Mental Health Assessment Made Smarter: Promising 3-Stage AI Tech

Disclaimer: I am not a mental health expert, nor I am in a knowledgeable position about the subject. There is no advice in the following text and the content is not sponsored. The content is purely for informational and entertainment purposes. The content here is focused on the technology behind the innovation since this is a tech website. All actions taken on their health or in the usage of the mentioned product are under the responsibility of the reader.

Mental Health diagnosis and treatments are one of the most sensitive topics when it comes to improvements, changes, and personalization. As someone who went to a therapist before, I have heard complaints about long gaps between sessions, being unable to express your problems properly, and not conveying the situation to the expert in a way that can tell the whole picture of one’s life. Now, scientists are coming up with a technology that uses videogames, data-gathering, and AI technology to improve your assessments in a more fluid and seamless way under the name “Thymia”.

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How does the mental health assessment technology work?

According to their website “Thymia.ai”, existing mental health assessment procedures are inefficient and clunky to integrate into. And they say, “There is no standardized way to monitor patients at home.” This means that there is a gap between clinicians and their patients in terms of information. As for what Thymia does in their words, the company says:

We use video games based on Neuropsychology together with analyses of facial microexpressions & speech patterns to make mental health assessments faster, more accurate and objective.

On the company’s website, they also talk about the “3 Stage Approach” they have. The customers log into the platform, take their baseline assessment, then talk with an expert, and then allow the AI to monitor them for the constant influx of information. Which makes assessments much more accurate and treatments much easier to follow. The company also claims that it helps to follow if the treatments are working or not.

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What are some concerns?

With all the video, sound, and videogame data (or user data in general) collected, the company has a huge burden of privacy and security of them. However, on their website, they express that they “are fully compliant with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and have the highest level of cybersecurity certifications allowing us to work with NHS patients (NHS Toolkit; ISO27001).” With these certifications, they seem to be mostly secure. However, always do your own research and see if it fits since it is about your mental health, it is up to you, the reader, to make decisions on your health and I am not advising anything.

Another thing is that users may feel a little bit creeped out because of the whole data collection and tracking part since some people are not very comfortable with sharing their information, especially if it is going to be shared online. Even though it is an AI and your chosen clinician, it may seem a little too weird for some people.

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The future

Everyone is a little bit tired because of what the pandemic, job environments, or the turmoil in our life bring to us. Our mental health is also inevitably affected, and seeing some people work on it so that your mental health care is more seamless creates a good alternative for some. Despite the fact, people can only request a demo for now that means there is still room for a lot of improvement. And I do not even know if their claims are met in their programs or if they are overpromising or not.

However, assessing mental health from video games, your daily activities and similar data is a very futuristic concept. There are a lot of improvements in many areas of medicine with a lot of interesting technological ideas like my previous article, Biomanufacturing in Zero Gravity Can Be the New-Age Medicine: Thrilling Report. Anyways, always put your mental health first!