The corona pandemic has also triggered a pandemic of mental illness. Around one billion people worldwide suffer from various mental illnesses. Korea is one of the more severe cases, where about 1.8 million patients suffer from depression and anxiety disorders. The total number of patients with clinical mental illnesses has increased by 37% to about 4.65 million in five years.
A joint research team from Korea and the US has therefore developed a technology that uses biometric data captured via wearable devices to predict tomorrow's mood and, beyond that, the possibility of developing depressive symptoms.
The results of this study, in which Professor Dae Wook Kim from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at KAIST participated as a joint first author and corresponding author, were published on December 5, 2024, in the online version of the international journal npj Digital Medicine. (Article title: The real-world association between digital markers of circadian disruption and mental health risks) DOI: 10.1038/s41746-024-01348-6
