Psychosis can now be predicted from speech by AI

AI today definitely runs towards prevention, before even being affected. Researchers have developed a new Machine Learning algorithm that will predict Psychosis using a person’s speech. This tool will analyze a person’s speech, carefully paying attention to his/ her usage of words.

Using the method, Natural Language Processing (NLP), IBM researchers can decide the possibility of the patient being diagnosed by schizophrenia or other mental disorders. “It was previously known that subtle features of future psychosis are present in people’s language, but we’ve used machine learning to actually uncover hidden details about those features,” said Phillip Wolff, a professor at Emory University.

Even trained doctors had not noticed how people that might be at risk for psychosis use more words associated with sound than the average, although abnormal auditory perception is a pre-clinical symptom.

This method has proven to be accurate 93% of the time, while humans only got it right 53% of the time. The findings add to the evidence showing the potential for using machine learning to identify linguistic abnormalities associated with mental illness. “Trying to hear these subtleties in conversations with people is like trying to see microscopic germs with your eyes,” said Neguine Rezaii, who conducted the research at Emory University in the US.

These mental diseases are rather common in the teenage age group, budding at the age of 17, patients develop psychotic disabilities by the time they’re 20 which serve as warning signs. This stage is called the prodromal syndrome. About 25 to 30 percent of youth that goes through this prodromal syndrome will develop schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder.

Though Psychosis has no cure, “If we can identify individuals who are at risk earlier and use preventive interventions, we might be able to reverse the deficits,” said Elaine Walker, an Emory professor. “There are good data showing that treatments like cognitive-behavioral therapy can delay onset, and perhaps even reduce the occurrence of psychosis,” she added.