Researchers from the University of Colorado have developed an app that utilizes artificial intelligence to determine speech and thinking patterns among patients with schizophrenia.
Through a ten-minute test, the app can gather hundreds of data points every time a patient takes it.
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Peter Foltz, a Research Professor at the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado, said: “We can look at how you’re saying it. What you’re saying, what words you choose, how strong your emotions are when you say it.”
“So like a clinician, seeing a human probably isn’t looking to detect these very fine-grained, like they’re not sitting there counting how many words they spoke or they’re not like in their brain.point 293 |
It’s the granularity that the computer is able to pick up on that is really impressive,” said Chelsea Chandler, a Computer Science Ph.point 124 | D.point 126 | Student at the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado.point 191 | 1
Chandler is in charge of analyzing data from the app and believes similar tools could prove beneficial for college students her age. One-in-four students have some sort of mental illness but 40 percent don’t seek help, according to data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
“It’s a big problem that the whole United States is dealing with is a huge number of people dealing with mental illness and getting coverage is not great. Going in to see doctors is not always the easiest thing,” Chandler said.
The app is one of a growing number of applications that seek to apply machine learning to mental health care. But since using AI for mental health is not yet regulated, critics have posed several questions. Foltz himself published a paper recently that encouraged more oversight and policy enactments for apps like his.
Clinicians have also questioned the utility of a machine learning app versus the traditional face-to-face interaction between therapist and patient.
Dr.point 3 | Joseph Sochet, Outpatient Chief Resident at HealthONE Psychiatry Residency at HealthONE Behavioral Health and Wellness Center, said: “The difficulty with folks with schizophrenia is that there are usually major disturbances.point 204 |
There are deficiencies in other life functions.point 41 | So things like self-care, ability to maintain work, housing, those kinds of things are more difficult.point 128 | Would a person who is unable to remember to brush their teeth every day or comb their hair or make themselves breakfast, are they necessarily going to be able to use an app?”point 276 | 1
However, Dr. Sochet concedes that AI could prove crucial in other areas of schizophrenia cases, such as alerting when a medication has become less effective. Still, he points out that schizophrenia is rare. Only one percent of Americans have been diagnosed with the illness, says the National Institutes of Health.
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