Will AI Therapy Work?

Will AI Therapy Work?

Everyone in the mental health/therapy world is wondering "will AI therapy work?", from licensed therapists, to researchers, and of course patients suffering from mental health disorders.

The list of reasons why implementing AI into therapy might be a disaster is rather long. From protecting confidential patient data, to misrepresenting a therapists advice, and bias in training data, AI systems have just as many imperfections as human therapists do.

Even so, those drawbacks don't sweep the massive advantageous using AI provides both professionals and patients like 24/7 real time therapeutic support. Weighing the costs and benefits, one might consider AI therapy something of a gamble.

AI systems have a foreseeable role in every industry, especially medicine but with a field as dependent on human connection and emotional intelligence as mental health care, whether or not AI counseling, AI psychotherapy, or therapeutic AI will be effective is a valid question to ponder.

The American Psychological Association already published a breakdown of the many AI use cases the field has already implemented for such managerial tasks as streamlining workflows. However, the use of AI in therapy as the most human form of healthcare treatment has yet to be fully fleshed out.

To really understand the role of artificial intelligence in addressing mental health issues, we need to breakdown the field to asses where AI powered solutions can be applied.

Roles for AI in Mental Health

The Wysa Chatbot was developed specifically for cognitive behavioral therapy, for patients experiencing anxiety or chronic pain, offering real time, 24/7 therapeutic support. Wysa is not a generative AI system, instead its training is limited to statements drafted by human therapists.

Beyond just therapy, mental health professionals have smaller bandwidths for analyzing information than AI. That's why when it comes to diagnosing mental health issues, often times AI is more apt at identifying patterns from large datasets like a person's social media posts, speech patterns, and more.

Early diagnosis is crucial in treating mental health disorders, and just like humans, AI can make mistakes. However, pointing human psychologists in the right direction early will produce better outcomes for patients across the board.

The ability for AI to personalize treatment plans makes it advantageous to adopt artificial intelligence therapy. Lets say a patient suffers from an eating disorder, AI will be able to asses an effective strategy to remedy the disorder that is personalized to that patient's tastes, habits, social circles, ethnicity, and behaviors.

Research is another massive place where AI can make leaps forward for the entire field of mental healthcare. AI can analyze entire libraries of clinical trials to draw conclusions humans may not be able to catch. It can also ensure psychologists make evidence based decisions when treating mental health conditions.

Lastly, AI has a role in reducing barriers of entry for patients. Many patients may be apprehensive of speaking to another human about their intimate mental health concerns, AI lets them speak to an agent any time and at a reduced cost.

Will Generative AI Chatbots replace Human Therapists?

As helpful as Wysa is, it's still not a generative AI model. Its responses are limited to what therapists have drafted for it to use. Generative AI is being developed for therapy right now though, and the early prospects are promising.

Domain-specific AI foundational models are being developed for every field. Imagine ChatGPT but just for therapy. If you were to ask ChatGPT for mental health advice, as deep as it seems, it's actually rather shallow compared to what an expert in the field could offer.

That said, the domain-specific AI foundational models being trained as expert therapists still have their limitations. Training AI's on the depth of knowledge in the mental health field and the broadness of the world it needs to be applied to is tricky, and thus can't completely replace human therapists.

Still, the emotional intelligence of AI systems should not be underestimated. AI has the ability to read linguistic cues and asses the tone of a patient to treat them accordingly. And unlike human therapists, AI doesn't have off-days or emotional biases.

Patients may have reservations having AI agents completely replace their therapists, however, offering mental health and therapeutic support 24/7 in real time that is personalized to the patient is desired by most patients.

No one knows when a mental health crisis will occur, and being able to reach out to AI for help when your therapist is busy could mean the difference between life and death.

AI Mental Healthcare for Students

One of the most vulnerable groups effected by mental health problems are students. A 2023 study reported that 3/4 of students experienced moderate to severe psychological distress. Other data points were that 36% of students were diagnosed with anxiety, while 28% were diagnosed with depression.

These numbers are far too large to go without questioning what the root of the student mental health crisis might be. Many theorize technology and social media play a huge role in the problem, which is why some are skeptical that more technology offers safe solutions.

However, the AI applications listed throughout this article could only help young people when integrated into student life. For instance, using AI to balance homework and mental health, or having a 24/7 AI agent ready to give real time support, or wearing a bracelet to monitor a student's health and offer preemptive solutions. All these AI powered solutions can help curb the student mental health crisis.

Student AI usage is defining this generation of learners, when the mainstream AI debate accepts their understanding of how humans should relate to technology, then we can move forward into the new AI frontier.

Problems with Artificial Intelligence in Mental Health

As powerful as these solutions may seem to address various mental health concerns, using AI in any field has its drawbacks. Here are just a list of a few problems that may come with integrating AI into mental health practices:

• Bias: Who determines what training data algorithms use to come to "evidence-based" conclusions? If institutions feed biased studies to an AI system, it will never come up with solutions that undermine those studies, even if the studies are flawed. In order for the mental health industry to have full transparency, patients need to know what data is training their AI agents.

• Privacy: Data input by patients into AI chatbots may be stored and then used without full consent of the patient. If the confidential information a patient feeds a chatbot is then used to train its AI, this could lead to severe health or legal consequences.

• Over-reliance: Easy access to AI for mental health support can lead to patients missing human connection and human solutions to their problems. There are often straight solutions that AI can't come up that human therapists that know their patients well can. Think about how a patient develops if they can seek AI support for any problem, they often don't learn how to tackle those obstacles by themselves.

• Liability: Mental health professionals using AI open themselves up to legal concerns regarding information dispensed to patients by the AI without oversight. Potential errors or misrepresentations in AI outputs may have consequences to patients who use AI prescribed to them by professionals.

Conclusion

AI usage in therapy is inevitable like it will be in any industry. At first, the technology will take some getting used to. Then when the role of the AI is properly vetted, and all the kinks are worked out by trial and error, then most patients and professionals will see far better outcomes delivered to them because of how they've integrated artificial intelligence.

So, will AI therapy work? Absolutely. On some level. AI therapists probably won't be replacing human therapists any time in the near future. However, AI therapeutic support that is prescribed by a patient's human therapist is likely to occur rather soon.

We should all anticipate the improvements the field sees as a result of earlier diagnosis, more evidence-based decision making, more personalized treatments, and better access to support for all individuals.