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04/24/2023

Cannabis Experts Weigh in On Benefits and Drawbacks of Marijuana Use

Article Excerpt: With medical cannabis coming to Kentucky in less than two years following bill passage earlier this month, the timing of the Substance Use Research Event (SURE) at the University of Kentucky felt appropriate. On Monday, scientists and medical experts from around the region converged on the Gatton Student Center for a full day of presentations and discussions about the benefits and drawbacks of marijuana use. Experts also used the time to dispel some possible myths about the drug… “We ran some studies and it turned out cannabis withdrawal looks like tobacco withdrawal, and a good percentage of these people who use a lot of cannabis end up with the same withdrawal symptoms,” said Dr. Alan Budney of Dartmouth College

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/ybsp7kp4

Article Source: NBC Lex18

03/23/2023

With Gains and Gaps, Mental Health Care Moves Forward

Article Excerpt: According to the state Department of Health and Human Services, one in four New Hampshire residents is experiencing some form of mental health distress. “This is a regional and national crisis for all children and adults,” said Dr. William Torrey, chief of psychiatry at Dartmouth Health, who has spent 38 years in the field. Demand for inpatient and outpatient care currently “exceeds our capacity at all levels,” Torrey said. More people are seeking care, more are acknowledging mental illness and addiction struggles in themselves and loved ones, and more are advocating for mental health care — which is good. “They see the extreme need for services.”

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/msxv2adj

Article Source: Union Leader

03/22/2023

William C. Torrey, MD, Named Chair of the Department of Psychiatry

Article Excerpt: William C. (Will) Torrey, MD, has been named chair of the Department of Psychiatry for Dartmouth Health and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, a role he has held on an interim basis since 2020. This appointment comes in the midst of a national and regional mental health and addiction care crisis. Torrey’s wide-ranging experience in addressing psychiatric population health needs through advocacy, clinical programming, educational initiatives, and research combined with his drive for improvement will advance Dartmouth Health and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth’s positions as leaders in education, care delivery, and research in the field of psychiatry.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/3ahypm32

Article Source: Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine News

03/07/2023

Psychological Phenotypes Correlate with Response to Digital Therapy for Anxiety

Article Excerpt: A patient’s psychological phenotype could be an indication of whether the patient will respond to a digital therapy for anxiety, according to a new report. The study offers insights that could help clinicians offer personalized care to patients with psychological conditions, but it also could explain why some patients respond more strongly than others to the types of therapy often leveraged by prescription digital therapeutics. The findings were published in Scientific Reports. Corresponding author Veronique A. Taylor, Ph.D., M.Sc., of the Brown University School of Public Health, and colleagues, said while personalized medicine has become an important component of other types of healthcare, personalized medicine in mental health has lagged due in part to a lack of research.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/2p8tnr2j

Article Source: Managed Healthcare Executive

03/06/2023

Opioid Prescription Decision Tool May Be Feasible Option to Curb Overprescribing

Article Excerpt: A new report shows that an app designed to help clinicians make better opioid-prescribing decisions following surgery can be a useful tool, although not all clinicians said they would continue using it. The study, published in BMJ Open, highlights one potential strategy to help curb the overprescription of opioids, which is believed to be a major factor in the current epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States. The study investigators said persistent postsurgical opioid use is a common problem that occurs in about 6% of opioid-naive patients who are given the drugs. In about 15% of cases, patients are discharged with opioid prescriptions that are inconsistent with their opioid usage while in the hospital.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/yhxbwnc2

Article Source: AJMC

11/07/2022

Women in Business 2022 – Lynn E. Fiellin

Article Excerpt: Lynn Fiellin’s community-based program, the play2PREVENT Lab at Yale, focuses on building and testing videogame interventions targeting the most critical health outcomes impacting teens including mental health, addiction and sexual health. She has built sustained relationships with stakeholders, bridging an important gap in providing evidence-based youth health interventions. She has carried these accomplishments with her to her company Playbl with the goal of getting these videogames into the hands of as many kids as possible.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/y3y3ku2f

Article Source: New Haven Biz

10/27/2022

Professor Campbell wins the 2022 ACM UbiComp 10-year Impact Award

Article Excerpt: In 2012 Hong Lu, a PhD student in Computer Science at Dartmouth co-advised by Professors Andrew Campbell and Tanzeem Choudhury, developed StressSense, an innovative smartphone app to detect stress from human voice. StressSense won the 2022 ACM UbiComp10-year impact award. Given annually, this award recognizes papers with sustained and significant impact over at least a decade… This is the third time Professor Campbell has received a 10 year impact award for his research in mobile sensing. In 2019, the CenceMe app received the ACM SIGMOBILE Test of Time Award for “inspiring a huge body of research and commercial endeavors that has continued to increase the breadth and depth of mobile sensing”. In 2018, his work was recognized for “pioneering machine learning across mobile phones and servers” with the ACM SenSys Test of Time Award.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/4j3ae4z4

Article Source: Dartmouth Computer Sciences News

10/16/2022

WSU Study Finds Smart Home Technology Could Help Those Recovering from Opioid Use Disorder

Article Excerpt: Disrupted sleep is a common complaint for people actively trying to quit highly addictive opioids. According to a release from WSU, methadone is effective at reducing cravings and withdrawal, but it is often prescribed once daily and adjusting for the proper dosage can take time. Before a patient and doctor can get the dosage right, treatments can wear off during the night, returning withdrawal symptoms and pain – which increases the risk of resuming drug use and accidental overdose. The study, published in the journal Pain Management Nursing, found home sensors matched other sleep monitoring methods 89% of the time.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/4x79bx6w

Article Source: Fox 28

09/22/2022

Dartmouth-led Research Team Receives $3.3 Million Grant to Test Efficacy of Adding Audio Recordings to Clinic Visits with Older Adults

Article Excerpt: A Dartmouth-led research group, including investigators from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), has received a $3.3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging. In this NIH stage III ‘real world’ efficacy trial, investigators will compare the impact of sharing visit recordings to care as usual over 12 months in older adults with diabetes. According to previous studies, up to 80 percent of clinic visit information is forgotten by patients immediately after seeing their healthcare provider. This presents a significant barrier to their ability to manage their conditions, especially if they are older and have comorbidities that lead to poor health outcomes. “After visit summaries can improve recall, but concerns still exist about their readability, accuracy, and low patient usage,” says Paul Barr, PhD, an associate professor of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, and Center for Technology & Behavioral Health (CTBH) at the Geisel School of Medicine.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/54fuf7f4

Article Source: Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine News