Speech patterns reveal depression levels

Sydney, Aug 20 - Speech patterns can reveal the severity of depression as well as a patient's response to treatment, suggests a new study. The study, the largest of its kind in the world, found that improvement in patients diagnosed with depression and undergoing treatment can be monitored over the phone by looking at changes in their speech. Adam Vogel, who heads the Speech Neuroscience Unit at Australia's University of Melbourne, said speech was a strong marker of brain health, and changes in how we sound reflected how well our brain was working, the journal Biological Psychiatry reports.