[Automated speech analysis can distinguish frontotemporal dementia from depression: a pilot study].

Background: Differentiating the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia from a depression is challenging. Recent development of automated speech analyses might add to diagnostic.

Aim: To investigate the value of automated speech analyses in differentiating bvFTD from a depressive disorder.

Method: A semistructured interview was recorded in 15 patients with bvFTD, 15 patients with a depressive disorder and 15 healthy controls, which was transcribed and analysed. Acoustic and semantic values were extracted and classified using machine learning.

Results: Acoustic values showed an 80% accuracy for differentiating bvFTD from depressive disorder and semantic values showed an 70.8% accuracy.

Conclusion: Acoustic as well as semantic values show significant differences between bvFTD and depressive disorder. In automated speech analyses researches should consider privacy matters as well as possible confounders like age, sex and ethnicity. This study should be repeated in a larger population.