Stress Evaluation by Voice: from Prevention to Treatment in Mental Health Care

The implementation of large-scale mental health care requires low-cost, highaccuracy screening methods. Reporting bias cannot be eliminated from the self-administered screening methods that are currently in general use, and screening using biomarkers, which has seen remarkable developments in recent years, remains costly.Mental disorders resulting from stress alter the expression of emotion and cause changes in certain voice qualities. We have therefore attempted to assess stress intensity using vocal emotion recognition technology through a computer programme. In a prior verification comparing our programme with assessments through self-administered questionnaires (GHQ30) and interview assessments, the proposed technology obtained almost the same detection sensitivity as GHQ-30.The main advantages of the present technology are its ease of implementation and low cost. Its application in preventative medicine is therefore promising, and, if used in combination with the various biomarker-based diagnostic techniques currently in development, better induction to health care specialists will be possible.