an unprecedented level of engagement and autonomy in managing one’s health by enabling easier access to electronic health records (EHRs). This transformation has significantly altered...
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How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Combat Addiction
Substance use disorder is a worldwide problem. A report by the Addiction Center shows that in the United States, more than 21 million people have a substance use disorder. Another report by the National Drug Control Budget highlights that the government spends more than $44.5 billion dollars...
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AI’s Next Target: Clinician Burnout
Artificial intelligence threatens to disrupt work as we know it, displacing great swaths of the workforce with language models and artificial neural networks that perform least as well as humans. Although that frightens healthcare workers, many are burning out and looking for relief. AI might be...
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A Decade of Advancements in Behavioral Health Technology for Pennsylvania Students
The year was 2014, and Drexel University, where I was working at the time, partnered with Pennsylvania’s Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) in submitting and being awarded a 5-year, $736,000 annually Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) grant for youth suicide prevention. Our...
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How to Counter TikTok’s Mental Health Misinformation
KEY POINTS: During the pandemic, TikTok served as a way for teens to connect with others over sharing a mental health illness. Predatory advertising and popularity incentives drove creation of content that promoted self-diagnosis and misinformation. Parents and clinicians can assist...
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Enhancing Geriatric Behavioral Health: Best-Practices and Technology-Assisted Care Solutions
As the United States grapples with the realities of an aging population, the importance of adapting our health and social service system of care to meet the needs of older adults has never been more critical. In 2020, approximately one in six people in the U.S. were aged 65 or over, highlighting a...
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We Can Break the Cycle of Preventable Emergency Room Visits and Improve Patients’ Lives
In New York State, almost half (48%) of emergency room visits are for routine, non-emergency care offered by community health providers or are otherwise preventable. These visits disrupt patients’ lives and strain limited hospital resources. Moreover, communication gaps between hospitals and...
