Artificially intelligent chatbots in digital mental health interventions: a review.

INTRODUCTION: Increasing demand for mental health services and the expanding capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years has driven the development of digital mental health interventions (DMHIs). To date, AI-based chatbots have been integrated into DMHIs to support diagnostics and screening, symptom management and behavior change, and content delivery. AREAS COVERED: We summarize the current landscape of DMHIs, with a focus on AI-based chatbots. Happify Health's AI chatbot, Anna, serves as a case study for discussion of potential challenges and how these might be addressed, and demonstrates the promise of chatbots as effective, usable, and adoptable within DMHIs. Finally, we discuss ways in which future research can advance the field, addressing topics including perceptions of AI, the impact of individual differences, and implications for privacy and ethics. EXPERT OPINION: Our discussion concludes with a speculative viewpoint on the future of AI in DMHIs, including the use of chatbots, the evolution of AI, dynamic mental health systems, hyper-personalization, and human-like intervention delivery.

Narrating the nadir: examining personal and vicarious stories of cancer-related low points among survivors and romantic partners.

Objective: To investigate low point autobiographical narratives among cancer survivors and romantic partners.Design: Cancer survivors (Study 1) and romantic partners (Study 2) narrated the low points of their cancer experiences. Partners also narrated stories of cancer survivors' low points. Narratives were coded for their manifest content, as well as redemption (negative-to-positive arc), contamination (positive-to-negative arc), and tone (positive or negative valence).Main Outcome Measures: Self-reported measures of health and well-being (life satisfaction, cancer-related worry, impact of cancer).Results: The diagnosis moment was the most frequently recognised low point among survivors and partners. Survivors who narrated contaminated low points reported marginally less somatisation, salience of cancer recurrence, and that cancer had a marginally less positive impact, relative to survivors whose narratives did not contain contamination. Tone in partners' low points predicted marginally less worry and more somatisation. The tone of their vicarious low points negatively correlated with anxiety.Conclusion: This research contributes to the growing body of work examining, and giving voice to, the experiences of cancer survivors and those close to them. As such, it informs applied health researchers of potentially challenging cancer-related experiences, and the way(s) in which the storying of these experiences align with psychological flourishing.