The Future of Mental Health Technology

Though the impact our digital habits have on mental health may be increasingly grabbing the spotlight, there’s less talk about how these same technologies may one day be used to revolutionize how we treat mental illness. From chatbots that provide therapeutic conversation to apps that can monitor phone use to diagnose psychosis or manic episodes, medical providers now have new technological tools to supplement their first-hand interactions with patients. Even virtual reality, a technology that has yet to find its footing in popular entertainment, is making waves in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

These technologies are evolving rapidly—more rapidly than their regulation. Are we on the verge of a new era in psychiatric care, or will these treatments go the way of other now-condemned methods? Can algorithms reinvent our understanding of depression, anxiety, addiction, and other psychological issues, or at least make them easier to treat? Or is the industry known for "moving fast and breaking things” essentially at odds with a field governed by an oath “to first, do no harm”? 

On September 28, Future Tense met in Washington, D.C. to consider how innovations in technology are reimagining the way we treat mental illness.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University.

Agenda:

Your Chatbot Therapist Will See You Now featuring Dr. John Torous, Codirector, Digital Psychiatry Program at the Beth Israel Deaconess, Harvard Medical School; Dr. Steven Chan, Clinical Informatics Fellow, UC San Francisco, Hospital Medicine & Psychiatry; and David Dobbs, Journalist. Moderated by Torie Bosch, Editor, Future Tense

Virtual Reality, Real Healing featuring Skip Rizzo, PhD, Director, Institute for Creative Technologies at US Research Professor, USC Davis School of Gerontology and USC Keck School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

How Computer Science is Reinventing Psychiatry featuring Skip Rizzo, PhD, Director, Institute for Creative Technologies at USC, Research Professor, USC Davis School of Gerontology and USC Keck School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Munmun de Choudhury, PhD, Assistant Professor, The School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech; and, Dr. Sarah Fineberg, PhD, Instructor, Yale University Department of Psychiatry. Moderated by Torie Bosch, Editor, Future Tense