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Post by David Feldman on Sept 3, 2015 10:34:13 GMT -4
I believe there is a future in this technology for use in determining people who are at risk of developing schizophrenia, however; there should be more research done in the future since the cohort size of this study was small. This technology is also good because it opens up the opportunity to treat patients who may develop schizophrenia earlier. This will allow for other treatment options in the future instead of having to treat them the traditional way. Using this technology also may help determine whether people are at risk of developing other psychiatric issues as well. It will be nice to see what other findings will be seen in the future when more research using this technology is published.
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Post by Ramin on Sept 3, 2015 10:36:41 GMT -4
This research is very interesting. A computer that uses an algorithm to detect disorganized speech in schizophrenia with 100% accuracy. It uses the flow of a person speech to detect disorganized speech. The computer model also outperformed other advance screening technology. It can help in detect disorganized speech which can be missed by clinicians during the interview. It allows a modern approach to prevent psychosis in teens if caught early. Ultimately making early intervention and therapy to prevent psychosis. The computer in combination with doctors and other health care workers will produce better results in the diagnosis, prognosis, and interventions of schizophrenia. I would like to see a research done on a bigger sample size and to be repeated multiple times. Also I would like to see a research done on multiple languages.
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Post by Venkateshram Singa on Sept 3, 2015 10:58:07 GMT -4
Today computers are used for everything but medicine and healing arts can only be felt and practiced by the human touch and human "gut feeling". I found the article fascinating a computer program can diagnose a patient with schizophrenia by a certain algorithm since computers lack feelings no matter how you program them. According to the article, the study didn't include any acoustic features such as intonation, cadence, and volume which are all characteristics which are helpful in the discernment of a person's pattern of speaking and thinking. A psychiatrist is often considered the "personal doctor" in which the psychiatrist can understand a person's emotional feeling and judgment that no computer can ever do since computers lack feelings of any sort. No matter how good a computer program might be, nothing can ever replace the human judgment as is the case of dealing with automated systems as most people prefer speaking and dealing with a human rather than a computerized system.
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Post by Sasha Pannu on Sept 3, 2015 14:01:35 GMT -4
Breakthrough technological has proven again to be a useful aid in the diagnosis of medicine. Analyzing the speech process of at risk youth for schizophrenia has demonstrated that it is possible to accurately predict those who will suffer from schizophrenia in the future. A screening tool such as this one has profound implications as it could allow for preventive treatment for future schizophrenics thereby diminishing the progression of the disease and allowing those to receive adequate therapy. Schizophrenia has not only consists of medical but social consequences to those effected. It can be debilitating in such a way that most schizophrenics are demoted to lower socioeconomic levels making resources for appropriate treatment harder to obtain. If technology allows us to better predict those at high risk at a much earlier time, this could also give us great insight as to what environmental and genetic risk factors contribute to the development of schizophrenia.
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Post by Gaganjit Dillon on Sept 3, 2015 15:56:52 GMT -4
I found this article to be absolutely fascinating; it would be an advantageous/synergistic approach to clinical medicine to allow the aid of modern day technology to help pick up on symptoms a professional may miss or overlook. Schizophrenia, in my opinion, as similar as some of the symptoms may appear across a vast majority of the population, there will always be variations according to individual makeup and biology. Like the study stated itself, the small sample size did limit its results; but it would be plausible to allow this to take place in a larger population at random. It would be neat to see how the computer interprets speech among schizophrenics at different levels, including those at pre-diagnosis and at post-diagnosis. Having said this, I do not believe this should ever be used as definitive diagnostic criteria to replace any sort of interpretation made by the physician, but definitely for directional purposes. Furthermore, depending on the results found in a larger population, perhaps this could help start those at risk/borderline on early enough treatment to prevent changes to their quality of life.
I believe for a computer system to be accurate enough, many attempts would be needed. For example, taking into consideration external and environmental factors, white coat syndrome family history, age, sex, and psycho-social background- to see if the computer is able to distinguish and pickup the differences not only among different groups, but the same patient at subsequent visits.
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Post by Swapnil Patel on Sept 3, 2015 16:43:56 GMT -4
I also found the article very interesting. The ability of a computer program to predict patients that would have a psychotic episode is amazing. But the problem I have with this study is that it is so small, 34 patients and 5 of them had a psychotic episode. The small size of the study really makes me question the accuracy of the computer program. The reason for my skeptisism is another artice in Nature which says "Over half of psychology studies fail reproducibility test." (For your reading pleasure www.nature.com/news/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test-1.18248 ). The study needs to be reproduced on a much larger scale. With that said, if the computer program proves to be even 90% accurate in predicting psychotic episodes in at risk patients it would be an invaluable screening tool. There are very few objective and accurate tools available at the moment and this could be another useful tool in the arsenal to treat patients early before such an episode occurs. |
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Post by mitpatel on Sept 3, 2015 17:00:58 GMT -4
This is a very interesting study at Columbia University using technology to predict whether or not a person will develop psychosis/schizophrenia. It is very impressive that a computer was able to predict 100% of the outcomes - beating out psychiatrists and known markers. Although the sample size was very small, it is amazing how far technology has come in medicine. In future studies, it would be interesting to test a larger group of people and look at the outcomes because if it is more accurate, then it gives us an opportunity to intervene earlier in the course of disease (before the onset of symptoms). Another point to note is that the computer only took into account the content of speech, leaving out acoustic features like intonation, cadence, volume which could be meaningful in interpreting a person’s pattern of speaking and what they're thinking.
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Post by Moji Ishola on Sept 3, 2015 17:10:53 GMT -4
This is a very interesting write up, however i do not completely agree with some of the points made here. First of all the sample size is a huge limitation as the findings cannot be apply to the general population of those at risk. Everything we do these days revolves around the use of computers or some form of electronic device but i do on not believe that computer will be able to to carry out the intricate and complicated tasks our brains are able to carry out. As an interviewer screening a patient for schizophrenia, a lot of factors make up the interview; facial expressions, gestures, body posture e.t.c. Although computers will be able to pick up every word said by the patient it could also have the potential of "over analyzing" simple sentences and the flow of speech of the patient and this may lead to a wrong diagnosis.
People think differently, and how the listeners are able to understand and interpret what is being said is subjective. Yes, Disorganized thought is a hallmark characteristic of schizophrenia but this isn't always the case. Most people think about a billion things at the same time, some may feel the need to say a little bit of everything they think about to prove that they are enlightened or at least have an idea of the subject being discussed at a particular time. This does not necessarily mean that they are schizophrenic.
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Post by Ankita Gandhi on Sept 3, 2015 21:58:39 GMT -4
This is a very interesting article and it is brining a complete new era of a psychotherapy as well as the technology together. Even though, the article mentions that computer/technology can pre-determine well in advanced if the person is ever going to suffer from schizophrenia just by coding thru their speech. This is very very interesting to me but I feel like with the greater invention of this technology we surely need to combine with the psychotherapist as well as a psychiatrist. Yes, it can recognized thru the person's speech however speech is not everything. The psychiatrist are the one who actually see that patient and can see thru their facial expressions and their emotions to better determine the future of these patients. I am not against the great and new inventions; however I think the study group is very small and it needs to increase in order for us to better find out the 100% truth about this research. With the combination of the technology and the psychiatrist I think we can surely change the world.
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Post by Samir Nirola on Sept 3, 2015 23:17:37 GMT -4
This article was an interesting read as it has shown that computer can predict schizophrenia and psychosis based on how a person speaks. With the advancement in health information technology, this could give us great insights and future leads on other health care matters. However, I am curious to find out if this is only for English speaking language or has it made advancement in other languages. This could be a big break through as it can assist health care providers in assessing certain individuals that have high risk of this disease. Errors and flaws can also break the system and in order for it to be accurate, a human being doctor is still necessary to verify its accuracy.
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