Campus Review Vol 30. Issue 01 | January 2020 | Page 21

industry & research campusreview.com.au I, Robot, MD University of Melbourne professor says AI is the future for mental health assistance. By Wade Zaglas T hankfully we’ve come a long way since people with mental health issues – such as depression, bipolar disorder or psychosis – were locked up in large, austere institutions or subjected to barbaric treatments. With the introduction of more targeted drugs, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and mood stabilisers, including lithium, the lives of people with mental illness have undoubtedly improved. There have also been many psychological therapies trialled and approved, the most common being cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). However, while these developments have helped many mental health patients reintegrate into society, more needs to be done. Devising effective mental health treatments is a pressing issue. One in five Australians will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives, and services in rural and remote areas struggle to offer effective, lifelong treatment. The cost to the country from mental illness is also sobering. According to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, in 2014 mental illness cost the Australian economy $98 billion, or 6 per cent of Australia’s GDP. So, when you consider the vastness of Australia, the prevalence of mental health conditions in the community, and the cost to the country, funding research in this area becomes critical. Enter AI, or artificial intelligence. Grant Blashki, an associate professor from the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne, said recently that “if we can navigate the ethical and privacy concerns”, artificial intelligence may help us keep up with the increasing demand for mental health services. Despite his enthusiasm, he cautioned that developing trust with AI will be harder than achieving it with a qualified health professional such as psychologist or psychiatrist. Algorithms are a source of anxiety too, he added, particularly when they reach conclusions that are “incorrect, biased or even discriminatory”. What can’t be ignored, however, is that these algorithm-based digital platforms for accessing mental health have the potential to reach a much broader segment of the population, particularly those who feel stigmatised by their condition, live remotely, or whose socioeconomic status makes accessing traditional services difficult. There is a plethora of internet-based mental health interventions, often referred to as e-therapies or e-counselling, such as moodgym and myCompass, and many have proven to be effective. However, Blashki makes a distinction between these approaches and AI-based mental health solutions, which are “designed to learn and to adjust to change based on experience to make better decisions in the future”. As he points out, AI technology is already being trialled to ascertain someone’s predisposition to mental health conditions through the comments they make on Facebook. In that sense, it can help to detect depression before full onset begins. To test this, researchers in 2018 analysed 700 electronic Facebook records, with users’ consent, and found correlations between the types of language used online and the existence of a depressive disorder. Recurrent themes also popped up, with hostility, isolation, rumination and self- reference permeating many of the posts belonging to the group with depressive disorders. As research into the area of AI and mental health progresses, it is becoming apparent that it holds a lot of promise as a tool for both early detection and diagnosis. “Clinicians have for many decades utilised mood-tracking tools to help monitor patient progress, but AI brings a much more comprehensive – and perhaps intrusive – approach to tracking patient trajectories,” Blashki says. Singapore is forging ahead with an AI-inspired intervention for people with a mental health condition. The program, Artificial intelligence may help us keep up with the increasing demand for mental health services. called Cogniant, uses phone data to monitor patient behaviour and inform the clinician of progress or relapse. The program can also monitor an individual’s daily routines and activities, which help inform how the person is dealing with the mental health condition. Of course, ethical and privacy concerns will need to remain at the forefront of researchers’ minds, as such information in the wrong hands could be dangerous, even life-destroying. ■ 19