Portable electroencephalography in early detection of depression: Progress and future directions

Traditional diagnostic tools for depression, such as the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, are susceptible to subjective bias, increasing the risk of misdiagnosis and emphasizing the critical need for objective biomarkers. This minireview evaluates the emerging role of portable electroencephalography (EEG) as a cost-effective, accessible solution for early depression detection. By synthesizing findings from 45 studies (selected from 764 screened articles), we highlight EEG's capacity to identify aberrant neural oscillations associated with core depressive symptoms, including anhedonia, excessive guilt, and persistent low mood. Advances in portable systems demonstrate promising classification accuracy when integrated with machine learning algorithms, with long short-term memory models achieving > 90% accuracy in recent trials. However, persistent challenges, such as signal quality variability, motion artifacts, and limited clinical validation, hinder widespread adoption. Further innovation in sensor optimization, multimodal data integration, and real-world clinical trials is essential to translate portable EEG into a reliable diagnostic tool. This minireview underscores the transformative potential of neurotechnology in psychiatry while advocating for rigorous standardization to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice.