Smartphone usage could hint whether or not a person is at a risk of depression, suggests a new study conducted at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

A smartphone application named Purple Robot was used and tested in the study that included about 20 women and 8 men at a mean age of 29. The application was designed to detect the location and movement of the user as well as phone usage and other activities, reported CNN.

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Sohrob Saeb, one of the application developers and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Northwestern University, said that the motive of the development of such an application is to detect depression in people without cautious involvement in other individuals.  

It was observed in the study as identified by Purple Robot that about 87 percent of the individuals who participated in the study were at risk of depression in accordance to the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, based on the GPS data that detects the location and movement of the participanst. About 74 percent of people reported to be at risk of developing depression were found to use their smartphones for activities such as playing games and texting but not for talking.

David Mohr, the co-author of the study and a professor of behavioral psychology at the Northwestern University, noted: "People are likely, when on their phones, to avoid thinking about things that are troubling, painful feelings or difficult relationships."

He added: "It's an avoidance behavior we see in depression," reported Pioneer News.

The researchers noted that according to GPS data reports, people who spent more time by themselves at home and those that moved to fewer locations are more at risk of developing depression than those who moved out and socialised frequently, reported Philly. People who had no regular work or who had variable schedules everyday were reportedly prone to depression as well.

Mohr also added on this depression detection method that "the significance of this is we can detect if a person has depressive symptoms and the severity of those symptoms without asking them any questions. We now have an objective measure of behavior related to depression."

Tagsdepression, Purplr Robot, Smartphone Application, Depression Symptoms