Predicting Mental Health using Machine Learning

Machine Learning and Mental Health - An Unusual, yet Blooming Duo

"Machine learning really meets a specific need that we have in psychiatry — and that’s the need for personalization. For decades, we’ve been working on group averages and statistics that apply to populations who may have the same diagnosis but don’t translate as well to an individual patient. Machine learning allows us to get at individual predictions in a way we haven’t been able to before." — David Benrimoh, MD, CM, a psychiatry resident at McGill University

Machine learning is being used by neuroscientists and clinicians to create treatment plans for patients and to spot some of the main indicators of mental health issues before they manifest. One advantage is that machine learning aids physicians in identifying patients who may be at risk of developing a certain illness.

We can now assemble data for mental health experts so they can do their jobs more effectively because there is so much information accessible. Because comprehension of diagnoses in the past relied on population data and group averages, machine learning is incredibly useful nowadays. Clinicians can customise with the help of machine learning.

It may seem strange to pair a machine learning specialist with a researcher/clinician in psychology. However, there have been times where these two professions have collaborated and shown the world that they can both function together for the greater good. Rosalind Picard from MIT and Paola Pedrelli from Massachusetts General Hospital share the opinion that artificial intelligence may enhance patients' access to mental health treatment easier.

It has "been very, very evident that there are a number of hurdles for people with mental health illnesses to obtain and receive sufficient therapy," according to Pedrelli, who has worked as a psychologist for 15 years as a clinician and researcher. Finding a local physician who accepts patients, determining when and where to seek care, and acquiring financial means and transportation to appointments are just a few examples of these challenges.

When a computer is given a lot of data and examples of appropriate behaviour (i.e., what output to create when it encounters a specific input), it may become rather adept at carrying out a task on its own. This is known as machine learning. It can also aid in the discovery of meaningful patterns that people would not have discovered as fast in the absence of the computer.

Picard and Pedrelli may collect comprehensive data on research participants' skin conductance and temperature, heart rate, activity levels, socialising, personal evaluation of depression, sleep patterns, and more using wearable devices and cellphones. Their objective is to create machine learning algorithms that can process this enormous quantity of data and make it useful by spotting when a person may be having trouble and what would be beneficial to them. They anticipate that their algorithms will ultimately provide clinicians and patients with important data on the course of each patient's disease and efficient treatments.

Prediction of Mental Health using Machine Learning

A person's mental health is determined by both their current state of mind and how they are interacting with the world around them. Mental disease is brought on by anomalies in the brain's chemistry. A person's level of mental health acts as a gauge for how to treat their illnesses effectively. It is crucial to monitor the mental health characteristics of various groups in order to anticipate any health-related anomalies. There are working adults, college students, and high school kids living in the neighbourhood. It's a common misconception that stress and unhappiness affect people of all ages and socioeconomic levels. It is essential to assess the mental health of various groups at various points in life in order to prevent major sickness. Healthcare professionals will soon be forced to take into account a patient's mental health profile in order to administer better treatment and promote a quicker recovery.

Some of the most serious mental health conditions, like chronic illnesses, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, develop gradually over time and have early-stage signs that can be identified. Such diseases could be prevented or better managed. If anomalous mental states are identified early on in the disease's progression, further attention and therapy can be given. Therefore, making assumptions about someone's mental state based on how they act or seem is a sophisticated psychological science that has not yet been automated. Although there are screening test options, they are not practical for large populations owing to time and expense restrictions. Furthermore, diagnosis-based methods unintentionally discourage those who are ill from participating. Psychological issues thus frequently go unrecognised or addressed.

Depression and anxiety are significant conditions that have a global impact on people's health. Men and women of all ages, including youngsters and the elderly, are affected by them. The impact of anxiety and depressive disorders on health and well-being are extensive. Numerous somatic symptoms, including gastritis, acid reflux, palpitations, insomnia or hypersomnia, tremors, significant weight loss or gain, and a variety of psychosocial manifestations, including low mood, social withdrawal, decreased workplace productivity, suicidal ideation or attempt, and difficulty concentrating, are caused by them.

A number of additional lifestyle problems, including ischemic heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, unintentional accidents, and purposeful harm, are significantly increased by depression and anxiety.

Depression and suicidal thoughts are closely related, and depression itself can result in suicide. They are harmed by a variety of communicable illnesses, including HIV and TB. People who experience depression and anxiety are typically socially ostracised by their families and stigmatised by society. They could not perform as well in businesses and educational institutions. People are thus losing access to economic and social opportunities, which has a negative impact on their quality of life. Economic stress is a pervasive and sometimes immeasurable symptom that feeds a vicious cycle of illness and poverty. Low- and middle-income households are primarily impacted.

Smartphones, social media, neuroimaging, and wearable technology have made it possible for medical professionals and mental health researchers to obtain a tonne of data quickly. The ability to analyse this data with machine learning has grown. Advanced probabilistic and statistical methods are used in machine learning to build computers that can independently learn from data. This makes it possible to more accurately forecast outcomes from data sources and to more simply and properly identify data trends.

Machine learning has aided fields including natural language processing, speech recognition, computer vision, and artificial intelligence by enabling researchers and developers to extract vital data from datasets, provide individualised experiences, and create intelligent systems. ML has significantly benefited advancement in fields like biology by enabling rapid and scalable analysis of complex data. Similar analytical techniques are being used to examine mental health data, which has the potential to enhance patient outcomes as well as knowledge of psychiatric ailments and how to treat them.

Early identification of mental health problems enhances patients' quality of life and enables professionals to treat them more successfully. It is important to be psychologically, emotionally, and socially well. It has an impact on how one feels, thinks, and behaves. Every stage of life, from infancy and adolescence to maturity, places a high value on mental health. Five machine learning algorithms are typically used, and their accuracy in detecting mental health disorders was evaluated using a variety of accuracy criteria. Logistic Regression, K-NN Classifier, Decision Tree Classifier, Random Forest, and Stacking are the five machine learning algorithms.

Stress, depression, and other psychological health conditions have grown quite widespread among the general public in today's fast-paced environment. In this study, machine learning algorithms were used to forecast levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Data from employed and unemployed people from various cultures and groups were gathered using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale questionnaire in order to apply these algorithms. Five distinct machine learning algorithms were used to predict the occurrence of anxiety, sadness, and stress on five different severity levels. Because these algorithms are extremely accurate, they are well suited to forecasting psychological issues. Classes were determined to be unbalanced in the confusion matrix after using the various approaches. In order to assist choose the Random Forest classifier as the highest accuracy model among the five applied methods, the f1 score metric was included. The algorithms were also very sensitive to negative findings, as the specificity parameter showed.

Conclusion

Since there are several machine learning approaches accessible, it is crucial to compare them all and then choose the one that best fits the target domain. Today, there are several specialised programmes in the medical profession that can forecast disease quite precisely in advance, allowing for effective and quick therapy. And to learn all of these, and much more, Skillslash is quite a favourable ed-tech platform. Students and ML aficionados can approach Skillslash as it furnishes them with training in Data Science Course in Bangalore, data analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and many other fields to equip them to put their knowledge proficiency to use in the real world. With features like a 100% job guarantee, real-world work experience, customizable courses, training to land a job at a top tech company or one of the FAANG companies, project certification from leading startups, etc. Therefore, one may have faith in this burgeoning firm and its expertise in this domain.

Written by

Arpita Deb

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