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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Semin Neurol 2022; 42(02): 136-148
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1744532
Review Article

Leveraging Social Networks for the Assessment and Management of Neurological Patients

Amar Dhand 
1   Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Network Science Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts
,
Archana Podury
2   Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
,
Niteesh Choudhry
3   Harvard Medical School, Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
,
Shrikanth Narayanan 
4   Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
,
Min Shin
5   Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina
,
Matthias R. Mehl 
6   Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
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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.
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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 sensing


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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
08. Juni 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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