Therapy has come a long way- from locking patients up and treating them with electric shocks, to drugs and behavior therapy. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24. About 20 percent of all teens experience depression before they reach adulthood. Despite these alarming statistics, addressing concerns of mental health remains elusive, expensive and stigmatized in most parts of the world. Even in social settings where a large percentage of people may be suffering from mental health issues- think refugee camps, college campuses or among war vets, treatment is scarce and often rejected.This article explores how chatbots are changing the way people address their mental health issues.

The Originals

Conversing with Eliza

Famously, the very first Chat-bot, Eliza was meant to imitate conversation with a psychotherapist. Launched in 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, Eliza stimulated natural language by matching patterns and substitution. Although it was designed to show that conversations between humans and computers will always be superficial, it turned out to be the spark that lit the fire of AI development that gave us the chatbots we know today.

In the 90s, chatbots such as Dr Sbaitso and ALICE assumed the role of psychotherapists as well- but their inability to understand context meant that the field was still new and unexplored with a long way to go.

New Age Therapy

In 2018, chatbots are making basic Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and other forms of mental health therapies available to masses in all parts of the world. The new-age therapy bots are trying to make therapy anonymous, affordable, and dare I say it- fun.

Woebot, which engages in CBT assess patterns to figure out change in mood, stress levels or depressive thoughts in users over time. It promises to check-in daily to figure out how you are doing. Based on your interaction, it will offer you advise or empathy. Because it can’t really replace a doctor yet, it comes with an “SOS” feature. Once triggered, it sends you numbers and links for helplines aimed at prevention of self-harm. The bot will then talk to you to help you overcome the overwhelming feeling of negativity. While you should still see a doctor promptly if you feel overwhelmed, a bot can ease this process by helping you when you are feeling at your lowest, even when you aren’t around friends, family, or a doctor. In fact, according to a study by Stanford, participants who interacted with Woebot about 12 times over 2 weeks showed significant reduction in their depression and stress levels.

CBT by a chatbot| Source- Woebot

Wysa, a bot that looks like a cute penguin calls itself your “4 AM friend and life coach”. The bot is recommended by the North East London NHS Foundation Trust for children and teeenagers to stay in touch with their emotions. It targets the mental health crisis of children living in North East London, and hopes to help children deal with them at an early age.

X2AI is developing specialty chatbots for various situations- their bot Karim is being distributed in the camps of Lebanon and Jordan to provide mental health therapy to Syrian refugees. To get Karim into the hands of refugees and aid workers, X2AI has teamed up with an non-governmental organisation called Field Innovation Team (FIT), which delivers tech-enabled disaster relief. Another bot, called Emma, provides support to Dutch Language speakers.

The future

Therapists and psychiatrists use cues such as body language, eye contact, physical upkeep along with what patients tell them to make diagnosis and monitor progress. One limitation of chatbots in therapy is that they only have access to information that people type out- at their lowest, people often don’t want to type or talk. Another is that they can’t perform actions or interventions that a human might be able to. For example, doctors follow a protocol when they know someone is at risk of suicide- at best, a bot can request you to call a hotline.

Since they are not licensed to practice medicine, these bots can only provide “assistance” and “coaching”, not “diagnosis” or “treatment”. So while on the one hand, preliminary mental healthcare is available and affordable to more people, on the other it can delay treatment or diagnosis of patients in critical conditions.

With the advent of voice and screen-based assistants (think Google Now or Amazon Echo Show), bots of the future may be able to read our tones, gestures and body language to help us better. I, for one, will be waiting.

What are some other bots making the world a better place? Tell us in comments below or join the YellowAnt community. Sign up for YellowAnt here.