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As a bet in favor of mental health, Apple develops technology to identify depression.
In the wake of the pandemic, one of the central axes in the world has been mental health.
Related information: Suicide prevention: How to identify a prolonged depression in a person?
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) the pandemic increased these problems, depression being one of the diseases that cause the most emergency.
For this reason, Apple has focused its research on detecting these types of problems.
The way in which it could detect any cognitive or mental deterioration would be through data on mobility, the physical activity of users, sleep patterns, and even through writing behavior.
Apple Wacth will collect this data to issue alerts, in this way Apple collaborates with the pharmaceutical company Biogen, which focuses its studies on mild mental illnesses, as well as early detection of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Although this initiative is still in the testing phase and may take several years to reach the market, Apple works hard so that this function is integrated into their operating system and the health apps that the company has are added.
How to detect depression?
The WHO points out that depression is the leading cause of disability in the world.
In addition, more than 300 million people live in this emotional state.
For the Organization, mental health is an elementary pillar for society and defines it as:
“The state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not only the absence of affections or diseases.”
The Covid19 pandemic, the change in routines, and sanitary restrictions brought to the world a radical change that, for some, was extremely difficult to cope with.
In order to face abrupt changes like the one brought on by the pandemic, a mentally weak person is not able to cope with daily stress.
Thus, Apple goes against the depression to detect it through their devices and issue alerts in order to reduce the numbers of this disease in the world.
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