A disturbing trend: young, instead of psychiatrists, seek help from artificial intelligence
Young people in mental crisis are increasingly looking for help from artificial intelligence. Experts warn that such “therapy” involves the risk of harmful advice, abandoning professional treatment, as well as the patient's emotional addiction to AI.
As the British daily The Times recently reported, Young British, instead of psychiatrists and psychotherapists, seek help from artificial intelligence. They use AI to diagnose their problems when they feel anxiety, anxiety, are overwhelmed by excess duties, etc.
The phenomenon in the British Isles takes on disturbing sizes. Only in March this year, 16.7 million entries appeared on the Tiktok platform, which authors admit to regular use of chatagpt as a therapistand in films published in social media, young people argue that AI is the only “person” with whom they can talk about their mental problems.
As the authors of the publication emphasize, the popularity of artificial intelligence on the islands is undoubtedly associated with the failure of the public health care system. The average waiting time for psychiatric advice in NHS (equivalent to the Polish NFZ) has been over 18 months. The high costs of private therapy, which reach 400 pounds per month are also significant.
However, the tendency to replace contact with a specialist advice at GPT Chat is global and begins to reach Poland.
As experts emphasize, artificial intelligence (in the form of therapeutic chatbots) can be helpful in psychiatry, supporting a doctor or therapist.
However, a disturbing phenomenon is the use of popular language models by young people, such as GPT chat, bypassing specialists. These types of tools should be supervised by an experienced therapist, and this is not always the case.
“We hear about this trend, young people treat the GPT cottage as an equivalent of another man, a friend and even a therapist. They have no one to turn to with their problems in their environment, the age of puberty is that you do not run to parents. Intelligence does not confront a young man with his real health problem, “Medi emphasized in an interview with PAP. med. Aleksandra Olawska-Szymańska from the Świętokrzyskie Center of Psychiatry, Provincial Consultant for Psychiatry of Children and Youth.
Studies indicate that young people often experience a subjective improvement in well -being after contact with chatbot, but it is often only a placebo effect.
Chatbots are designed to provide users with maximum comfort and emotional support, but paradoxically, this can reduce their motivation to undertake professional treatment.
“In addition, it is impossible to protect large language models against any errors. There is a risk that chatbots can give inappropriate or even harmful advice, especially in cases of more complex mental disorders,” noted in an interview with PAP Dr. Marcin Rzączka, head of the Laboratory of Research on the Multimodity of the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska in Lublin.
In his opinion, users often ignore the warnings displayed during the conversation with AI that chatbot is not a professional therapist, treating answers as an authoritative source of psychological advice.
Another potential threat is the risk of emotional addiction, resulting from the availability and ability to quickly answer AI.
Excessive trust in a virtual therapist leads to the fact that a person struggling with emotional problems begins to rely on AI tips, instead of looking for help from qualified specialists.
According to Ewa Górko, director of the Mental Health Department at the Office of the Ombudsman for the Patient Rights, artificial intelligence can be used as an auxiliary tool in psychiatry, but should not replace a doctor. In her opinion, the potential threat of the dissemination of the “advice” offered AI is to eliminate personal contact with a specialist who is in particular in the field of psychiatry indispensable.
“Every person in the crisis of mental health, and especially minors, should be able to contact personal with a professional. This guarantees patients the right to health services. Picking a diagnosis in psychiatry requires conversation, interaction, observation and interpretation of patient's behavior. On this basis, a comprehensive assessment of the patient's health is made, and artificial intelligence does not guarantee this, and the artificial intelligence does not guarantee this” – emphasized Ewa Górko.
In her opinion, AI tools can be used as part of education and support for both patients and their parents.
“On the other hand, when it comes to making a diagnosis or even providing medical advice to people in the crisis of mental health, this is a risky tool and giving them only artificial intelligence is incompatible with the principles of providing services” – noted Ewa Górko.
In addition, the phenomenon of searching for advice provided by Chatbot has not yet been regulated by law. “Access to artificial intelligence advice is not limited by age. Meanwhile, the law is clearly that it is the legal guardians of persons under 16 years of age who make decisions in the field of treatment, and the opinion of the minor is taken into account only after the minor completion of 16 years of age completed” – emphasized the director. Ewa Górko.
The problem is also the lack of regulations regarding legal liability for any deterioration of the patient's health as a result of unsuccessful or even harmful conduct of the patient during interaction with chatbot.
However, experts have no doubt that medical advice of artificial intelligence will spread due to the growing needs of patients.
Experts appeal to their parents to be careful for the needs of their children, then they will not have to look for psychological support in the virtual world.
“Let's take care of relationships with loved ones, because if they are not there, it will be difficult to notice the alarming signals often when it comes to the child's mental health and the functioning of the child,” emphasized Aleksandra Olawska-Szymańska.
Every year, the number of patients who need specialist support is growing, which results from the deterioration of the mental condition of children and adolescents after Pandemic, but also from greater social awareness of the problem.
Last year, over 279,000 young people received support under the NFZ, which means an increase of over 130 percent. compared to 2019. Before Pandemia, the fund for psychiatric benefits for children and adolescents spent PLN 260 million, and now over PLN 1 billion. (PAP)
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