In the News

For students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who are applying to college, planning ahead can ensure they receive the mental health care and academic support they need. Jennifer Derenne, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, shares advice in this Insights post from Stanford Medicine.

There has been loads of research on how social media and specifically Facebook affects mental health, and to some extent it depends on how you use it (actively or just for scrolling), how many hours per day, your age, gender, and a few other factors. Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, provides comment.

This articles examines the use of multi-agentic AI to provide mental health advice. It also introduces CREATE - the Center for Responsible and Effective AI Technology Enhancement of PTSD Treatments. The group is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH/NIH) and is a multi-disciplinary ALACRITY center that develops and evaluates LLM-based tools to support evidence-based mental health treatment implementation and quality.

Stanford's TherapyTrainer deploys AI to help therapists practice skills for written exposure therapy. Debra Kaysen, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and colleague Elizabeth Stade, are interviewed.

Lab-grown “reductionist replicas” of the human brain are helping scientists understand fetal development and cognitive disorders, including autism. But ethical questions loom. Sergiu Pasca, the Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and Bonnie Uytengsu and Family Director of the Stanford Brain Organogenesis Program, provides comment.

As Santa Clara County continues to buckle under the strain of federal budget cuts, more than 100 people attended a recent Town Hall meeting in hopes of saving allcove Palo Alto, a youth wellness center that students say is indispensable to mental health and suicide prevention work. Shashank Joshi, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and, by courtesy of Pediatrics and of Education, provides comment. In this related story, allcove network director Greg Young is quoted.