Sunday, February 12, 2012

Mobile Device Detects When You’re Depressed, Acts as Your Therapist

Mobile Device Detects When You’re Depressed, Acts as Your Therapist:


Mobile Phone


Feeling down? Scientists are working on a mobile phone that notices when you’re depressed and intervenes with suggestions such as reaching out to friends.


The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine center has been developing various digital technologies to treat depression and other mood disorders. The move is a part of an effort to give more immediate assistance to those in mental need and provide therapy access to a larger population.


The phone called Mobilyze! is still in the works, but a small trial run has indicated that it is effective in reducing signs of depression. The device is able to read your mood thanks to sensor data that interprets your location, activity level (via an accelerometer), social context and mood, ultimately detecting signs of depression. The phone learns your typical lifestyle patterns, and notices if you are making calls and getting emails. If it thinks you are creating an isolating environment, it will suggest that you call or see friends.


“By prompting people to increase behaviors that are pleasurable or rewarding, we believe that Mobilyze! will improve mood,” said psychologist David Mohr, director of the new Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies and a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern’s Feinberg School in a statement. “It creates a positive feedback loop. Someone is encouraged to see friends, then enjoys himself and wants to do it again. Ruminating alone at home has the opposite effect and causes a downward spiral.”


Northwestern is also working on other technologies to make an impact on mental health problems.


“The potential to reduce or even prevent depression is enormous,” Mohr said. “These new approaches could offer fundamentally new treatment options to people who are unable to access traditional services or who are uncomfortable with standard psychotherapy. They also can be offered at significantly lower costs, which make them more viable in an era of limited resources.”


The National Institutes of Health-funded center is also developing a virtual human therapist who will work with teens to prevent depression and a medicine bottle that reminds users to take anti-depressant medication. The medicine bottle will even inform the doctor if it thinks the dosage needs adjusting.


A web-based social network is also in the works to help cancer survivors relieve sadness and stress.


Do you think more technology like this should be created?


More About: Mobile, Social Media, social networks, trending



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