Leif Simmatis, Emma E. Russo, Joseph Geraci, Irene E. Harmsen, Nardin Samuel
{"title":"Technical and clinical considerations for electroencephalography-based biomarkers for major depressive disorder","authors":"Leif Simmatis, Emma E. Russo, Joseph Geraci, Irene E. Harmsen, Nardin Samuel","doi":"10.1038/s44184-023-00038-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44184-023-00038-7","url":null,"abstract":"Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent and debilitating psychiatric disease that leads to substantial loss of quality of life. There has been little progress in developing new MDD therapeutics due to a poor understanding of disease heterogeneity and individuals’ responses to treatments. Electroencephalography (EEG) is poised to improve this, owing to the ease of large-scale data collection and the advancement of computational methods to address artifacts. This review summarizes the viability of EEG for developing brain-based biomarkers in MDD. We examine the properties of well-established EEG preprocessing pipelines and consider factors leading to the discovery of sensitive and reliable biomarkers.","PeriodicalId":74321,"journal":{"name":"Npj mental health research","volume":" ","pages":"1-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-023-00038-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135112450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
María P. Raveau, Julián I. Goñi, José F. Rodríguez, Isidora Paiva-Mack, Fernanda Barriga, María P. Hermosilla, Claudio Fuentes-Bravo, Susana Eyheramendy
{"title":"Natural language processing analysis of the psychosocial stressors of mental health disorders during the pandemic","authors":"María P. Raveau, Julián I. Goñi, José F. Rodríguez, Isidora Paiva-Mack, Fernanda Barriga, María P. Hermosilla, Claudio Fuentes-Bravo, Susana Eyheramendy","doi":"10.1038/s44184-023-00039-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44184-023-00039-6","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past few years, the COVID-19 pandemic has exerted various impacts on the world, notably concerning mental health. Nevertheless, the precise influence of psychosocial stressors on this mental health crisis remains largely unexplored. In this study, we employ natural language processing to examine chat text from a mental health helpline. The data was obtained from a chat helpline called Safe Hour from the “It Gets Better” project in Chile. This dataset encompass 10,986 conversations between trained professional volunteers from the foundation and platform users from 2018 to 2020. Our analysis shows a significant increase in conversations covering issues of self-image and interpersonal relations, as well as a decrease in performance themes. Also, we observe that conversations involving themes like self-image and emotional crisis played a role in explaining both suicidal behavior and depressive symptoms. However, anxious symptoms can only be explained by emotional crisis themes. These findings shed light on the intricate connections between psychosocial stressors and various mental health aspects in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.","PeriodicalId":74321,"journal":{"name":"Npj mental health research","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-023-00039-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134976065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuqi Wu, Kaining Mao, Liz Dennett, Yanbo Zhang, Jie Chen
{"title":"Systematic review of machine learning in PTSD studies for automated diagnosis evaluation","authors":"Yuqi Wu, Kaining Mao, Liz Dennett, Yanbo Zhang, Jie Chen","doi":"10.1038/s44184-023-00035-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44184-023-00035-w","url":null,"abstract":"Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is frequently underdiagnosed due to its clinical and biological heterogeneity. Worldwide, many people face barriers to accessing accurate and timely diagnoses. Machine learning (ML) techniques have been utilized for early assessments and outcome prediction to address these challenges. This paper aims to conduct a systematic review to investigate if ML is a promising approach for PTSD diagnosis. In this review, statistical methods were employed to synthesize the outcomes of the included research and provide guidance on critical considerations for ML task implementation. These included (a) selection of the most appropriate ML model for the available dataset, (b) identification of optimal ML features based on the chosen diagnostic method, (c) determination of appropriate sample size based on the distribution of the data, and (d) implementation of suitable validation tools to assess the performance of the selected ML models. We screened 3186 studies and included 41 articles based on eligibility criteria in the final synthesis. Here we report that the analysis of the included studies highlights the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in PTSD diagnosis. However, implementing AI-based diagnostic systems in real clinical settings requires addressing several limitations, including appropriate regulation, ethical considerations, and protection of patient privacy.","PeriodicalId":74321,"journal":{"name":"Npj mental health research","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-023-00035-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135537104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Amanda M. Y. Chu, Benson S. Y. Lam, Jenny T. Y. Tsang, Agnes Tiwari, Helina Yuk, Jacky N. L. Chan, Mike K. P. So
{"title":"An automatic speech analytics program for digital assessment of stress burden and psychosocial health","authors":"Amanda M. Y. Chu, Benson S. Y. Lam, Jenny T. Y. Tsang, Agnes Tiwari, Helina Yuk, Jacky N. L. Chan, Mike K. P. So","doi":"10.1038/s44184-023-00036-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44184-023-00036-9","url":null,"abstract":"The stress burden generated from family caregiving makes caregivers particularly prone to developing psychosocial health issues; however, with early diagnosis and intervention, disease progression and long-term disability can be prevented. We developed an automatic speech analytics program (ASAP) for the detection of psychosocial health issues based on clients’ speech. One hundred Cantonese-speaking family caregivers were recruited with the results suggesting that the ASAP can identify family caregivers with low or high stress burden levels with an accuracy rate of 72%. The findings indicate that digital health technology can be used to assist in the psychosocial health assessment. While the conventional method requires rigorous assessments by specialists with multiple rounds of questioning, the ASAP can provide a cost-effective and immediate initial assessment to identify high levels of stress among family caregivers so they can be referred to social workers and healthcare professionals for further assessments and treatments.","PeriodicalId":74321,"journal":{"name":"Npj mental health research","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-023-00036-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135741762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jiyeong Kim, Eleni Linos, Melanie S. Dove, Jeffrey S. Hoch, Theresa H. Keegan
{"title":"Impact of COVID-19, cancer survivorship and patient-provider communication on mental health in the US Difference-In-Difference","authors":"Jiyeong Kim, Eleni Linos, Melanie S. Dove, Jeffrey S. Hoch, Theresa H. Keegan","doi":"10.1038/s44184-023-00034-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44184-023-00034-x","url":null,"abstract":"Poor mental health has been found to be more prevalent among those with cancer and is considered a public health crisis since COVID-19. This study assessed the impact of COVID-19 and cancer survivorship on mental health and investigated factors, including online patient-provider communications (OPPC; email/internet/tablet/smartphone), associated with poor mental health prior to and during the early COVID-19. Nationally representative Health Information National Trends Survey data during 2017–2020 (n = 15,871) was used. While the prevalence of poor mental health was high (40–42%), Difference-In-Difference analyses revealed that cancer survivorship and COVID-19 were not associated with poor mental health. However, individuals that used OPPC had 40% higher odds of poor mental health. Low socioeconomic status (low education/income), younger age (18–64 years), and female birth gender were also associated with poor mental health. Findings highlight the persistence of long-standing mental health inequities and identify that OPPC users might be those who need mental health support.","PeriodicalId":74321,"journal":{"name":"Npj mental health research","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-023-00034-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41356943","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Raymond R. Bond, Maurice D. Mulvenna, Courtney Potts, Siobhan O’Neill, Edel Ennis, John Torous
{"title":"Digital transformation of mental health services","authors":"Raymond R. Bond, Maurice D. Mulvenna, Courtney Potts, Siobhan O’Neill, Edel Ennis, John Torous","doi":"10.1038/s44184-023-00033-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44184-023-00033-y","url":null,"abstract":"This paper makes a case for digital mental health and provides insights into how digital technologies can enhance (but not replace) existing mental health services. We describe digital mental health by presenting a suite of digital technologies (from digital interventions to the application of artificial intelligence). We discuss the benefits of digital mental health, for example, a digital intervention can be an accessible stepping-stone to receiving support. The paper does, however, present less-discussed benefits with new concepts such as ‘poly-digital’, where many different apps/features (e.g. a sleep app, mood logging app and a mindfulness app, etc.) can each address different factors of wellbeing, perhaps resulting in an aggregation of marginal gains. Another benefit is that digital mental health offers the ability to collect high-resolution real-world client data and provide client monitoring outside of therapy sessions. These data can be collected using digital phenotyping and ecological momentary assessment techniques (i.e. repeated mood or scale measures via an app). This allows digital mental health tools and real-world data to inform therapists and enrich face-to-face sessions. This can be referred to as blended care/adjunctive therapy where service users can engage in ‘channel switching’ between digital and non-digital (face-to-face) interventions providing a more integrated service. This digital integration can be referred to as a kind of ‘digital glue’ that helps join up the in-person sessions with the real world. The paper presents the challenges, for example, the majority of mental health apps are maybe of inadequate quality and there is a lack of user retention. There are also ethical challenges, for example, with the perceived ‘over-promotion’ of screen-time and the perceived reduction in care when replacing humans with ‘computers’, and the trap of ‘technological solutionism’ whereby technology can be naively presumed to solve all problems. Finally, we argue for the need to take an evidence-based, systems thinking and co-production approach in the form of stakeholder-centred design when developing digital mental health services based on technologies. The main contribution of this paper is the integration of ideas from many different disciplines as well as the framework for blended care using ‘channel switching’ to showcase how digital data and technology can enrich physical services. Another contribution is the emergence of ‘poly-digital’ and a discussion on the challenges of digital mental health, specifically ‘digital ethics’.","PeriodicalId":74321,"journal":{"name":"Npj mental health research","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-023-00033-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47635174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Peng Zhou, Huimin Ma, Bochao Zou, Xiaowen Zhang, Shuyan Zhao, Yuxin Lin, Yidong Wang, Lei Feng, Gang Wang
{"title":"A conceptual framework of cognitive-affective theory of mind: towards a precision identification of mental disorders","authors":"Peng Zhou, Huimin Ma, Bochao Zou, Xiaowen Zhang, Shuyan Zhao, Yuxin Lin, Yidong Wang, Lei Feng, Gang Wang","doi":"10.1038/s44184-023-00031-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44184-023-00031-0","url":null,"abstract":"To explore the minds of others, which is traditionally referred to as Theory of Mind (ToM), is perhaps the most fundamental ability of humans as social beings. Impairments in ToM could lead to difficulties or even deficits in social interaction. The present study focuses on two core components of ToM, the ability to infer others’ beliefs and the ability to infer others’ emotions, which we refer to as cognitive and affective ToM respectively. Charting both typical and atypical trajectories underlying the cognitive-affective ToM promises to shed light on the precision identification of mental disorders, such as depressive disorders (DD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, most prior studies failed to capture the underlying processes involved in the cognitive-affective ToM in a fine-grained manner. To address this problem, we propose an innovative conceptual framework, referred to as visual theory of mind (V-ToM), by constructing visual scenes with emotional and cognitive meanings and by depicting explicitly a four-stage process of how humans make inferences about the beliefs and emotions of others. Through recording individuals’ eye movements while looking at the visual scenes, our model enables us to accurately measure each stage involved in the computation of cognitive-affective ToM, thereby allowing us to infer about potential difficulties that might occur in each stage. Our model is based on a large sample size (n > 700) and a novel audio-visual paradigm using visual scenes containing cognitive-emotional meanings. Here we report the obtained differential features among healthy controls, DD and ASD individuals that overcome the subjectivity of conventional questionnaire-based assessment, and therefore could serve as valuable references for mental health applications based on AI-aided digital medicine.","PeriodicalId":74321,"journal":{"name":"Npj mental health research","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-023-00031-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48221564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Assessment of depression and anxiety in young and old with a question-based computational language approach","authors":"Sverker Sikström, Bleona Kelmendi, Ninni Persson","doi":"10.1038/s44184-023-00032-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44184-023-00032-z","url":null,"abstract":"Middle aged adults experience depression and anxiety differently than younger adults. Age may affect life circumstances, depending on accessibility of social connections, jobs, physical health, etc, as these factors influence the prevalence and symptomatology. Depression and anxiety are typically measured using rating scales; however, recent research suggests that such symptoms can be assessed by open-ended questions that are analysed by question-based computational language assessments (QCLA). Here, we study middle aged and younger adults’ responses about their mental health using open-ended questions and rating scales about their mental health. We then analyse their responses with computational methods based on natural language processing (NLP). The results demonstrate that: (1) middle aged adults describe their mental health differently compared to younger adults; (2) where, for example, middle aged adults emphasise depression and loneliness whereas young adults list anxiety and financial concerns; (3) different semantic models are warranted for younger and middle aged adults; (4) compared to young participants, the middle aged participants described their mental health more accurately with words; (5) middle-aged adults have better mental health than younger adults as measured by semantic measures. In conclusion, NLP combined with machine learning methods may provide new opportunities to identify, model, and describe mental health in middle aged and younger adults and could possibly be applied to the older adults in future research. These semantic measures may provide ecological validity and aid the assessment of mental health.","PeriodicalId":74321,"journal":{"name":"Npj mental health research","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-023-00032-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47748579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Melissa K. Holt, Katharine B. Parodi, Frank J. Elgar, Abra Vigna, L. B. Moore, Brian Koenig
{"title":"","authors":"Melissa K. Holt, Katharine B. Parodi, Frank J. Elgar, Abra Vigna, L. B. Moore, Brian Koenig","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":74321,"journal":{"name":"Npj mental health research","volume":" ","pages":"-"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-023-00029-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138867586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Melissa K Holt, Katharine B Parodi, Frank J Elgar, Abra Vigna, L B Moore, Brian Koenig
{"title":"Identifying protective factors for gender diverse adolescents' mental health.","authors":"Melissa K Holt, Katharine B Parodi, Frank J Elgar, Abra Vigna, L B Moore, Brian Koenig","doi":"10.1038/s44184-023-00029-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44184-023-00029-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Few studies have disentangled differences in victimization exposures and mental health symptoms among gender diverse subgroups, nor considered the role of potential protective factors in ameliorating the impact of victimization on gender diverse youths' mental health. Here we report findings from a secondary data analysis, in which we address this gap by analyzing cross-sectional survey data (N = 11,264 in the final analytic sample) from a population-based survey of youth in participating school districts in a large Midwestern U.S. county. Relative to cisgender youth with gender conforming expression, transgender youth and cisgender youth with nonconforming gender expression are more likely to experience victimization and severe mental health concerns. Additionally, school-connectedness moderates the association between bias-based harassment and depression for cisgender youth with gender nonconforming expression, and family support/monitoring buffers the association of peer victimization with suicide attempts among transgender youth. Findings highlight the need to better understand factors which may confer protection among gender diverse adolescents, so that in turn appropriate supports across key contexts can be implemented.</p>","PeriodicalId":74321,"journal":{"name":"Npj mental health research","volume":" ","pages":"10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10955934/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44712725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}