14 DAY TRIAL // After analyzing how people surf the Internet, scientists at the Missouri University of Science and Technology have determined that a person's browsing habits can be used as an indicator as to whether or not they are suffering from depression.
The team apparently found that individuals who are depressed, or who at least experience some symptoms of the condition, tend to share more files than their peers, and to spend more time inside online chatting rooms.
This research was carried out on 216 undergraduate students, whose browsing patterns had been followed for about a month. Each test participant was asked to fill out a depression survey at the start of the study, PsychCentral reports.
According to assistant professor of computer science Sriram Chellappan, PhD, this approach is better at detecting depression than simply asking people to remember instances when they felt lonely.