Smarter, more accurate diagnoses, decreased reliance on subjective assumptions—our understanding of machine learning and its potential applications in psychiatry has advanced tremendously in recent years. This post seeks to educate you on the basics, elucidate some of the misconceptions about machine learning and psychiatry, and present a general overview with case studies and examples for implementation.
Machine learning is the fastest-growing field in artificial intelligence today. This technology is used partly to make smarter decisions based on vast amounts of data while also taking into account human feedbacks. Machine Learning can be used as an assistant or a standalone decision maker (e.g., Google’s new Duplex AI telephone conversation system).
What Is Machine Learning In Psychiatry
Machine learning, in the context of psychiatric diagnosis, represents a series of new techniques and methods to analyze, interpret, and use patient information. The ultimate goal is to improve diagnosis, prediction of treatment response, and analysis of treatment efficacy using available data.
The convolutional neural network had the highest accuracy, scoring 96% for anxiety and 96.8% for depression, according to the data.
In general, machine learning provides tools to analyze and improve data. The output is often a prediction of future values which can be used to guide decisions or predict effects. A prediction is formed using a model which uses large amounts of data, e.g., observation or measurements, and statistical methods (e.g., information retrieval) to provide answers to questions in the form of rules or equations.
These models can form mathematical equations or computer programs based on rules to make predictions. These are then run on large amounts of data, such as genetic codes and MRI brain scans. This analysis is supported by various forms of supervised learning that requires labeled datasets from past experiences (e.g.
Benefits Of Machine Learning In Psychiatry
The mental illness and mental health community is gathered for an international conference to discuss the diagnostic and statistical manual. The training data for this manual is important for diagnosing mental illness.
The accuracy of the support vector machine was excellent, coming in at 95% for anxiety and 95.8% for depression.
Natural language processing is a process by which computers analyze and interpret human language. This technology is often used in mental health disorders research, as it can help identify patterns in large amounts of data. For example, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to test data for major depressive disorder.
1. Prediction Of Treatment Response
Imagine having to diagnose a patient before potentially prescribing a medication. Machine learning can be helpful in this context because it can help you predict (with high accuracy) the patient’s response to a certain treatment such as antidepressant medication.
This is especially useful in the context of personalized medicine where several treatments are used depending on a particular genetic profile and other patient characteristics. The exact outcome depends on the genetic profile that has been observed, and machine learning can predict which treatment will work best based on the database of information.
2. Data Mining And Extraction Of Actionable Information
The ability to mine and derive information from large amounts of data may result in better treatment. Machine learning can help us find useful information with a huge amount of data.
It is especially useful since data can grow exponentially that often exceeds human capacity to analyze such vast amounts of data. For instance, if we are trying to predict a patient’s response based on genetic makeup, machine learning will use past information with the same genetic profile to make an accurate prediction.
3. Reduce Subjective Bias
A major advantage of machine learning is its ability to reduce subjectivity and bias in evaluation systems. For example, a machine learning algorithm could be trained on thousands of past cases and provide an objective evaluation compared to human evaluations which can be subjective. Note that machine learning can also increase bias because the trained model only considers past information it has seen and potentially fails to capture new patterns.
4. Eliminate Subjectivity
Machine learning (ML), which makes use of cutting-edge statistical and computer science techniques, is increasingly being used to analyse “big data.”
Subjective features are often times missing from data which is vulnerable to errors, but with machine learning, we can overcome these limitations. With adequate training and instruction, machines can make decisions based on rules (if-then statements), algorithms, or simply using past experiences.
5. Eliminate Homework
One of the main disadvantages of machine learning is that one could argue that there is still a significant amount of work that needs to be done. In the context of psychiatric diagnosis, if you have enough data on a certain patient, such as his or her symptoms and history, it would be helpful to apply machine learning methods to reduce the subjectivity during diagnosis.
However, many cases require gathering information from multiple sources. This is generally very time-consuming for patients, doctors, or researchers; it requires significant time and effort to gather information from many different places. Machine learning doesn’t help; instead, it saves time and effort.
6. Creates Standardization In The Process Of Diagnosis
Another major benefit of machine learning is the potential to standardize psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. For example, machine learning can be used to predict patient improvement or additional treatments for different psychiatric reasons based on genetic profiles and symptoms.
Through machine learning methods, we can also predict how likely a patient will commit suicide within the following year, which is something that cannot otherwise be predicted unless you perform brain scans or genetic tests.
7. Reduce Errors And Mistakes
With machine learning, we can have a clear understanding about the causes for an error or mistake. For example, in the case of misdiagnosis, the algorithms detecting inheritable factors may allow us to determine what is causing the symptoms or which specific genes would be most responsible for a certain diagnosis.
In another instance, if you are looking for a reliable diagnosis tool, machine learning methods can be used to confirm diagnoses or flag patients who could need more testing and care. It can also help eliminate false positives based on poor training data.
8. Reduces Decision Time
Machine learning can also be a time-saver for clinicians, doctors, and researchers. For instance, a doctor or psychiatrist could use machine learning to accurately predict a patient’s response to certain psychiatric medications which eliminates the need for waiting months or years to know their true response.
This may be especially useful in the case of patients who are only allowed one type of medication due to insurance coverage. Additionally, there is often uncertainty when it comes to differentiating between two psychiatric disorders; machine learning can give clear insights into the differences between two disorders and help doctors make appropriate diagnoses.
Risks Of Machine Learning In Psychiatry
In the discipline of psychiatry, supervised learning (SL) and unsupervised learning are two prevalent forms of machine learning approaches (USL).
Input data is the fuel that powers machine learning models. Data science is the process of extracting knowledge and insights from data. Bipolar disorder is a mental illness characterized by periods of mania and depression. Support vector machine is a type of machine learning algorithm.
1. Lack Of A Universal Standard
How likely a person will commit suicide is dependent on several factors, including genetic profile, medical history, and symptoms. The same criteria can be used to predict how a patient will respond to psychiatric medications.
However, each person is unique and there is no universal standard that can be applied to everyone. Machine learning suggests that it can be applied fairly universally, but that is not the case here since we need to consider each person’s many individual characteristics.
2. Overfitting And Underfitting
Machine learning can suffer from overfitting and underfitting. Overfitting means that the data is too reliant on past data and particularities which can result in false predictions. Thus, you should not simply look for patterns, but you should also analyze them with a critical eye.
Underfitting occurs when there is not enough data available to make accurate predictions. For instance, machine learning may predict that someone will commit suicide based on their genes; however, only one person out of a thousand might commit suicide so the prediction is inaccurate because there isn’t enough information to make a good prediction.
3. Does Not Provide A Full Definition Of The Problem
Examples of SL methods that are frequently utilised include logistic regression (LR) and support vector machines (SVM).
Machine learning is good and can provide better predictions than humans to a certain extent, but that does not mean it will accurately solve all your problems. For example, machine learning algorithms are typically trained to work within a certain context based on certain rules. However, there is no guarantee that the original rules are still relevant once the algorithm is used outside its original context (Bhattacharyya et al., 2017).
4. Creates New Types Of Bias
With machine learning algorithms, we are trying to eliminate human biases and subjectivity in the diagnosis process; however, it can also introduce new forms of bias. For example, in the case of genetic, mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, there is data suggesting that people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia have higher rates of experiencing abuse.
However, because the data is based on population and not individuals, the information gathered may be incorrect and mislabeled.
5. Creates A False Sense Of Accurate Diagnosis
One major drawback of machine learning is that it can create an illusion of certainty and accuracy, which is not always true. Even if doctors use machine learning tools to achieve more accurate and reliable diagnoses, they may still have uncertainties about their own diagnostic abilities.
Being able to assign a diagnosis based on complex algorithms with ever-increasing accuracy is an exciting prospect that can be extremely useful for diagnoses; however, it can cause people to become complacent and may falsely claim to have a proper diagnosis when they do not. Now more than ever, it is important for doctors and psychiatrists to understand how machine learning algorithms work and their limitations.
6. Can Create Errors With Activating Models
SVM was created by computer scientists, while LR was directly derived from classical statistics.
With machine learning, we can have activation models which are predictive and interpretive. Predictive models are concerned with predicting a certain outcome or event in the future, and interpretive models are concerned with explaining the causes for a certain result or outcome. However, some predictive models can also predict interpretive models, leading to inaccurate predictions.
7. Can Be Difficult To Understand
Machine learning may be very accurate in terms of predicting behaviors and outcomes; however, there’s no guarantee that it’ll be easy to understand. For instance, in the case of psychiatric disorders, a therapist may begin treating a patient with certain medications and see if they are effective.
If the patient behaves in a predicted way after taking the medications, then they’ll continue to treat that patient; but if they don’t behave as predicted, they’ll have to discontinue the treatment. This means that although machine learning can provide an accurate assessment of prediction and diagnosis, it is often difficult for humans to understand how the algorithm actually works.
8. Can Create False Positives And Negatives
One major drawback of machine learning algorithms is that they can create false positives (error) or false negatives (no error). The false positives are when the algorithm predicts that a particular person is likely to commit suicide, but that does not actually happen; but the user thinks it is true.
The false negatives are when the algorithm predicts that a person will not commit suicide, but in fact, they do commit suicide. In each case, there’s a high possibility of them being wrong and in both cases, people may be misdiagnosed.
Final Note
As you can see, machine learning can be beneficial for predicting and diagnosing psychiatric disorders; however, there are also some major drawbacks. The major question facing the future of machine learning is how it might continue to improve in terms of accuracy, reliability and general applicability. Although machine learning is becoming more widespread, there’s still a long way to go before it becomes mainstream.
Last Updated on October 10, 2023 by Priyanshi Sharma
