A profile-based sentiment-aware approach for depression detection in social media

Depression is a severe mental health problem. Due to its relevance, the development of computational tools for its detection has attracted increasing attention in recent years. In this context, several research works have addressed the problem using word-based approaches (e.g., a bag of words). This type of representation has shown to be useful, indicating that words act as linguistic markers of depression. However, we believe that in addition to words, their contexts contain implicitly valuable information that could be inferred and exploited to enhance the detection of signs of depression. Specifically, we explore the use of user’s characteristics and the expressed sentiments in the messages as context insights. The main idea is that the words’ discriminative value depends on the characteristics of the person who is writing and on the polarity of the messages where they occur. Hence, this paper introduces a new approach based on specializing the framework of classification to profiles of users (e.g., males or women) and considering the sentiments expressed in the messages through a new text representation that captures their polarity (e.g., positive or negative). The proposed approach was evaluated on benchmark datasets from social media; the results achieved are encouraging, since they outperform those of state-of-the-art corresponding to computationally more expensive methods.

Demographic profile and pathway to care in patients with schizophrenia in a tertiary care hospital from western Nepal

Introduction: Schizophrenia is one of the severe mental health problem and its guarded treatment response and association with as the stigma makes it a chronic debilitating personal, family and social problem of all the psychiatric illness. Timely Identification and management of this condition is important as early diagnosis and management gives better treatment response.Methods: This is a descriptive study done in patients attending psychiatry OPD of Nepalgunj Medical College, Kohalpur for 12 months from June 2013 to May 2014.Results: Out of the 86 study subjects (n=86), males were 54 in number followed by 32 females. The most common age group was 21-40 years representing 46(53.4%), followed by 41-60 years 24(28%), <20 years 12(13.9%) and >60 years 4(4.7%). The most common first contact of the patient with schizophrenia was with faith healers 54 (62.8%) followed by consultation with psychiatrist 18(20.9%). Among the study population, 38(44.2%) visited to the psychiatrist after >41 weeks of the beginning of the illness followed by 34(39.5%) visited in <10 weeks of the beginning of the schizophrenia.Conclusions: Faith healers were the most common first contact person for the patients with schizophrenia followed by psychiatrist . Most of the schizophrenia patients come to psychiatrist after 40 weeks of their illness.

How I found out I had a bipolar disorder: A reflexive-collaborative exploration of the process of identifying that one is struggling with a severe mental health problem

Research indicates that it may take up to 10 years between onset of symptoms of bipolar disorder and receiving correct diagnosis and treatment. What is this period like? How do individuals experience the process of discovering that they have a bipolar disorder? In this study we utilized a hermeneutical-phenomenological approach developed within a reflexive-collaborative framework to explore these questions. In-depth interviews with 13 participants who reported both bipolar I and bipolar II diagnoses were conducted. We analyzed our data in collaboration with a group of 12 coresearchers who have experiences of mood disorders, and through reflexive dialogue with this group we validated and expanded our results. We describe three phases through which participants manoeuvred from (a) “uncertainty and confusion” through (b) “grasping the novel and unusual experiential states” to (c) “giving meaning to the lived experiences of intense ups and downs.” These results are discussed in relation to theory, research and practice.