Paving the Way for Machine Learning in Psychiatry!!
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The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated our integration of technology into our everyday lives — whether for personal or work use, there's probably not a day that goes by where you haven't found a way to integrate it to improve your quality of life. Technology has also made it possible to conduct appointments remotely through the telehealth network, or through remote administration of various tests and questionnaires. However, there are places where we can accelerate the use of technology, as well as machine learning, to improve diagnostic accuracy and treatment trajectory in psychiatry. Perhaps by shying away from the tried-and-true method of "trial and error," there may be an opportunity to shift our focus and invest in precision-based medicine.
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@anushuya If we can understand the complex neurobiological mechanisms that underlie the various psychiatric disorders, then we can start to identify diagnostic biomarkers and shared disease markers, which can help inform our understanding of different therapeutic response profiles. This information may form the basis for precision-based therapeutic interventions at the individual level. In order to achieve this objective, we would need large and powerful datasets, which could be obtained, for example, from electronic health record databases, social media platforms, and ecological momentary assessment, among other sources.