Patients who received mental health care augmented by generative artificial intelligence (genAI) attended 42% more therapy sessions and achieved a 25% higher recovery rate versus those who received the standard of care (SoC) alone, a new study has revealed.
A research team including personnel from the department of psychology at London’s King’s College, the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, and UK-based company Limbic, set out under the assumption that a lack of engagement with therapeutic materials and exercises in the form of workbooks between cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) sessions was a key factor of unsuccessful treatment.
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Conducted across five UK National Health Service (NHS) group talk therapy services in England, the team’s study set out to determine if genAI, in the form of Limbic’s genAI-powered chatbot Limbic Care, could help boost patient engagement with therapeutic materials and exercises over a six-session treatment plan, and thereby improve outcomes.
Limbic Care is a chatbot that provides on-demand conversational support and guided CBT interventions.
Enrolling 244 patients, the real-world observational study compared patients who received the SoC, in the form of CBT exercises and workbooks, versus those who also received support and prompts to engage in CBT materials in between sessions by Limbic Care.
In addition to attending 42% more sessions and achieving 25% higher recovery rates, results from the intervention group reflected a decrease in CBT drop-out rates by 23%, increased reliable improvement rates and reliable recovery rates by 21%, and a 15% reduction in Did Not Attend (DNA) rates.
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By GlobalDataCompared to previous research conducted in artificial or highly controlled settings, the study was notable for its evaluation of genAI’s impact in real-world clinical practice as an adjunct to the standard model of care.
Limbic CEO Ross Harper commented: “Demonstrating that genAI can safely and effectively augment real-world mental healthcare across multiple diagnoses within an established national health system represents a major step forward in AI-assisted therapy.
“This isn’t about naive substitution; this research shows that AI can amplify the work of clinicians treating patients right now. It provides hope for our overburdened care systems through fundamental change within existing clinical structures.”
According to a GlobalData market model, the global patient monitoring market, under which chatbots tools such as Limbic Care fall, is forecast to reach a valuation of around $1.82bn by 2033, up from $1.2bn in 2023.
