NWNT · Updated
How was it developed?
The Stressometer was built by NWNT, founded in 2011 by psychiatrist Dr. Sandeep Vohra, MBBS, MD (Psychiatry), who has 30+ years of clinical experience. It was developed in collaboration with the University of Houston in the USA. The aim was a questionnaire that looks beyond symptoms to the circumstances behind them, which is why its 55 questions are organised into five dimensions: Human Nature, Life Circumstances, Clinical Symptoms, Domestic Life and Professional Life.
What does a Cronbach's alpha of 0.935 mean?
Cronbach's alpha measures internal consistency: whether the questions in a scale hang together and measure the same underlying thing, rather than pulling in random directions. It runs from 0 to 1. Values above 0.9 are generally regarded as excellent for a questionnaire of this kind.
An alpha of 0.935 tells you the Stressometer measures consistently. It does not, on its own, tell you how often the result matches a clinician's diagnosis. That is a separate question, which is why comparison with other scales matters.
How does it compare with established scales?
During validation, Stressometer results were compared with three instruments: the DASS, PSS and SOS scales. The DASS (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales) is widely used in research to measure depression, anxiety and stress. The PSS (Perceived Stress Scale) measures how unpredictable, uncontrollable and overloaded a person feels their life to be. Agreement with tools like these, known as convergent validity, is evidence that the Stressometer is measuring what it sets out to measure.
Published research and the patent
The development and validation of the Stressometer have been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Indian Journal of Psychiatry, the journal of the Indian Psychiatric Society. NWNT can share the papers with researchers and organisations on request.
In October 2025, the Stressometer was granted an Indian patent, the first for an AI-based digital mental health screening tool in the country. A patent recognises an invention as new. It is not evidence of clinical accuracy, which is why the validation work above matters more to anyone deciding whether to trust the result.
What a screening tool can and cannot do
A good screen is a well-designed first conversation. It is fast, consistent and available to anyone, and it helps decide who needs a clinician and how urgently. It is not the conversation with the clinician.
- It can show how much stress you are under and which areas of life it comes from
- It can recommend a level of care and help you take the next step sooner
- It can track change when taken again after a few weeks or months
- It cannot diagnose depression, anxiety or any other condition
- It cannot rule out an illness; a healthy result is not a clean bill of health
- It cannot judge risk in an emergency or replace urgent help
Frequently asked questions
- Does high reliability mean my result is always right?
- No. Reliability means the questions measure consistently. Any screen can over or under estimate for a particular person, which is why the result leads to a clinician rather than a verdict.
- Can researchers or institutions see the published papers?
- Yes. Write to help@nwnt.ai and NWNT will share the publications and discuss research or institutional use.
- Was it tested outside India?
- It was developed with the University of Houston in the USA, and it is deployed across enterprises in both the USA and India.