Sensing Mood through Images: Visualizations of Mood Disorders in Patient-reported Outcomes Technologies

• In Event: Visual (In)Sensibilities I

Abstract

The development of images and visualizations has been fundamental to the emergence of mood disorders, such as bipolar and depressive disorders, both as epistemic objects and mental health issues (Dumit). Based on the analysis of documents, interviews and ethnographic observations in Santiago, Chile, this paper explores the use of images in technologies that use patient-reported outcomes (PRO) in diagnosing, (self)tracking and treating mood disorders. It first analyzes Kraepelin and Rehm’s imaging system (1915), that allowed for the emergence of manic-depression as a clinical diagnosis, and has greatly influenced the development of contemporary PRO technologies. It then focuses on a chain of three such technological systems: 1) the Life Chart Methodology, championed by the US National Institute of Mental Health since 1985, that achieved world-wide diffusion; 2) the Chronorecord telemedicine system, that tightly coupled clinical psychiatry with scientific research; 3) and an array of more recent technologies, like Baobab Network (Chile) and Questlink (Netherlands), that aim at using portable, low-cost technologies to track psychiatric patients (and doctors) in real time. These technologies are described as inscription devices (Latour & Woolgar), that allow sensing and transporting mood states through networks that reach far beyond the psychiatric clinic. Emphasis is given to the effects that the implementation of these technologies has had on the ways mental health and the self are understood and enacted, as well as to its consequences in the delegation patterns that characterize sociotechnical networks (Akrich). This paper is part of a wider research project addressing the implementation of telemedicine technologies in Chile (TeCCaS).

Author

• Fernando Valenzuela, Universidad Andres Bello