AI Chatbots Are Here to Help With Your Mental Health
Download the mental health chatbot Earkick and you're greeted by a bandana-wearing panda.
Start talking or writing about anxiety and the app generates the kind of comforting, sympathetic statements therapists are trained to deliver. The panda might then suggest a guided breathing exercise, ways to rethink negative thoughts or stress-management tips.
Earkick is one of hundreds of free apps that are being pitched to address a crisis in mental health among teens and young adults. Because they don't claim to diagnose or treat medical conditions, the apps aren't regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The industry argument is simple: Chatbots are free, available 24/7 and don't come with the stigma that keeps some people away from therapy.
But there's limited data that they actually improve mental health. And none of the leading companies have gone through the FDA approval process to show they effectively treat conditions like depression.
Still, chatbots are playing a role due to a continuing shortage of mental health professionals.
The UK's National Health Service has begun offering a chatbot called Wysa to help with stress, anxiety and depression among adults and teens. Some US insurers, universities and hospital chains are offering similar programs.
Dr. Angela Skrzynski, a family doctor in New Jersey, says patients are usually very open to trying a chatbot after she describes the months-long waiting list to see a therapist.
Skrzynski's employer, Virtua Health, started offering a Woebot app to select adult patients after realizing it would be impossible to hire or train enough therapists to meet demand.
Unlike other chatbots, Woebot's app doesn't use generative AI to produce original text and conversations. Instead Woebot uses thousands of structured scripts.
Founder Alison Darcy says this rules-based approach is safer for health care use, given the tendency of generative AI chatbots to make up information.
Ross Koppel of the University of Pennsylvania worries such apps, even when used appropriately, could be displacing proven therapies for depression and other serious disorders.
"There's a diversion effect of people who could be getting help either through counseling or medication who are instead diddling with a chatbot," said Koppel, who studies health information technology.
