Articles by: Geisel Communications

Research Shows That Finding New Activities in Darker Months Can Help With Seasonal Depression—New Hampshire Public Radio

Read article—Features comments by Robert Brady, an associate professor of psychiatry, about seasonal depression. “Most commonly, although not exclusively, that aligns with kind of the late fall, early winter for the start of the symptoms and then the remission of those symptoms at the end of winter as spring is coming,” Brady said. “Around the equator during the summer, it’s brutally hot. People don’t want to be outside in those conditions then. And so you actually see (seasonal affective disorder) occurring there as well.” (Picked up by The Keene Sentinel.)

Sam Altman Says Caring for a Baby Is Now Impossible Without ChatGPT—Futurism

Read article—Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, is quoted in an article about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s claims that parenting without ChatGPT would be impossible. “General-purpose models aren’t trained on validated parenting science,” Jacobson said. “Their advice can be generic, wrong, or reflect the biases in their training data—i.e. the open internet.” (Jacobson’s comments first appeared in Parents.)

Does AI Therapy Have a Future? — Communications of the ACM

Read article — Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, and Michael Heinz, an assistant professor of psychiatry, are featured in a story about the status of AI therapy chatbots, with reference to their work on Therabot. “I think we’ve reached a level where we are close to matching human therapy in terms of both efficacy and safety,” Jacobson said.

RFK Jr. Says He’s Following ‘Gold Standard’ Science. Here’s What To Know — Associated Press

Read article — Quotes Steven Woloshin, MED ’96, a professor of medicine and community and family medicine, in an article about scientific rigor. “Science isn’t about reaching certainty,” Woloshin said. “It’s about trying to reduce uncertainty to the point where you can say, ‘I have good confidence that if we do X, we’ll see result Y.’ But there’s no guarantee.” (Picked up by ABC News, CT Insider.)

Think You’re Too Old for Medical School? Think Again — AAMC

Read article — Tara Cunningham, associate dean for student life at the Geisel School of Medicine, is quoted in an article about the benefits and challenges of going to medical school later than average. “What I also appreciate about those of older age is that they have more experience collaborating and can support others to find their voice—they’re more willing to share and don’t have the need to compete,” Cunningham said. “They’re just here to do something great.”

Experts Discuss Potential Benefits, Harms, Safeguards of Using AI Chatbots for Mental Health — American Academy of Pediatrics

Read Article Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, is quoted in an article about the Nov. 6 FDA advisory committee meeting on regulating AI chatbots for psychotherapy. “A product-centric approval process that could be too slow and can be rigid for the field could guarantee that a product that is approved would be obsolete by the time it’s really deployed,” said Jacobson, who told the committee about his work on Therabot, the first generative AI chatbot to undergo a clinical trial.

Kidney Cancer Cases Spiked in a New Hampshire Town. Will Residents Find Out Why? — The Boston Globe

Read article — Megan Romano, an associate professor of epidemiology, is featured in an article about her co-authored research into higher rates of kidney cancer in Merrimack compared to the rest of New Hampshire. “We’re seeing a really big shift in the way that many different aspects of biomedical research are prioritized,” Romano said of funding the next phase of research.