Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

People can check their depression levels on an Internet questionnaire, according to an article in April 11th BioMed Central . Researchers found the Internet is a reliable, and easy to use,  self-screening method for depression.

A newly created Chinese online tool now allows people to assess their depression and researchers say this tool is both accurate and reproducible.

What growing number of adults have hoped for … is such an accurate way to identify why they seem to suffer from depression.

Chao-Cheng Lin of the National Taiwan University Hospital, Yu-Chuan Li of the National Yang-Ming University, and other colleagues in Taiwan developed the Internet-based Self-assessment Program for Depression or ISP-D.

Between September 2001 and January 2002 researchers recruited 579 subjects through a popular mental health website. Volunteers received a follow-up email one to two weeks after completing the first questionnaire inviting them to re-sit the test, and those who completed the questionnaires were offered a psychiatrist's appointment to validate the diagnosis.

Results of the first assessment showed 31% of participants had major depressive disorder, 7% showed a minor depressive disorder, 15% revealed  some symptoms of depression and 46% indicated no depression.

Analysis of the Online retest results show excellent reproducibility for major depressive disorder. The correlation showed lower for minor depressive disorder, but follow-up tests affirmed an accurate diagnosis for ¾ of those tested online.

Since about 1/5 to 2/5 of the world's population suffer from depression, while most remain undetected, this opportunity for diagnosis and treatment seems significant.

"The ISP-D provides a continuously available, inexpensive, and easily maintained depression screening method that is accessible to a large number of individuals across a broad geographic area," write researchers.

As soon as I locate the tool I will provide the URL here at BrainBasedBusiness.  What do you think?

Subscribe here to Brain Based Business Blogs for daily tips to help your benefit more from mental resources you already own but may not use. It’s free and it’s fresh daily!