The first study with a therapy chatbot shows very promising results. (Image source: left: New Africa, Adobe Stock, right: Dartmouth College)
Artificial intelligence penetrates more and more areas of our lives. After it became known yesterday that Apple will probably integrate more AI into the Health app next year, Dartmouth College is now presenting the first study to examine the effectiveness of a therapy chatbot.
The successes that the scientists in the Press release on the study are considerable:
That is the content of the study:
- The AI and Mental Health Lab has been researching since 2019
Therabot
a chat bot for therapy applications. - Therabot was trained on its own data set, replies openly, but is also programmed to recognize risk situations and to refer to people in case of doubt.
- 210 adults with depression, anxiety disorders and eating disorders have been accompanied over 8 weeks, with a group had full access to Therabot over four weeks.
- This is what a possible chat with Therabot looks like:
Link to YouTube content
Surprising results in therapy with chatbot
The Therabot study shows promising results: participants who interacted with the chatbot showed significant improvements in their symptoms.
The researchers report in detail:
- In the case of depression, the symptoms fell on average by 51 percent.
- An average of 31 percent decreased.
- On average, the participants experienced an improvement by 19 percent with concerns about body image and weight.
Nicholas Jacobson, senior author of the study and extraordinary professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine emphasizes that therapy through Therabot leads to comparable results such as conventional outpatient treatments:
The improvements of the symptoms we have observed are comparable to the results of traditional outpatient therapy, which indicates that this AI-supported approach could offer clinically significant benefits.
The researchers are particularly surprised at how well the patients with Therabot one Therapeutic alliance
can form. The one denotes simplifiedwhether the therapist and patient agree on a therapy goal and have mutual trust and respect to gain this goal.
The study finds that the participants were able to trust the system to a degree and communicate with it, which is comparable to the treatment by a trained therapist.
The human therapist remains irreplaceable
Bill Gates predicted in February this year that in his opinion, health treatments could be taken over by AI in the foreseeable future. In this context, Gates only speaks of the great knowledge that artificial intelligence can accumulate and reproduce.
In contrast, the scientists of the Dartmouth college stir up to caution and emphasize that the use of generative AI in mental health continues to need strict surveillance, especially in cases of acute risks such as suicide thoughts.
The scientists emphasize that Therabot cannot represent a complete replacement of a human therapist, but at the same time refer to a general problem:
There is no substitute for personal support, but there is far from enough providers to meet the need.
In Europey too, mentally ill people sometimes have to wait months for a therapy place. Here, too, it is conceivable that technologies such as Therabot can improve the situation of those affected for such waiting times.
What do you think about it? Can you imagine that the therapy with a chatbot can make sense? Write us your opinion and maybe experience in the comments!
