Leveraging LLMs for Translating and Classifying Mental Health Data

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in medical fields. In mental health support, the early identification of linguistic markers associated with mental health conditions can provide valuable support to mental health professionals, and reduce long waiting times for patients. Despite the benefits of LLMs for mental health support, there is limited research on their application in mental health systems for languages other than English. Our study addresses this gap by focusing on the detection of depression severity in Greek through user-generated posts which are automatically translated from English. Our results show that GPT3.5-turbo is not very successful in identifying the severity of depression in English, and it has a varying performance in Greek as well. Our study underscores the necessity for further research, especially in languages with less resources. Also, careful implementation is necessary to ensure that LLMs are used effectively in mental health platforms, and human supervision remains crucial to avoid misdiagnosis.