'Oh Brave New World!'; where we can use smart phone technology to help detect the onset of depression
Researchers at the Black Dog Institute’s Digital Dog are harnessing smart phone technology to track social interaction as a way of detecting the social withdrawal that may indicate the onset of depressive illness.
Social isolation is an important precipitant of depression. Social withdrawal can be an early warning sign of falling mood.
This project uses the Bluetooth function on smart phones to track and monitor social interactions. Your phone can detect the phones around you and that may be a good indication of the interactions you are having in your daily life.
Building up a pattern of a person’s normal social connectivity leads to being able to detect changes that may indicate deteriorating mental health. When it detects such changes the app will be able to provide appropriate mental health advice as required.
It’s still in the research phase but holds great promise for the future
You can hear researcher Dr Mark Larsen talking (in his lovely accent!) about the project at http://digitaldog.org.au/programs/staying-connected/ and watch a video of Dynamic Social Network mapping in action.
Gerhard is a full professor of Clinical Psychology at Linköping University, Sweden since 2003, an
d affiliated researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Professor Andersson is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of CBT delivered through information and communication technology, as well as the author of the book “The Internet and CBT: a clinical guide”.
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