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The Moral Urgency of Mental Health

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Re: The Moral Urgency of Mental Health

#2
> In the United Kingdom, it costs about £650 per patient to provide psychotherapy, which is effective for about 50% of patients. That figure indicates how much governments would need to spend, but does not take into account what they might get back.

they don't appear to provide a source for this. The English NHS collects, and publishes, a lot of data for the IAPT (Improved access to psychological therapies programme). IAPT provides access to short forms of therapy such as cognitive behaviour therapy (which would normally be about 7 weeks).

http://www.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30153

> In August 2017 there were:

> 113,541 new referrals

> 83,330 referrals entered treatment

> 47,100 referrals finished a course of treatment, of which:

> 88.5 per cent waited less than 6 weeks and 98.9 per cent waited less than 18 weeks to enter treatment

> 43,922 started treatment at caseness, with 50.8 per cent moving to recovery

there's a large unweidly spreedsheet with results for each provider.

the latest figures are here: http://content.digital.nhs.uk/iaptmonthly

Re: The Moral Urgency of Mental Health

#4
I am hopeful that we will soon see AI-based psychotherapy available at scale at a price such that anyone who wants it will be able to get it. I can imagine that it would be more or less like having a telephone conversation with a real therapist, except in this case the therapist is an AI application running in a datacenter.

I think we will see something like this in the next five to ten years.

Thoughts?

Re: The Moral Urgency of Mental Health

#5
post #4

I am hopeful that we will soon see AI-based psychotherapy available at scale at a price such that anyone who wants it will be able to get it. I can imagine that it would be more or less like having a telephone conversation with a real therapist, except in this case the therapist is an AI application running in a datacenter. I think we will see something like this in the next five to ten years. Thoughts?

Are you familiar with: https://woebot.io/

It acts as a cognitive behavioral therapy tool.

Re: The Moral Urgency of Mental Health

#6
post #4

I am hopeful that we will soon see AI-based psychotherapy available at scale at a price such that anyone who wants it will be able to get it. I can imagine that it would be more or less like having a telephone conversation with a real therapist, except in this case the therapist is an AI application running in a datacenter. I think we will see something like this in the next five to ten years. Thoughts?

Are you familiar with: https://woebot.io/ It acts as a cognitive behavioral therapy tool.

I was not. Thank you for that link.

Re: The Moral Urgency of Mental Health

#7

Mental Health for those in crisis is fucked. If you feel suicidal, you get locked up. It’s as simple as that.

Since it is terrible, and so many people end up self medicating; I would like to see certain drugs OTC.

The benzodiazepine with the long half life would be first on my list.

Second would be the opioid with the long half life, and yes put the antagonist in the pill.

Maybe a required consultation with the pharmacist, on the dangers of mixing drugs?

I purposely didn't mention the drugs. Why--because this isn't the forum, and I'm not an expert. And, most of you can easily look up these drugs.

That said, relying on Alochol, and Street drugs to alleviate the misery of a mental malady is just wrong!

(I know there's a bunch of you rolling your eyes. My hope is you never have a nervous breakdown--without good insurance. I don't want to debate today with someone who hasen't been there either. I'm appalled at the way mental illness is treated in America. It's embarrassing. It's been horrid forever. To those reading this in abject missery; hang in there. Time will cure most of you. I have no reason to lie. I've been there. I know the misery. Don't give up. Give it time, and try to work the system. If it's an emergency, call 911. I know it seems outlandish, but we are just victims of the System. Oh, how I would like to see the System change.)

Re: The Moral Urgency of Mental Health

#8
post #4

I am hopeful that we will soon see AI-based psychotherapy available at scale at a price such that anyone who wants it will be able to get it. I can imagine that it would be more or less like having a telephone conversation with a real therapist, except in this case the therapist is an AI application running in a datacenter. I think we will see something like this in the next five to ten years. Thoughts?

Are you familiar with: https://woebot.io/ It acts as a cognitive behavioral therapy tool.

Thank you for sharing this!

Re: The Moral Urgency of Mental Health

#9
post #4

I am hopeful that we will soon see AI-based psychotherapy available at scale at a price such that anyone who wants it will be able to get it. I can imagine that it would be more or less like having a telephone conversation with a real therapist, except in this case the therapist is an AI application running in a datacenter. I think we will see something like this in the next five to ten years. Thoughts?

It would be great if that were possible, but a lot of the value of therapy comes from the therapeutic relationship rather than a specific type of therapy. Most types of psychotherapy tend to have the same level of effect in studies, suggesting there is no "recipe" for the type of therapy that works. This phenomenon also suggests (but does not prove) that the human relationship, rather than therapeutic program, accounts for the measured improvement in outcomes

Not to say an AI tool wouldn't be helpful for some people, but it isn't clear it would be that useful. And i don't know of any evidence or plausible hypotheses that an AI tool could work for anything other than mild anxiety or depression

AI + human therapy could potentially be better than human therapy alone however

Re: The Moral Urgency of Mental Health

#10
This doesn't touch on a potentially even bigger barrier to adoption of better mental health care: that those who benefit from better mental health care often aren't the people paying for it, and that it is really really hard to measure the specific financial benefits of improving mental health in a way that will convince payers / employers / government to actually put real money on the line
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