Tag: Taglienti

Reading of the Week: Social Media Likes & Depression – the New JAMA Psych Paper; Also, Dr. Taglienti on Being Noticed

July 30, 2026 / / 1 Comment

From the Editor

When you post a cute picture of your baby cousin on social media, you receive many likes and feel encouraged to post more. To speak technically, drawing on reinforcement learning, social rewards reinforce posting. But how do people with depression respond to social media? Would they be less motivated by reinforcement learning (consistent with past work)? Could platforms like Twitter (now X) actually worsen depression?

In a new JAMA Psychiatry study, Dan-Mircea Mirea (of Princeton University) and his colleagues attempt to answer these questions. They analyzed 17 million posts from almost 8 000 Twitter users to test the association between depression and the tendency to be reinforced by likes. “In this cross-sectional study, we found that individuals with depressive psychopathology showed a greater tendency to be reinforced by likes on Twitter.” We consider the paper and its implications; we also look at the accompanying Editorial.

And in this week’s other selection, from JAMA, Dr. Jenna Taglienti (of Hofstra University) writes about a resident who misses a call shift. As the residency program director, she thinks on their conversation – and on being noticed. She recalls the loss of her mother. “I think about my mother labeling photographs and childhood keepsakes long before any of us were ready to imagine needing them.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: MST vs ECT – the New Lancet Psychiatry Paper; Also, the First AI Drug Prescriber and Dr. Taglienti on Her Cancer & Her Career

April 23, 2026 /

From the Editor

He began to respond to ECT and felt less depressed than he had in many years. But as the treatments continued, my patient noticed gaps in his memory including family vacations when his children were young. “Those memories are precious.” He stopped ECT and, soon after, was deeply depressed again. 

Smaller studies suggest that Magnetic Seizure Therapy (MST) – where alternating magnetic fields induce seizures – offers relief to patients without the cognitive problems of ECT. In a new study published by The Lancet Psychiatry, Dr. Daniel M. Blumberger (of the University of Toronto) and his co-authors add to the literature with the largest randomized trial comparing these convulsive therapies conducted and the first non-inferiority clinical trial to address efficacy. The study involved 239 participants with depression. “MST showed non-inferior efficacy relative to… ECT in achieving remission of depression, and a more favourable cognitive safety profile.” We consider the paper and its implications.

Should patients receive prescriptions from an AI prescriber? In the second selection, from JAMA, Dr. Daniel G. Aaron (of the University of Utah) and Christopher Robertson (of Boston University) look at a new Utah program allowing AI to prescribe medications without physician involvement. They are cool to the idea. “Although AI offers the promise of increased efficiency and expanded access, the evasion of legal obligations by early movers raises profound concerns. Incorporating AI into modern health care must be evidence based and responsible.”

And in the third selection, Dr. Jenna Taglienti (of Hofstra University) writes personally about her cancer in JAMA. As a psychiatrist and a residency program director, she finds meaning in her work – but illness helps her gain perspective. “Medicine can have extraordinary meaning. But it cannot substitute for being present in your own life.”

DG

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