Google launches service that diagnoses depression

♦ Google is turning its focus to the world’s mental health with a quiz that aims to diagnose people with clinical depression.

People asking questions such as “am I depressed?” on Google’s mobile phone search engine will be met with links to a mental health self-assessment quiz.

The update, developed by Google with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the first time the tech giant has promoted its own health assessment in its search results. US users searching for information on mental health will be met with the prompt, “check if you’re clinically depressed”. Clicking on the link will take them to a nine-question quiz that asks whether they have “little interest or pleasure in doing things” or “trouble concentrating”.

The PHQ-9 quiz is a clinically approved method of depression screening and has been used by the NHS. It is only available to US users, but Google is expected to launch it in the UK if the trial is successful.