Digital phenotyping + self-care/intervention
- Background research/ project landscape:
- Mindstrong: This is basically what I came to ITP to do: develop a tracking system that can detect/predict/prevent the onset of depression, although Mindstrong is aiming to tackle many mental illnesses with only smartphone data, whereas I am primarily gathering data from laptop use. Co-founded by Dr. Tom Insel, formerly the lead of Verily’s mental health team.
- PRIME app: an app developed by UCSF researchers for clinical trials studying the effect of social support on the severity on schizophrenia
- Fine: An mood reporter app that tracks self-reported data (not available for use)
- trackyourhappiness.org: an ongoing doctoral research project by Matt Killingsworth at Harvard, which prompts you throughout the day to find out what factors are associated with happiness.
- PHQ-9: standard self-reported questionnaire for depression severity
- Exist: links all your tracking apps to find correlations
- I feel like shit game: an interactive self-care flow chart; asks you questions about your state and offers self-care suggestions
- Headspace: there’s a meditative exercise tailored for nearly every mood possible
- Hypothesis / Definition of question(s):
- What factors in my life contribute to stress, anxiety, low morale/motivation, and negative affect in general?
- What factors contribute to high morale, motivation, positive affect, and a more balanced feeling of well-being?
- How might I facilitate the latter factors?
- What interventions are appropriate?
- Objectives:
- a system that tracks:
- a dashboard for data viz
- machine-learned correlations (ultimately)
- self-care recommendations
- Goals:
- To address issues with current treatments:
- Therapy:
- lag time (“A therapist, the joke goes, knows in great detail how a patient is doing every Thursday at 3 o’clock.”)
-
No performance feedback outside of potentially dishonest self-reporting
-
patient fear of disappointing therapist
-
variations in individual therapist efficacy
- Medication:
- crude; not even sure how it works
- mental health is a social issue
- Therapy:
- To catalyze self-awareness of emotions and their triggers
- To facilitate self-care
- To encourage healthier digital habits
- To address issues with current treatments:
- Technical considerations/next steps:
- Finish trackers:
- tab/window counter: chrome extension
- new affectiva approach: chrome extension background page?
- unreturned messages
- self-reported mood
- Research visualizations
- Research more behavioral metrics
- Finish trackers: