Acceptability and Effectiveness of Artificial Intelligence Therapy for Anxiety and Depression (Youper): Longitudinal Observational Study (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Youper is a widely used, commercially available mobile app that uses artificial intelligence therapy for the treatment of anxiety and depression. OBJECTIVE Our study examined the acceptability and effectiveness of Youper. Further, we tested the cumulative regulation hypothesis, which posits that cumulative emotion regulation successes with repeated intervention engagement will predict longer-term anxiety and depression symptom reduction. METHODS We examined data from paying Youper users (N=4517) who allowed their data to be used for research. To characterize the acceptability of Youper, we asked users to rate the app on a 5-star scale and measured retention statistics for users’ first 4 weeks of subscription. To examine effectiveness, we examined longitudinal measures of anxiety and depression symptoms. To test the cumulative regulation hypothesis, we used the proportion of successful emotion regulation attempts to predict symptom reduction. RESULTS Youper users rated the app highly (mean 4.36 stars, SD 0.84), and 42.66% (1927/4517) of users were retained by week 4. Symptoms decreased in the first 2 weeks of app use (anxiety: <i>d</i>=0.57; depression: <i>d</i>=0.46). Anxiety improvements were maintained in the subsequent 2 weeks, but depression symptoms increased slightly with a very small effect size (<i>d</i>=0.05). A higher proportion of successful emotion regulation attempts significantly predicted greater anxiety and depression symptom reduction. CONCLUSIONS Youper is a low-cost, completely self-guided treatment that is accessible to users who may not otherwise access mental health care. Our findings demonstrate the acceptability and effectiveness of Youper as a treatment for anxiety and depression symptoms and support continued study of Youper in a randomized clinical trial.

User experience with a parenting chatbot micro intervention

“…Parents who completed the intervention reported a high level of acceptability for each of the items analyzed (i.e., ease of use, comfort, absence of technical problems, interactivity, usefulness in everyday life). These acceptability levels are comparable to those obtained from other digital parenting interventions such as podcasts (38), websites (50), training television (39), and chatbots for other mental health problems (51,52). The conversational nature of the intervention may have contributed to this high level of acceptability.…”

Uso Do Chatbot No Enfrentamento Da Ansiedade: Uma Revisão Integrativa

“…Os usuários de outra inteligência artificial chamada Youper também tiveram grande sucesso em regular suas emoções negativas a cada conversa. Dado o baixo custo e o potencial de ampla disseminação do Youper, essas descobertas são particularmente interessantes, pois fornecem evidências preliminares da eficácia como ferramenta de regulação emocional e tratamento transdiagnóstico (19) . O mesmo estudo apontou que houve diminuição na faixa de gravidade de sintomas negativos em relação à saúde mental.…”

“…O mesmo estudo apontou que houve diminuição na faixa de gravidade de sintomas negativos em relação à saúde mental. Assim, à medida que é compreendido os mecanismos da abordagem da terapia de inteligência artificial e a obter uma maior compreensão de como maximizar o envolvimento dos usuários (19) . saúde mental (20) .…”

“…O maior envolvimento com ele, medido pelo número de respostas enviadas pelo usuário, também prediz menor ansiedade e sintomas depressivos no acompanhamento (15) . Utilizar instrumentos que detectam ansiedade e formas de intervir neste contexto é relevante e necessário (19) . de ansiedade e depressão (19) .…”

“…Utilizar instrumentos que detectam ansiedade e formas de intervir neste contexto é relevante e necessário (19) . de ansiedade e depressão (19) .…”