New App Will Predict Mood Swings

Faye Prior | 2014-06-20 05:23:39

The hallmark feature of bipolar disorder is a changing between depressive and manic states. Now researchers from the University Michigan are trialling a new smart phone app which could predict a swing from one state to the next.

The app, when installed on a smartphone, runs in the background and can automatically monitor the change in a persons voice during telephone calls. Don’t worry, the app isn’t recording what you’re saying on the phone, and nobody has access to this information, but rather a computer is monitoring the subtle properties and sounds of your actual speech.

It’s hoped that this new app will give people with bipolar and their doctors early warning of a mood change, with the hope of using an intervention which could prevent it from happening.

So far during trials the app has been successful at detecting elevated and depressed moods, and the ability of the app to do so will be enhanced by carrying out further trials.

The best way of adhering to any type of tracking device is to integrate in to something you already own and use everyday. So if this app is successfully trialled and approved, it could provide an easy and convenient way of managing bipolar disorder in the future.

Faye Prior (Researcher)

Source

http://www.uofmhealth.org/news/archive/201405/listening-bipolar