Early diagnosis can help, but many mental disorders are difficult to detect..While the new work is at an early stage, the researchers suggest that it could someday provide an easier way for people to get diagnosed and helped. “Compared to physical illnesses, mental disorders are more difficult to detect,” the researchers write in a paper that is being presented at the NeurIPS AI conference in Montreal this week..“The burden of mental health is exacerbated by barriers to care such as social stigma, financial cost, and a lack of accessible treatment options […] This technology could be deployed to cell phones worldwide and facilitate low-cost universal access to mental health care.” The researchers caution that the technology would not be a replacement for a clinician..“The line of work is interesting,” he says,“but it’s not yet clear to me how it’ll be used clinically.” Still, new approaches to detecting and treating mental-health conditions hold the promise of making treatment more accessible and perhaps more effective.. More details