Using Artificial Intelligence to predict Schizophrenia

The 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, depicts how John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, battled paranoid schizophrenia, the most common type of schizophrenia. It is a chronic mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels or behaves, thus upending not only the life of those suffering from it but all those close to them. The cause of the disease is not yet well understood, and most treatments focus on treating the symptoms rather than the disease. In a recent study, researchers from the University of Alberta, Canada, and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, have proposed to use artificial intelligence to help predict schizophrenia cases. The symptoms of schizophrenia usually begin in young adulthood and express themselves gradually. Most often, this condition is diagnosed based on the individual's observed behavior, either from personal experiences or reports from those that are familiar with him/her.