ISLAMABAD: Smart watches can not only help count steps and sleep, but also offer mental health practitioners valuable information about symptoms of depression, says a new study.
Wearable technology is part of a focus on precision medicine that will allow doctors to better tailor treatment to individual patients, said Joshua Curtiss, an assistant professor of applied psychology at Northeastern University in the US.
“The purpose of this type of research was to see if we could use data from passive sensors to predict the things we care about — to see if it’s related to changes in depression severity or symptom severity,” Curtiss said.
“It showed the very individual ways in which depression manifests itself in people,” he said in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
For the study, the team took data from anonymized Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) patients who wore the Empatica E3 wristband to monitor sleep, acceleration and movement, heart rate variability and other physiological indicators, Health Daily reported.
Changes in sleep patterns – too much or too little – can be symptoms of depression, as can lack of physical activity and social isolation.
All of these symptoms can be tracked with wearable technology in the form of digital watches and smartphones, Curtiss said.
For example, in the case of socializing with others, doctors can view the data to see how often the text messaging apps were used, he said.
“I think passive sensor data can offer an incredible tool to get more information that is otherwise really difficult to get,” Curtiss said.
“This is not meant to replace clinical judgment,” Curtiss said.
“We combine (sensor) information with our clinical judgment and what patients tell us to get the full picture.”
If the data shows that the patient hasn’t had much physical activity, which could indicate fatigue or anhedonia — a lack of enjoyment in life — the clinician could bring that to the patient’s attention and discuss what’s going on, he said.
The same goes for sleep patterns, Curtiss said.
While patient accounts are critically important, it’s common for patients to underestimate or overreport symptoms, either because they’ve forgotten something, become accustomed to being distressed or tired of filling out mental health questionnaires, Curtiss said.
