Attitude toward the development of psychological disorders diagnosis expert system

Converting human knowledge, in the field of psychology, to an expert system (ES) was the aim of this study. This developed psychological disorders diagnosis ES prototype covers five psychological disorders, which are the most common in Oman according to the domain experts; these disorders are: Self-Deliberate Harm, Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, Dysthymia and Anorexia Nervosa. The system helps people assess their mental health by identifying the type of the disorder they might possess. The development of such system is very valuable for conservative countries where psychological problems are still not given high recognition and importance, and health privacy, especially psychological health, is still a major concern. This expert system is developed based on the knowledge acquired from human experts in psychology medicine department in a local hospital. After the development of the prototype system, potential users' and other domain experts' attitude toward the system was assessed. This paper discusses the development process of this psychological disorders diagnosis expert system and its potential strengths and risks.