The findings of a recent pilot study headed by academics from the University of Illinois Chicago suggest that artificial intelligence could be a beneficial aid in the treatment of mental illness. The study, which was the first to test an AI voice-based virtual coach for behavioral therapy, found improvements in patients’ brain activity as well as improvements in depression and anxiety after using the AI voice assistant Lumen, a form of psychotherapy. Changes in symptoms were found.
The UIC team says the results, which are published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, offer encouraging evidence that virtual therapy could play a role in filling gaps in mental health care, where waiting lists and disparities in access often hinder patients. occur, especially those from vulnerable communities, must be far away to receive treatment.
UIC Professor of Psychiatry and co-first author Dr. Olusola A. “We have had an incredible explosion of need, especially in the wake of COVID, with rising rates of anxiety and depression and a lack of adequate physicians,” Ajilor said. paper. “A technology like this could serve as a bridge. It’s not meant to be a replacement for conventional medicine, but it could be an important stop before someone can seek a cure.”
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Lumen, which operates as a skill in the Amazon Alexa application, was developed by Azilor and the Beth and George Wittoux Professor of Medicine at UIC, along with colleagues from Washington University in St. Louis and Pennsylvania State, senior author Dr. Jun Ma was studied. University, with the support of a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.
UIC researchers recruited more than 60 patients for a clinical study exploring the application’s effects on symptoms of mild to moderate depression and anxiety, and activity in brain regions previously thought to benefit from problem-solving therapy. Shown as connected.
Two-thirds of the patients used Lumen on a study-provided iPad for eight problem-solving therapy sessions, with the rest receiving no intervention as a “waiting list” control.
After the intervention, study participants who used the Lumen app showed a decrease in depression, anxiety, and psychological distress scores compared to the control group. The Lumen group also showed improvements in problem-solving skills that were related to increased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a brain region associated with cognitive control. Promising results were also found for women and underrepresented populations.
“It’s about changing the way people think about problems and how to address them, and not being emotionally overwhelmed,” Ma said. “It is a practical and patient-driven behavioral therapy that is well established, making it suitable for delivery using voice-based technology.”
A larger trial comparing the use of Lumen with both a control group on a waiting list and patients receiving human-trained problem-solving therapy is currently being conducted by researchers.
They emphasize that virtual coaches do not need to outperform human therapists in meeting a dire need in the mental health system. “The way we should be thinking about digital mental healthcare is not for these apps to replace humans, but to recognize what a gap we have between supply and demand, and then to provide those individuals with Find novel, effective and safe ways to deliver treatments to people who otherwise don’t have access to fill that gap,” Ma said.