Professor Argyris Stringaris on how AI can shape the future of mental health diagnosis and treatment

Like many other areas of health, artificial intelligence is having a big impact on mental health. From helping researchers analyse large datasets and improve prediction, to offering new avenues of therapeutic treatment. In this video, Professor Argyris Stringaris talks about AI’s potential to shape the future of mental health diagnosis and treatment and some of the challenges that we might face.

How do you think advancements in technologies such as AI and machine learning will shape the future of mental health diagnosis and treatment?

AI is already having quite a substantial impact on mental health and one of the biggest impacts is in the area of prediction.

Providing early interventions for mental health is key, and therefore knowing ahead of time who is more likely to develop mental health problems or relapse or respond better to treatment is vital. By using AI to analyse and cut through vast amounts of data we are becoming better at prediction and therefore better at being able to intervene early.

Another way that AI is shaping the future of mental health is through treatment. Interestingly, people don't mind interacting with machines, and so we are seeing developments in the therapeutic domain, whereby very sophisticated and credible bots are able to administer some forms of therapy.

However, with great promise, also comes challenges. As humans we are very used to personal connections with other humans, and so this potential step change in therapy will be an area to watch. And indeed, we will all be watching this space closely over the next few years.

Find out more about how UCL’s Grand Challenge of Mental Health & Wellbeing is addressing the spiralling scale and severity of mental health need through transformative cross-disciplinary research, practice and partnerships for prevention and early intervention.

Biography

Professor Argyris Stringaris is a clinician and neuroscientist. He has been the Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UCL since January 2022 and is a Co-Director of the AIM lab and clinic at UCL. Professor Stringaris is also one of UCL’s Pro-Vice Provosts co-leading the Grand Challenges for Mental Health and Wellbeing. Until 2022, he was a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Section of Clinical and Computational Psychiatry at NIMH/NIH in the USA and was a Senior Lecturer and a Wellcome Trust Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. He trained in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital.