AI chatbots are here to help with mental health, despite limited evidence they work
ing digital health industry — and its survival.
Earkick is one of hundreds Download the of free apps that are being mental health chatbot Earpitched to address a crisis in kick and you’re greeted by a mental health among teens bandana-wearing panda who and young adults. Because could easily fit into a kids’ they don’t explicitly claim cartoon. to diagnose or treat medical
Start talking or typing conditions, the apps aren’t about anxiety and the app regulated by the Food and generates the kind of comDrug Administration. This forting, sympathetic statehands-off approach is coming ments therapists are trained under new scrutiny with the to deliver. The panda might startling advances of chatthen suggest a guided breathbots powered by generative ing exercise, ways to reAI, technology that uses vast frame negative thoughts or amounts of data to mimic hustress-management tips. man language.
It’s all part of a well- esThe industry argument tablished approach used by is simple: Chatbots are free, therapists, but please don’t available 24/7 and don’t come call it therapy, says Earkick with the stigma that keeps co- founder Karin Andrea some people away from therStephan. apy.
“When people call us a But there’s limited data form of therapy, that’s OK, that they actually improve but we don’t want to go mental health. And none of out there and tout it,” says the leading companies have Stephan, a former profesgone through the FDA apsional musician and self- deproval process to show they scribed serial entrepreneur. effectively treat conditions “We just don’t feel comfortlike depression, though a few able with that.” have started the process vol
The question of whether untarily. these artificial intelligence “There’s no regulatory -based chatbots are deliverbody overseeing them, so coning a mental health service or sumers have no way to know are simply a new form of selfwhether they’re actually efhelp is critical to the emerg- fective,” said Vaile Wright, a
psychologist and technology director with the American Psychological Association.
Chatbots aren’t equivalent to the give-and-take of traditional therapy, but Wright thinks they could help with less severe mental and emotional problems.
Earkick’s website states that the app does not “provide any form of medical care, medical opinion, diagnosis or treatment.”
Some health lawyers say such disclaimers aren’t enough.
“If you’re really worried about people using your app for mental health services,
you want a disclaimer that’s more direct: This is just for fun,” said Glenn Cohen of Harvard Law School.
Still, chatbots are already playing a role due to an ongoing shortage of mental health professionals.
The U.K.’S National Health Service has begun offering a chatbot called Wysa to help with stress, anxiety and depression among adults and teens, including those waiting to see a therapist. Some U.S. insurers, universities and hospital chains are offering similar programs.
Dr. Angela Skrzynski, a family physician in New Jer
sey, 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 password-protected app, Woebot, to select adult patients after realizing it would be impossible to hire or train enough therapists to meet demand.
“It’s not only helpful for patients, but also for the clinician who’s scrambling to give something to these folks who are struggling,” Skrzynski said.
Virtua data shows pa
tients tend to use Woebot about seven minutes per day, usually between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
Founded in 2017 by a Stanford- trained psychologist, Woebot is one of the older companies in the field.
Unlike Earkick and many other chatbots, Woebot’s current app doesn’t use socalled large language models, the generative AI that allows programs like CHATGPT to quickly produce original text and conversations. Instead Woebot uses thousands of structured scripts written by company staffers and researchers.