ThoughtLine Web Server for Mental Health Wellness and Psychotherapy

Mental health is a significant and growing public health concern, with depression representing the leading cause of disability world-wide. While ongoing research actively explores the potential of mobile technology and artificial intelligence to support mental health, limited attention has been given to the field of mental health wellness and prevention. Drawing inspiration from the preventive benefits of exercise in physical health, this project aims to develop a platform for mental health wellness and prevention in the form of an online web server for audiotherapy. The server architecture allows for the utilization of various audio files, including mindfulness meditation, storytelling, nature sounds, and neuromodulation. In this thesis, I describe the design and architecture of the server platform, emphasizing academic digital mental health research and future project reusability. In addition to providing access to audio files, the web application incorporates standard psychological clinical assessments for health screening and a chat bubble feature that employs a pre-existing NLP algorithm to identify signs of depression. By collecting data on audio file access history, and tracking psychological assesssments and NLP model outcomes over time, clinicians can use this platform to engage in formal quantitative research within this emerging research domain. Our research platform, ThoughtLine.org, includes a user-friendly smartphone and web interface powered by our containerized server infrastructure, DockMed. The initial prototype described here has been prepared for a future clinical study with MIT students; however, the platform can be used for a variety of clinical studies with support for individual account registration and user groups.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Cantow, Michael R.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Fletcher, Rich

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/151277

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/151277