Sunday, January 26, 2025 (Healthday News) – Could a virtual avatar be the future of mental health care?
New research results show that artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality glasses (VR) could revolutionize therapy-by helping patients to overcome their addiction and maintain impartial care.
With the help of a VR app developed in the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, patients took part in consulting meetings with AI-supported avatars that were programmed for motivating interviews and cognitive behavioral therapy.
After 30 minutes of meetings, 85 % of the participants stated that they found the experience to be helpful, and 90 % showed interest in making them again.
“For people who are waiting for a liver transplant for liver cirrhosis, alcohol dependence remains a high -risk factor,” said the corresponding author Dr. Brennan Spiegel, professor of medicine and director of health research at Cedars-Sinai, in a press release. “We see VR as a way to supplement traditional interventions that are often neglected due to a lack of specialists for mental health, social stigmatization of alcoholism and other factors.”
The researchers simulated more than 400 talks between AI-based therapists and virtual patients and assigned a unique profile to each patient based on characteristics such as breed, age, gender or income level.
The result? No significant distortions were found in the tone or in the mood of the therapist's answers, which indicates that AI can offer fair and personalized care with careful conception.
“This data indicates that AI can offer just and personalized care with a well -thought -out design,” remarked SPIEGEL.
Dr. Peter Chen, interim chairman of the Cedars-Sinai department for medicine, praised the efforts to develop patient-centered care approaches.
“These two studies underline the commitment of Cedars-Sinai to research the enormous potential of artificial intelligence for mental health therapy and at the same time ensure that this technology does not maintain human prejudices when providing health care,” he said in a press release.
Source: Cedars-Sinai, press release, January 20, 2025
What that means for you
AI and other virtual therapy tools can improve access to mental health care and at the same time reduce biased treatment.
