Rule-Based Chatbot for Early Self-Depression Indication: A Promising Approach

Depression is a prevalent mental health condition worldwide, often characterized by persistent sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, and feelings of worthlessness. Depression is the leading cause of mental health issues worldwide, and it is becoming more severe without self-awareness, early screening, and further medication. Early detection and intervention are critical in mitigating its adverse effects. Leveraging advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly in Natural Language Processing (NLP), chatbots have emerged as potential tools for early depression indication. Chatbots are beneficial tools in the mental health domain, such as in assisting mental health risk users. This paper presents the development of a rule-based chatbot aimed at detecting early signs of depression through conversational interactions by screening symptoms of depression. Predefined rules are developed to ensure the assessment can generate reliable results. The rule-based chatbot is developed to assist in depression indication assessment for mental health-risk individuals at an early stage and provide the risky patient with appropriate support and resources. The chatbot assessment has adopted the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 (DASS21) instrument. Based on the System Usability Scale (SUS) results, the rule-based chatbot has been accepted by all 30 respondents with good acceptance of an average SUS score of 77.2. Thus, the outcome of this chatbot can be utilized as a professional platform to encourage self-disclosure of mental depression indications for users, and it can be beneficial as the initial reference before recommending further action before the earlier help-seeking.