A New Model Predicts Depression and Anxiety Using Artificial Intelligence and Social Media - Neuroscience News

Summary: Utilizing data from Twitter and applying natural language processing artificial intelligence algorithms, researchers created a new, accurate prediction model for depression and anxiety. Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil are using artificial intelligence (AI) and Twitter, one of the world's largest social media platforms, to try to create anxiety and depression prediction models that could in future provide signs of these disorders before clinical diagnosis. The study is reported in an article published in the journal Language Resources and Evaluation. Construction of a database, called SetembroBR, was the first step in the study. The name is a reference to Yellow September, an annual suicide awareness and prevention campaign, and also to the fact that data collection for the study began one day in September. The second step is still in progress but has provided some preliminary findings, such as the possibility of detecting whether a person is likely to develop depression solely on the basis of their social media friends and followers, without taking their own posts into account.