• Emotion, stress cues in social media pos

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Tue Mar 22 22:30:46 2022
    Emotion, stress cues in social media posts might be early warnings in
    epilepsy deaths

    Date:
    March 22, 2022
    Source:
    Binghamton University
    Summary:
    A new study from an international team of researchers demonstrates
    that social media could be used to detect behaviors preceding
    sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), the leading cause of
    death in people with uncontrolled epileptic seizures.



    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    A new study from an international team of researchers -- including two
    from Binghamton University -- demonstrates that social media could be used
    to detect behaviors preceding sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP),
    the leading cause of death in people with uncontrolled epileptic seizures.


    ==========================================================================
    The findings, recently published in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior,
    reveal that the activity of epilepsy patients in social media increased
    before their sudden deaths. These changes in digital behavior could be
    used as early warning signals to put preventive interventions for SUDEP
    into practice.

    SUDEP occurs when a person with epilepsy dies suddenly and no reason
    for death is found. Although the physiological mechanisms underlying
    SUDEP are still a mystery, people with frequent seizures are known to
    be at higher risk. The best preventive strategy currently is to keep
    seizures under control through medication, but reducing stress and
    keeping triggers in check are also key to decreasing the risk. However, measuring stress and other mood states can be difficult.

    A study developed by researchers at Binghamton University, Indiana
    University and the Instituto Gulbenkian de Cie^ncia (IGC) in Portugal
    explored the potential of using social media to identify behavior
    signatures that might predict SUDEP.

    "We instantly know when our best friend is not OK," said Rion Brattig
    Correia, co-first author of the study, a researcher at IGC and a visiting research scientist at Binghamton University. "They are mumbling, talking
    too much or perhaps too little, eye contact is different, their tone
    is off -- we just know it. Sometimes we know it over the phone, only
    after a few words. What if by detecting this sudden behavioral change,
    we could save a friend's life?" Building on these thoughts, the study
    examined the Facebook timelines of six epilepsy patients who died from
    SUDEP, using various tools to decipher human emotion and any stress
    markers hidden in their posts.



    ==========================================================================
    "The first thing we tried was simply to answer the question of whether
    the amount of written text was increased in the platform right before
    their death.

    And that's what we found," Correia said. "For five subjects, the number of words written was significantly higher in their final days in comparison
    to the rest of their timeline." In addition, the type of words used by
    the subjects changed and there were drastic sentiment shifts in their
    posts in the weeks preceding their death.

    "We found significant alterations in the patient's digital behavior that
    could be picked up as a signal by our algorithms," said Ian B. Wood from Indiana University and co-first author of the study.

    These changes in the patient's social media engagement, as well as in the sentiment behind their publications, may serve as possible early-warning signals for SUDEP and guide preventive interventions.

    "We thought that machine learning could be very useful to uncover
    patient behaviors and outcomes from the wide array of unconventional data
    out there, such as social media," said Lui's M. Rocha, George J. Klir
    Professor of Systems Science at Binghamton and principal investigator
    at IGC.



    ========================================================================== Rocha led the cross-university group for the study, which was sponsored
    by the National Institutes of Health. The interdisciplinary work involved informatics/ complex systems researchers, clinical/behavioral epilepsy scientists and support from the Epilepsy Foundation of America.

    "In general, SUDEP studies do not consider digital behavioral data as we
    did here, but focus only on physiological and clinical data. As far as we
    know, this is the first time this kind of data was used in the study of
    SUDEP," said principal investigator Wendy Miller, an epilepsy specialist
    from the School of Nursing at IU who also contributed to the study.

    She acknowledged that the inclusion of this digital data could offer a complementary view of patient behavior leading up to SUDEP that is often
    missed during clinical consultations: "Any advances in this area are
    likely to have a significant impact on the lives of families affected."
    To validate the predictive power of these behavioral signals extracted
    from social media, the researchers intend to mount clinical studies
    involving more people to collect more data. If the digital behavior of
    patients proves to be useful at predicting SUDEP, the analysis could
    be expanded to platforms in addition to Facebook and possibly prevent unnecessary deaths.

    "The method we employed could be applied to any digital behavior data,
    such as SMS or chat exchange, phone calls and other ways," Wood said.

    Sponsored by the NIH's National Library of Medicine, the team is
    working on a personalized web service for epilepsy, myAura, which will
    include diverse clinical and non-clinical data, such as self-reported
    patient entries regarding seizures, medication adherence and physician encounters. The web service also will include the option for users
    to donate their social media timelines, making this data more easily
    accessible for larger studies.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Binghamton_University. Note: Content
    may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Ian B. Wood, Rion Brattig Correia, Wendy R. Miller, Luis
    M. Rocha. Small
    cohort of patients with epilepsy showed increased activity on
    Facebook before sudden unexpected death. Epilepsy & Behavior,
    2022; 128: 108580 DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2022.108580 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220322122814.htm

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