Tag: AI

Reading of the Week: Dr. Scott Patten on ChatGPT

February 9, 2023 /

From the Editor

Having only written four papers, the author wouldn’t seem particularly noteworthy. Yet the work is causing a buzz. Indeed, JAMA published an Editorial about the author, the papers, and the implications.

That author is ChatGPT, who isn’t human, of course – and that’s why it has made something of a splash. More than a million people tried this AI program in the week after its November launch, utilizing it to do everything from composing poetry to drafting essays for school assignments. 

What to make of ChatGPT? What are the implications for psychiatry? And for our journals?

To the last question, some are already reacting; as noted above, last week, JAMA published an Editorial and also updated its Instructions to Authors with several changes, including: “Nonhuman artificial intelligence, language models, machine learning, or similar technologies do not qualify for authorship.”

This week, we feature an original essay by Dr. Scott Patten (of the University of Calgary) for the Reading of the Week. Dr. Patten, who serves as the Editor Emeritus of The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, considers ChatGPT and these three questions, drawing on his own use of the program.

(And we note that the field is evolving quickly. Since Dr. Patten’s first draft, Microsoft has announced a chatbot for the search engine Bing.)

DG

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Reading of the Week: Suicide and Schizophrenia – Across Life Span; Also, Transgender-Inclusive Care (QT), and the NYT on Chatbots

June 10, 2021 /

From the Editor

This week, we have three selections.

In the first, we consider suicide and schizophrenia. In a new JAMA Psychiatry paper, Dr. Mark Olfson (of Columbia University) and his co-authors do a cohort study across life-span, tapping a massive database. They find: “the risk of suicide was higher compared with the general US population and was highest among those aged 18 to 34 years and lowest among those 65 years and older.” The authors see clear clinical implications: “These findings suggest that suicide prevention efforts for individuals with schizophrenia should include a focus on younger adults with suicidal symptoms and substance use disorders.”

In the second selection, we consider transgender-inclusive care, looking at a new Quick Takes podcast. Drs. June Lam and Alex Abramovich (both of the University of Toronto) comment on caring for members of this population. “Trans individuals are medically underserved and experience, poor mental health outcomes, high rates of disease burden – compared to cisgender individuals.”

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Finally, in our third selection from The New York Times, reporter Karen Brown writes about chatbots for psychotherapy, focusing on Woebot. The writer quotes psychologist Alison Darcy about the potential of these conversational agents: “If we can deliver some of the things that the human can deliver, then we actually can create something that’s truly scalable, that has the capability to reduce the incidence of suffering in the population.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: AI & Mental Health – Gordon Parker Looks Ahead; Also, Remembering Ronald Fieve

February 1, 2018 /

From the Editor

As artificial intelligence advances, what role will computers play in mental health care?

Today, computers touch practically every aspect of our lives – from suggesting books that may be of interest to us on Amazon to helping fly our planes to tropical destinations. But will computers soon help us with diagnosing and treating our patients? Will some parts of clinical medicine be replaced or assisted by computers?

This week, we look at a new paper from Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica considering AI and care. University of New South Wales’ Professor Gordon Parker sees a role for computers to help humans with diagnosis – but not more. “[R]ather than seeking to develop a computer program that will have diagnostic superiority to an ace clinical psychiatrist, it may be more important to develop programs that complement the psychiatrist’s judgement.”

AI: The next great doctor – or just a pretty face?

And in the second selection, we look back, not forward, and consider the career and contributions of psychiatrist Ronald R. Fieve, who recently passed. Dr. Fieve’s work helped bring lithium to North America.

DG

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