Women's Digital Health

Unveiling the Users of Artificial Intelligence and Mental Health: Who Benefits?

• Women's Digital Health • Season 2 • Episode 14

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The benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in providing personalized care and enhancing the mental health experience for users and professionals are clear. From personalized treatment plans based on data analysis to chatbots offering convenient and affordable support, AI is revolutionizing the mental health landscape.

However, the episode also addresses challenges in digital therapeutics and the need for more mental health professionals to embrace these technologies. We also discuss who the users of AI are in the realm of mental health.

Our goal is to demystify AI and make it more approachable, especially since its integration is rapidly transforming healthcare. We discuss how AI is not just for tech-savvy individuals but for everyone looking to improve their mental health.

AI's potential in healthcare, despite its ethical challenges and biases, is going to be significant, and we aim to explore these in future episodes.

Topics include:

  • AI's role in Mental Health and the benefits for those seeking support 
  • AI's role in supporting mental health professionals
  • The role of AI in Women's mental health
  • Will chatbots replace therapists?

In our next episode, we'll discuss data protection and safety in AI and mental health, addressing concerns about data privacy and the rights of individuals using these tools.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Time Stamp:
[00:02:21] Users of artificial intelligence

[00:08:12] Chatbots addressing postpartum depression.

[00:12:00] Artificial intelligence in mental health.

[00:13:29] AI alerting suicide risk.


Further reading:

Disclaimer
The information in this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment.

The personal views expressed by guests on Women's Digital Health are their own. Their inclusion here does not constitute an endorsement from Dr. Brandi, Women's Digital Health, or associated organizations.

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Dr. Brandi, let me guess, you're going to tell me that chatbots are going to be the future therapists, right? Okay, I promise to answer that question in this episode. Because in this episode, we are exploring who are the users of artificial intelligence in mental health. I put this episode together because I get the sense that people are feeling like really intimidated by artificial intelligence. You know, you might feel like, Dr. Brandi, thank you, but this AI stuff is not for me. It's for those people over there. And I hear you, and that's why I'm doing this episode. You know, this intimidation that many of us are feeling about artificial intelligence, it only reinforced and further excludes and increases the bias in some of the ethical challenges that artificial intelligence is well known to have. And in future episodes, I will explore that issue alone. But the reality is that healthcare is transforming rapidly. So think of me as your guide. Think of me as someone who is saying, I'm going to break this down so you can be informed about artificial intelligence. especially the type that's already here and is already being used passively and sometimes quietly. In this episode, you can learn about that type of artificial intelligence and how it can work for you as you seek to improve your mental health. Now, I'm going to use terms like machine learning, natural language processing, and large language models in this episode. And if you want a better understanding of these terms, please check out episodes 7 and 13 that breaks down these terms using a dance example. And I promise it's pretty fun. After this episode, you're probably going to have more questions. Great. Let's have a conversation. Subscribe to my newsletter to hear more about opportunities to join future workshops as we explore mental health and how you can stay safe. Reach out to me on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Enjoy this episode. Welcome back to episode 14, where we are going to discuss who are the users of artificial intelligence and mental health. We will discuss how artificial intelligence is applied to those using mental health wellness and those using mobile digital therapeutics for mental health conditions. You know, when I started researching for this episode on who is using artificial intelligence for mental health, I was worried that there were no artificial intelligence companies actually invested in women's mental health, but I was surprised to learn that there are companies tackling this condition, more specifically for postpartum depression in women using digital therapeutics. We're also going to explore how AI is being used to assist mental health professionals. And I promise we will answer the question, will chatbots be our future therapist? To answer the question, who's using artificial intelligence in mental health, we need to consider two types of users of mental health tools. The first are those who are seeking support for mental health and wellness. And the second would be those who are providing the help for mental health and wellness. So let's first start with how AI is being used for those who are seeking mental health and wellness. For a quick review of these different mental health apps, think about wellness apps as those apps that are used to establish habits like better sleep, exercise, or more mindfulness. Digital therapeutics, these are mobile mental health apps that treat conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, and irritable bowel syndrome. These digital therapeutics are usually prescribed by a mental health professional while you are working with them. If you want to learn more in detail about how these apps work, in mental health, please check out episode 11, where we give you a lot more information on how they're used and what's the best way to choose which one works best for you. All right, so let's start with mental health wellness apps. How is artificial intelligence apply when you're using these types of apps? All right, so one of the best qualities of artificial intelligence is its ability to personalize your experience. When you're entering your personal data, like your name, your email, your location, your age, and your overall wellness goals, machine learning algorithms immediately get to work at choosing what programs are going to work best for your sleep, for your exercise, and maybe they'll help start to introduce and choose what mindful exercise is going to work best for you. This personalization ability of AI is also what allows these apps to track how often you're using the app. And it gives the app the ability to check in with you on your smartphone via a notification or an email that reminds you, hey, you haven't used this app in a while. Personalization can really enhance your experience as a user because it's providing the feedback that a human mental health professional would not be able to do at the level of detail for each individual person that's using the wellness app. Personalization is one of the qualities of artificial intelligence that offers wellness users and those who use digital therapeutic apps the ability to have individualized care. The next characteristic of artificial intelligence is its ability to understand and respond to human language, and we call this natural language modeling. Chatbots are a type of large language model that are used in wellness apps, but we definitely see them in digital therapeutic applications. Companies like SilverCloud, Wyse, and Wobot, these are companies that use chatbots to apply digital therapeutic techniques to actually deliver traditional therapies like cognitive behavior therapy or CBT. This therapy is commonly used to treat conditions like anxiety, depression, and irritable bowel syndrome. And so these companies are taking advantage of the benefits of chatbots like the ability for you to access chatbots anytime, 24-7, anywhere. The ability of chatbots to be very convenient and very affordable. Chatbots are also conversational. This is one of the best qualities of large language models, is its ability to match how humans speak. And some people actually like chatbots because as opposed to, you know, talking to a human, it's completely anonymous. They don't feel like they have that stigma sometimes associated with going to a therapist's office. And lastly, digital therapeutic apps are now targeting specific groups like women with postpartum depression through chatbots. There are two companies, and it sounds like even more companies like Wobot and Curio, who are using chatbots to address some of the challenges that women with postpartum depression have, including accessibility inconvenience. It sounds exciting, right? But I know, I know, you want to know, will chatbots be your future therapist? The quick answer is probably not. I mean, at least not right now. While there are many randomized control trials and FDA approvals that show promise of digital therapeutics, it's still pretty new. And so there's some hurdles that still need to be addressed. One of the biggest challenges that digital therapeutics has is something called attrition. And it's basically, you know, how you use an app and then you stop using the app. Well, just like mobile health wellness apps have this issue, digital therapeutic apps also have that. A paper by Adora Nwusu discussed in detail how digital therapeutics might have some challenges dealing with attrition. And you can check out that paper in my show notes. The second thing we still have to deal with is that we need more mental health professionals on board with the idea of prescribing digital therapeutics. What does that even mean to a mental health professional? And who actually has the ability to prescribe a digital therapeutic? I'll say in its current state, the best use of chatbots and mental health is this combination of digital therapeutics along with an actual human mental health professional. And that professional should be comfortable using these digital therapeutic apps. All right, so we've discussed how artificial intelligence is being used by those who are seeking support for mental health and wellness. Now we're going to move on to how artificial intelligence is used to support those who are giving the support for mental health. The first way we see artificial intelligence being used to help mental health professionals is through the ability to automate administrative tasks. Along with just being overwhelmed with the high demand of people seeking their services, mental health professionals sometimes have challenges gathering basic information and completing various forms for patients so that they can actually offer the therapeutic service. By using the quality of auto-completing of forms, artificial intelligence can help improve the efficiency of mental health professionals. and thereby helping them to deliver a better therapeutic session. The next way we see artificial intelligence being used for mental health professional is through its ability to capture large amounts of data that can better formulate a diagnosis. Now, as a physician, I can tell you, creating a diagnosis is both an art and a science. And so capturing as many data points as you can, can paint a better picture of what's going on with the patient or the client. And so one of these sources of data could come from your smartphone or your smartwatch or some other wearable device. These devices capture data like movement, your heart rate, and your sleep patterns. And companies like BioBeats, they've made it available to both the person that's using the app as well as mental health professionals to connect data points like heart rate and movement with your mental health. Another sort of source of data that could really help mental health professionals comes from your health records, records that are captured in your electronic medical record. Medications, imaging, and other forms of health data points paint a much more clearer picture of who you are and what's going on. Artificial intelligence combines these large forms of data, all of this information together, to give a mental health professional a more personalized ability to give you a more personalized treatment plan based upon all of this information. Artificial intelligence also gives mental health professionals not only the ability to understand through data capturing, but also the ability to respond. So companies like Talkspace, they are using these natural language algorithms to alert therapists as to whether or not their patient is at increased risk of suicide based upon what text they may type in a private platform. And check out my show notes to learn more about that algorithm. Keep in mind, also, texting is also being used on social media platforms to capture whether or not someone is writing in a group or a forum any form of serious risk of harm to themselves or other people. Okay, we'll wrap up this episode with one last quality of artificial intelligence and mental health. that's helping mental health professionals, which is predictive analytics. Based upon the things that you know about from your smartphone, your smartwatch, your text messages, and electronic medical records, mental health professionals are using these data points to anticipate what could happen in your behavior and then customize a treatment plan. So that sounds cool, right? But maybe you have more questions. Maybe you're wondering, well, how much information is too much information? And what rights do I have? Huh? Well, this is where safety and data protection becomes really important. In our last episode in the series on AI and mental health, we will explore data protections and safety. To answer the question, how will AI impact the experience of those using mental health tools? So that concludes episode 14. We now know that those who are seeking mental health and wellness support, as well as those who are giving that support, are both using AI to improve their overall experiences. You also learned that artificial intelligence is being used to support important mental health conditions for women. like postpartum depression. And we also now know that chatbots are probably not going to be replacing therapists anytime soon. If you liked this podcast, please give us a review wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Thank you so much for listening. Bye for now.