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DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1744532
Leveraging Social Networks for the Assessment and Management of Neurological Patients
Funding The authors received grant support from the National Institutes of Health (R01MD016178), SocialBit: Establishing the accuracy of a wearable sensor to detect social interactions after stroke.![](https://www.thieme-connect.de/media/sin/202202/lookinside/thumbnails/10-1055-s-0042-1744532_210028-1.jpg)
Abstract
Social networks are the persons surrounding a patient who provide support, circulate information, and influence health behaviors. For patients seen by neurologists, social networks are one of the most proximate social determinants of health that are actually accessible to clinicians, compared with wider social forces such as structural inequalities. We can measure social networks and related phenomena of social connection using a growing set of scalable and quantitative tools increasing familiarity with social network effects and mechanisms. This scientific approach is built on decades of neurobiological and psychological research highlighting the impact of the social environment on physical and mental well-being, nervous system structure, and neuro-recovery. Here, we review the biology and psychology of social networks, assessment methods including novel social sensors, and the design of network interventions and social therapeutics.
Keywords
social connection - social networks - psychosocial interventions - neurobiology - neuropsychiatry - mobile sensingPublication History
Article published online:
08 June 2022
© 2022. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
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