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The experiences of Teresa Berkowitz It was hit or miss with therapists. “Some are good, some are helpful, some are just a waste of time and money,” she says. When some childhood trauma resurfaced six years ago, instead of meeting a real-life person, Berkowitz—who lives in Maine in her fifties—downloaded Uber, a mental health app with chatbot therapist functionality. Artificial intelligence.
Once or twice a week, Berkowitz does guided journaling using a Yuper chatbot, during which the bot prompts her to identify and change negative thought patterns as she writes down her thoughts. The app, she says, forces her to rethink what triggers her anxiety. “He’s always ready for you,” she says. If she gets in early, she doesn’t have to wait a week for a medical appointment.
Like their living, breathing counterparts, AI therapists can lend a robotic ear at any time, day or night. If they’re not free, they’re cheap—considering price, it’s usually one of the following. The biggest obstacles To get help. Additionally, some people feel more comfortable confessing their feelings to a bot that doesn’t listen to them than to a human. Research found.
They have the most popular AI therapists Millions of users. However, their explosion in popularity coincided with a lack of resources. according to Figures There is a global median of 13 mental health workers per 100,000 people from the World Health Organization. The number of mental health workers in high-income countries is 40 times higher than in low-income countries. And the mass depression and loss caused by the pandemic has exacerbated the problem and widened this gap even further. A Paper Published in of The Lancet In the year By November 2021, the epidemic resulted in 53 million additional cases of depression and 76 million cases of anxiety disorders worldwide. In a world where mental health resources are scarce, therapy bots are filling the gap.
Take Waysa for example. An “emotionally intelligent” AI chatbot launched in 2016 now has 3 million users. It is to be. It is designed for teenagers In some London state school systems, the UK’s NHS is also moving a A randomized controlled trial To see if the app can help millions sitting on (so long) waiting list for specialist help for mental health issues. Government of Singapore Licensed the app in 2020 To provide free support to the people during the epidemic. And in June 2022, Wysa Received A breakthrough from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is fast-tracking the product’s testing and approval to treat depression, anxiety and chronic musculoskeletal pain.
In a world where there aren’t enough services to meet demand, they may be a “good enough step,” says Elina Singh, professor of neuroscience and society at the University of Oxford. These chatbots can be a new and accessible way to provide information on how to deal with mental health issues that is freely available on the Internet. “It’s going to be very useful for some people, and that’s great and we’re excited,” said John Torres, director of the digital psychiatry department at Beth Israel Deacon Medical Center in Massachusetts. “And for some people, that’s not going to happen.”
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