The problem with depression…
Tuesday, September 12, 2023.
A peer-reviewed study from Yale School of Public Heath using AI is changing our understanding of the prevalence of major depression…
According to a new study using AI, Almost a third of all women have a history of major depressive episodes in their lifetimes.
The same figure for men with histories of major depression is close to 20%, (ok, 17% to be exact).
This new assessment is nearly double the accepted wisdom among clinicians for the number of people experiencing major depressive episodes (MDE).
The researchers scrambled to explain this data, and seemed to blame, in part, the human tendency to minimize. It seems that humans tend to reframe MDE’s as “growing pains” or “rough patches”, when asked about that part of their lives many years later.
It seems that humans who are past the age of 65 are particularly inclined to misremember their past depressive episodes — minimizing the memory as less than a major depressive episode.
It seems that the researchers believe that the AI analysis is a major tool to pierce the persistent phenomenon of natural bias towards reframing bad experiences, years later.
Dr. Jamie Tam, the study’s first author, said:
“Major depressive episodes are far more common than we thought.
Our model shows that the probability of someone having a first major depressive episode is especially high during adolescence.
We also know from other research that having a first major depressive episode increases the likelihood you’ll have a second one.
This means that anything we can do to prevent or treat episodes among young people could lead to larger health benefits over the course of their life.”
A major depressive episode is a period of two weeks or longer in which a person experiences the classic symptoms of depression, including:
Intense waves of sadness.
Significant changes in sleeping habits.
Loss of interest in activities, anhedonia.
Suicidal thinking.
Chronic fatigue.
Depressive episodes can be difficult to elude, as they train the brain and nervous system by recurring periodically.
Dr. Tam made an interesting point:
“If you think about chronic health conditions like heart disease, we do a lot to identify people who might be at risk for additional health events like heart attacks because that group would benefit from maintenance treatment and clinical monitoring.
We don’t do such a great job when it comes to mental health conditions.
So, if we’re able to assess how many people actually have histories of depression, that also tells us that more people are at risk of experiencing more depressive episodes.”
How AI is impacting how we understand the prevalence of mental health disorders
The results come from a statistical simulation that estimated the extent to which people under-report their past depressive episodes.
Here’s what the AI is telling us. After adjusting for recall error, it is likely that 30% of women have lifetime histories of major depression. The number we’re being given for men is 17%.
Holy Sh*t…but wait … there’s more…
Under-reporting of depression among humans over 65 was as high as 70%.
Dr. Tam summed up the problem elegantly:
“Unfortunately, many people with depression or with histories of depression don’t access, or don’t have access to, treatment or support.
There’s a broader problem in our society of mental health not receiving the same attention and investment of resources compared to physical health conditions.”
Final thoughts on Using AI…
It takes Artificial Intelligence, something smarter than humans to penetrate our own bullsh*t. Is it now telling that the mental health Doomsday Clock is a few clicks from midnight?
What else will AI have to say about how we humans roll?
Can we entrust the content of our hearts to an intelligence beyond love?
Geez. What do you think? Be well, stay kind, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
Author: Jamie Tam, Briana Mezuk,Kara Zivin, Rafael Meza
Publication: American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: August 2020
