Using Large Language Models to Detect Depression From User-Generated Diary Text Data as a Novel Approach in Digital Mental Health Screening: Instrument Validation Study

Background
Depressive disorders have substantial global implications, leading to various social consequences, including decreased occupational productivity and a high disability burden. Early detection and intervention for clinically significant depression have gained attention; however, the existing depression screening tools, such as the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, have limitations in objectivity and accuracy. Therefore, researchers are identifying objective indicators of depression, including image analysis, blood biomarkers, and ecological momentary assessments (EMAs). Among EMAs, user-generated text data, particularly from diary writing, have emerged as a clinically significant and analyzable source for detecting or diagnosing depression, leveraging advancements in large language models such as ChatGPT.


Objective
We aimed to detect depression based on user-generated diary text through an emotional diary writing app using a large language model (LLM). We aimed to validate the value of the semistructured diary text data as an EMA data source.


Methods
Participants were assessed for depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire and suicide risk was evaluated using the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation before starting and after completing the 2-week diary writing period. The text data from the daily diaries were also used in the analysis. The performance of leading LLMs, such as ChatGPT with GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, was assessed with and without GPT-3.5 fine-tuning on the training data set. The model performance comparison involved the use of chain-of-thought and zero-shot prompting to analyze the text structure and content.


Results
We used 428 diaries from 91 participants; GPT-3.5 fine-tuning demonstrated superior performance in depression detection, achieving an accuracy of 0.902 and a specificity of 0.955. However, the balanced accuracy was the highest (0.844) for GPT-3.5 without fine-tuning and prompt techniques; it displayed a recall of 0.929.


Conclusions
Both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4.0 demonstrated relatively reasonable performance in recognizing the risk of depression based on diaries. Our findings highlight the potential clinical usefulness of user-generated text data for detecting depression. In addition to measurable indicators, such as step count and physical activity, future research should increasingly emphasize qualitative digital expression.