New Software To Diagnose Depression Based On Social Media Selfies

Those “incredibly difficult questions” are ones patients may soon have to ask themselves, Dr. Igor Galynker, associate chairman of research at Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s psychiatry department in New York, told CBS News Tuesday. That’s because a recent study has shown that current software may be better at detecting depression in patients than actual human doctors.
The study, conducted by Andrew Reece, a graduate student at Harvard University’s psychology department, and Chris Danforth, a professor at the University of Vermont College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, aimed to discover how accurately clinical depression could be detected through visual cues in the photos people post to social media.
Reece and Danforth asked 166 people to share their Instagram feeds and their mental health histories. All told, the pair was able to collect nearly 44,000 photos from volunteers, along with answers to individual questionnaires.’
Read more: New Software To Diagnose Depression Based On Social Media Selfies