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Earlier this month, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released its annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which examined substance use and mental health data from 2021. Although the survey has been administered since 1971, SAMHSA called this year’s “the most comprehensive report on substance use and mental health indicators” that the organization has released to date.
Over seven years ago, I founded Holmusk with the vision that advances in technology and data science could be harnessed to improve health care. Over the company’s lifespan, the vision has crystallized, and we decided to focus first on an area of dire need—behavioral health. We have made great advancements in this space, many of which would not have been realized without the creation and nurturing of fruitful and supportive partnerships.
What if we could better understand the effects of treatments on specific types of individuals, thereby allowing us to personalize drug treatments?
Today marks World Mental Health Day, a day of recognition organized and sponsored by the World Health Organization. All month, we will also honor ADHD Awareness Month by looking back at some of the most important ADHD research we have done this year.
This year at the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology’s annual conference, I had the privilege to organize and chair a panel discussion on challenges and opportunities in leveraging real-world evidence to inform the development of new treatments in behavioral health.
On Clinical Trials Day, we recognize an important part of the healthcare infrastructure: the studies that rigorously evaluate new treatments to determine which will be effective and safe for improving patient health. Through the conventional process of assessment, the treatments that succeed will go on to regulatory approval and will be marketed to patients and their providers.
Recently, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf spoke at Academy Health’s Health Datapalooza meeting and laid out several areas that the health care system must prioritize to improve outcomes and increase life expectancy. Many of his comments centered on better evidence, with a special emphasis on populations who are disproportionately impacted by negative outcomes.
Last month, I wrote an editorial in the Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry on the mental health crisis facing our nation’s children. A situation that was already becoming dire has only worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic—one meta-analysis found that the proportions of the world’s youth experiencing depressive symptoms or anxiety symptoms have doubled from pre-pandemic levels.
