Detecting early symptoms of mental health deterioration using handwriting duration parameters

Recent years have witnessed a rapid rise in the incidence of mental health deterioration, such as depression and depressive symptoms. Therefore, early detection and measures of prevention have become important. This study aimed to develop a predictive method for assessing the incident risk of mental health deterioration by examining the associations between mental health and handwriting duration.

A cohort study over four years was performed with 200 university students who volunteered to participate in this study. Participants received the Uchida-Kraepelin test every April and completed the 30-item general health questionnaire to evaluate their mental health. From the stroke data obtained from the digital pen in the Uchida-Kraepelin test, two kinds of intervals were extracted. Based on these interval ratios, participants were divided into two groups. We then examined the scores of the questionnaire between the high-risk group and the low-risk group in the first year of the study. In addition, multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine whether those in the high-risk group in the first year still belonged to the high-risk group in the fourth year.

In the "Anxiety and Dysphoria scale" in the first year, the high-risk group had a significantly higher score than the low-risk group. Additionally, it was found that those in the high-risk group in the first year tended to still be in the high-risk group in the fourth year.

These results suggested that the indicator that we developed can be used as a predictive factor for the incident risk of mental health deterioration.