Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability among youth, yet identifying this condition remains challenging. Naturalistic communication offers a promising approach to enhance depression detection. Increased use of first-person singular pronouns (e.g., ''I'') has been linked to MDD, but its applicability to younger, non-English-speaking populations remains unclear. METHODS: This study examined first-person pronoun use in Brazilian Portuguese-speaking adolescents with and without MDD and its relationship to self-reported and clinician-rated depressive symptoms. Fifty-two adolescents (13 with and 39 without MDD) from the Identifying Depression Early in Adolescence Risk Stratified Cohort (IDEA-RiSCo) sample completed remote data collection using a WhatsApp chatbot, responding to questions via audio recordings. Transcripts were analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). RESULTS: The MDD group used significantly more I-pronouns than non-MDD subjects (9.15 vs. 8.02%, t = -2.302, p = 0.026). Self-reported depressive symptomatology correlated with I-pronoun use (rho = 0.366, p = 0.008), but did not reach statistical significance for clinician-rated symptoms (rho = 0.248, p = 0.076). CONCLUSIONS: These findings support first-person singular pronouns as a potential linguistic marker of depression among Brazilian adolescents. This is the first study to replicate such results in a young, non-English-speaking sample using spoken speech, suggesting that integrating linguistic analysis with digital tools could enhance early detection efforts, particularly in resource-limited settings. Future research should explore use of I-pronouns alongside other linguistic and acoustic features to refine digital mental health screening approaches.
Source: Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry
Institutions: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, King's College London, Economic and Social Research Council, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, George Washington University, National Institute for Health and Care Research, NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, Human Sciences Research Council, Hospital Moinhos de Vento
Language: English
Topic: Mental Health via Writing
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funders: National Institute for Health and Care Research, Department of Health and Social Care, Royal Academy of Engineering, Academy of Medical Sciences, King's College London, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, National Institutes of Health, NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute of Mental Health
OpenAlex ID: W4411259017