Treatment AI chatbot Significant symptom improvement effect in depression and anxiety counseling clinical trial
Mar 28, 2025
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This is the result of a study by Professor Nicholas Jacobson of Dartmouth University in the medical journal New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM AI) on the 27th (local time). The research team said it obtained positive results after the first clinical trial of more than 100 patients with depression, anxiety, and eating disorders in the mental disease treatment chatbot 'Terabot'.
TerraBot is a Generative AI-based therapeutic chatbot developed by researchers at Dartmouth University in collaboration with psychologists and psychiatrists since 2019, allowing users to consult with TerraBot avatars about their conditions in an open text conversation format using the app. The research team believes that AI treatment chatbots have the potential to provide large-scale customized mental health treatments while solving user participation and maintenance problems that are common in digital treatments.
In the first clinical trial of TerraBot, which lasted for eight weeks in 106 patients diagnosed with real major depressive disorders (MDD), generalized anxiety disorders (GAD), or eating disorders (ED), patients answered questions or had conversations they wanted about their feelings via text messages with TerraBot through a smartphone app.
Examination of participants' symptoms after eight weeks of terabot use showed that the major depressive disorder had an average decrease in symptoms by 51%, with clinically significant improvements in mood and overall psychological state. In addition, the symptoms of pan-anxiety disorder decreased by an average of 31%, many of whom improved from moderate to mild anxiety and from mild to below clinical diagnostic criteria. In the case of eating disorders, concerns about body shape and weight decreased by an average of 19%, which is a significantly higher reduction rate than the control group without terabots. In addition, the therapeutic alliance, which is an essential trust and cooperation relationship for successful treatment between patients and terabots, was formed at a level similar to that of face-to-face medical staff.
The research team believes that the effect of improving symptoms in clinical trials is similar to that reported in existing outpatient treatments, and predicts that AI treatment chatbots can help manage the mental health of people who cannot use the face-to-face care system.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
