Population Health

March 29, 2023

Artificial intelligence can detect signs of mental illness via text message

Image of a woman texting a messageA recent study published in the journal of Psychiatric Services by UW Medicine researchers found that algorithms can detect red-flag language in text messages from people with serious mental illnesses as well as trained human evaluators.

The team leveraged natural language processing to identify text messages with “cognitive distortions” that might otherwise slip past or go unnoticed by an overworked or undertrained clinician. These findings may lead to additional tools for clinicians and expanded avenues by which patients will be able to find care.

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