The Verge – This article quotes Ethan Berke, associate professor of community and family medicine and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at Geisel, on a recent study that found a smartphone’s sensors could potentially identify whether the user might suffer from depression. “It’s a very small study, and they didn’t get data over a long period of time, but those things aside, it definitely advances our knowledge base,” says Berke. (Similar coverage in Tech Times and iFreePress.)
In the News
VA Opens First PTSD ‘Brain Bank’
Valley News – Mentions the recent appointment of Paula Schnurr, research professor of psychiatry at Geisel, as executive director of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in White River Junction, V.T. The article also quotes Matthew Friedman, professor of psychology, pharmacology and toxicology, on the National Center for PTSD’s opening of the first national “brain bank” devoted to post-traumatic stress disorder research.
Why Allow Illness to Be Part of Your Identity?
MyCentralJersey – H. Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, comments on the health consequences of focusing our thinking on disease. “Too many people are being made to worry about diseases they don’t have and are at only average risk to get,” says Welch. “You may not consider that a harm, but remember health is not simply a state of physical being, it’s also a state of mind.”
Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Gets New Director
Associated Press via The Washington Times – Paula Schnurr, research professor of psychiatry at Geisel, has been named executive director of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in White River Junction, VT. Schnurr has served as the center’s acting director since 2013.
A Life: Margo Krasnoff, 1957 — 2015: ‘She Was So Genuine in All of Her Interactions’
Valley News – A feature article remembering the life of Geisel School of Medicine faculty member and alumna Margo Krasnoff, who died in January 2015. The article quotes John Butterly, professor of medicine and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at Geisel; Lisa Adams, associate dean for global health, and many more on Krasnoff’s lasting impact on the Dartmouth community.
Here’s Why You Can Skip the New Insomnia Drug, Belsomra
Consumer Reports – Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz, both professors of medicine, community and family medicine, and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at Geisel, were commissioned to review the research and prepare a Drug Facts Box for Belsomra. Their analysis showed that the small improvements in sleep provided by the drug didn’t help people feel more refreshed. Instead, more people who took Belsomra felt drowsy the next day compared with those who took a placebo.
Making Cruel Unusual
The Economist – This article cites research by Dror Ben-Zeev, assistant professor of psychiatry, on the incorporation of technology into the treatment of mental illness.
Which Trendy Diets Actually Work?
Fox News – Cites research conducted at the Geisel School of Medicine on the Ketogenic Diet, which was developed for children suffering with epilepsy as a way to manage their seizures. The researchers found that that even though the diet reduces the frequency of seizures in children, it may result in long-term memory trouble and poor quality brain growth.
Why So Much Of The Health Care We Deliver Is Unnecessary – And What We Can Do About It
Forbes – Cites data from the Dartmouth Atlas, which notes that six percent of cancer patients receive chemotherapy in the last two weeks of their lives while the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) points out that chemotherapy given in the last month of life has “little or no benefit to patients.”
Pregnant and Hooked: How One Program Helps Heroin Addicts
NBC Nightly News – News that rates of heroin use doubled among women over the past decade doesn’t surprise Shea, who’s 26 and pregnant. She’s also a newly clean addict. It also doesn’t surprise the staff at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Perinatal Addiction Treatment program in New Hampshire, where Shea got help to reduce the odds of giving birth to an addicted baby.