New software predicts the onset of psychosis by analyzing language

This innovation can be of great help in implementing mental health interventions as soon as possible.

Is it possible to a serious mental disorder several years before the first symptoms appear?? If so, what are the implications both for the clinic and for the person at risk of developing them?

In a recent study, speech analysis software was used speech analysis software was used to try to predict the risk of psychosis.. Throughout this article we will discuss this new software, which is still under research and development.

What is psychosis?

In the field of psychology and psychiatry psychosis refers to a state of mental alteration or a serious mental disorder by means of which the person experiences a loss of contact with reality and an impairment of normative social functioning.

This disorder refers to a series of severe disorders, in which the person may exhibit hallucinations of all kinds, as well as delusions, personality alterations and disorganized thinking and language.The disorder is characterized by personality disturbances and disorganized thinking and language.

In addition, it is possible that this symptomatology is accompanied by uncommon or unusual behaviors in the person, as well as by problems in establishing and maintaining any type of interaction with other people, obstructing and hindering the person's daily life.

It is necessary to emphasize that psychosis is not a single mental disorder; it encompasses all classification of psychiatric conditions known as psychotic disorders. These mental disorders include:

• Schizophrenia.
• Delusional disorder.
• Schizophreniform disorder.
• Schizoaffective disorder.
• Shared psychotic disorder.
• Substance-induced psychotic disorder.
• Psychotic disorder due to medical illness.

What does this software consist of?

As mentioned above, disorganized thinking is one of the main symptoms of psychosis. of psychosis. Disorganized thinking, which is externalized by disorganized speech of the patient, can be assessed by oral clinical interviews with the patient.

This disorganized thinking distinguishes because the speech of the patient becomes tangential and a loss of associations of the expressed ideas. Therefore, the patient may manifest a confused and incoherent speech, in addition to continually jumping from one idea to another.

As a result of these facts, a study conducted in collaboration with the New York Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Medical Center and the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, assessed and compared transcripts of a series of interviews conducted with young people at risk for developing psychosis..

During the study, the interviews of 34 New York participants and 59 participants from the city of Los Angeles, for whom the onset of psychosis was estimated over the next two years, were evaluated using computerized speech analysis software.

After analysis of the interviews, it was found that the software was able to correctly differentiate between young people in whom there was a real risk of developing psychosis and those who did not, on most occasions.

According to experts in the analysis of people's pathological behavior, 1% of the population between the ages of 14 and 27 are at serious risk of developing psychosis. These people tend to manifest symptomatology such as unusual thoughts, tangential speech, perceptual disturbances, and suspicious reactions to others. and suspicious reactions to others.

Approximately 20% within this at-risk population will experience a psychotic episode; therefore, early detection accompanied by psychological intervention could help lessen the impact of this episode or even prevent it.

Speech as a key to detection

Within psychology and psychiatry, both speech and behavior provide a great deal of key information. provide a great deal of key information in the diagnosis of any type of mental disorder. of any type of mental disorder.

In the case of psychosis, the patient's spoken language is a great source of information about what is going on in the person's mind. It provides important clues about what the person experiences, feels and perceives.

In the study referred to above, the patients were asked to narrate their subjective experiences. These conversations were then transcribed and analyzed using speech evaluation software.

According to the researchers, this software analyzed the speech patterns, semantics and syntax used by the participant. used by the participant. As well as the length of the sentences and the correct use of the words used to link the expressions.

It is necessary to specify that a clinical psychiatrist or mental health professional is able to recognize these signs or symptoms manually, through a face-to-face interview with the patient. However, the development of this software implies an increase in accuracy by taking into account more variables and in a more rigorous manner.

What were the results of the study?

Once the interviews and their analysis had been carried out, the participants were followed up for two and a half years.

The examiners who conducted this study found a number of key qualities or traits in the conversations that predicted future mental problems in 83% of cases..

Specifically, those features of spoken language that helped predict the onset of psychosis were alterations in the flow of meaning between sentences. The most important of these features were shorter sentences than usual and with much less elaboration.

Following these results, the researchers are hopeful that thanks to this software, early detection and early detection of psychosis will be possible. reliable early detection of the more subtle symptoms, which can appear over many years, is possible thanks to this software. that may appear even many years before the development of the psychotic disorder.

Implications of this software for clinical practice

Within the field of clinical diagnosis in psychology and psychiatry, the possibility of using a computer program that helps and facilitates the early detection of severe mental disorders is very good news.

This will make it possible to speed up the diagnostic and prognostic work of severe mental disorders, and thus to design treatment and early intervention proposals to reduce the impact of severe mental and early intervention proposals to reduce the impact of symptoms. In addition, another of the advantages that the researchers assign to this software is that such analysis is carried out quickly, innocuously and at very low economic costs.

However, the researchers themselves warn that it is only a prototype and research time is still needed to turn it into a completely reliable diagnostic tool.