New Google Search Tool Helps Detect Clinical Depression Among Users

Depression is a silent killer – it is deadly because it often goes undiagnosed. Depression is an increasingly common phenomenon, especially with this fast paced life of modern day standards. Google has now come up with a tool, in association with National Alliance on Medical Illness which will help the users of Google Search detect if they show signs of depression. This is triggered automatically by searching for ‘Depression’ or ‘Clinical Depression’.

Google’s Tool to Detect Clinical Depression

This is basically a quiz which will have the users answer a few questions. Any time a user searches for depression or clinical depression, the knowledge panel (the box which is often shown on top of search results) will prompt the users if they want to take a quiz which will help identify if they show signs of depression. The results of this quiz will be shared only with the quiz-taker.

This quiz that the users take is a version of the PHQ-9 test that doctors often have the users take to detect mental illnesses. The quiz asks the users about various things such as how well they have been sleeping or how has their mood been lately. This tool to detect clinical depression in users is not a definitive diagnosis but it does give the users an indication that this might be a time to visit a physician.

Clinical Depression is a very serious matter. Patients often take as many as 8 years to even accept that they need help. Sometimes people don’t believe these symptoms are real and sometimes they don’t even know that these are symptoms. Up until the last decade many even dismissed clinical depression as a made-up illness. Thankfully, with the passing of time this thought has evolved and depression is being taken way more seriously than ever before. This tool from Google works primarily in the US and might soon appear in other regions around the world too.

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Source: Quartz