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Delivery of a Mental Health Intervention for Chronic Pain Through an Artificial Intelligence–Enabled App (Wysa): Protocol for a Prospective Pilot Study

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic pain often experience coexisting, long-term and debilitating mental health comorbidities such as depression and anxiety. Artificial intelligence–supported cognitive behavioral therapy (AI-CBT) interventions could offer cost-effective, accessible, and potentially eff...

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Autores principales: Gupta, Megha, Malik, Tanya, Sinha, Chaitali
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9015778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35314423
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/36910
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author Gupta, Megha
Malik, Tanya
Sinha, Chaitali
author_facet Gupta, Megha
Malik, Tanya
Sinha, Chaitali
author_sort Gupta, Megha
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic pain often experience coexisting, long-term and debilitating mental health comorbidities such as depression and anxiety. Artificial intelligence–supported cognitive behavioral therapy (AI-CBT) interventions could offer cost-effective, accessible, and potentially effective resources to address this problem. However, there is not enough research conducted about the efficacy of AI-CBT interventions for chronic pain. OBJECTIVE: This prospective cohort study aims to examine the efficacy and use of an AI-CBT intervention for chronic pain (Wysa for Chronic Pain app, Wysa Inc) using a conversational agent (with no human intervention). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such study for chronic pain using a fully-automated, free-text–based conversational agent. METHODS: Participants with self-reported chronic pain (n=500) will be recruited online on a rolling basis from April 2022 through posts on US-based internet communities within this prospective cohort. Informed consent is received from participants within the app, and the Wysa for Chronic Pain intervention is delivered remotely for 8 weeks. Outcome measures including a numeric pain rating scale and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System–Pain Interference, Generalized Anxiety Disorder–7, and Patient Health Questionnaire–9 questionnaires administered to test the effectiveness of the intervention on reducing levels of pain interference, depression, and anxiety. The therapeutic alliance created with the conversational agent will be assessed through the Working Alliance Inventory–Short Revised instrument. Retention and use statistics will be observed for adherence and engagement. RESULTS: The study will open for recruitment in April 2022, and data collection is expected to be completed by August 2022. The results for the primary outcomes are expected to be published by late 2022. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health conversational agents driven by artificial intelligence could be effective in helping patients with chronic pain learn to self-manage their pain and common comorbidities like depression and anxiety. The Wysa for Chronic Pain app is one such digital intervention that can potentially serve as a solution to the problems of affordability and scalability associated with interventions that include a human therapist. This prospective study examines the efficacy of the app as a treatment solution for chronic pain. It aims to inform future practices and digital mental health interventions for individuals with chronic pain. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/36910
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spelling pubmed-90157782022-04-19 Delivery of a Mental Health Intervention for Chronic Pain Through an Artificial Intelligence–Enabled App (Wysa): Protocol for a Prospective Pilot Study Gupta, Megha Malik, Tanya Sinha, Chaitali JMIR Res Protoc Protocol BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic pain often experience coexisting, long-term and debilitating mental health comorbidities such as depression and anxiety. Artificial intelligence–supported cognitive behavioral therapy (AI-CBT) interventions could offer cost-effective, accessible, and potentially effective resources to address this problem. However, there is not enough research conducted about the efficacy of AI-CBT interventions for chronic pain. OBJECTIVE: This prospective cohort study aims to examine the efficacy and use of an AI-CBT intervention for chronic pain (Wysa for Chronic Pain app, Wysa Inc) using a conversational agent (with no human intervention). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such study for chronic pain using a fully-automated, free-text–based conversational agent. METHODS: Participants with self-reported chronic pain (n=500) will be recruited online on a rolling basis from April 2022 through posts on US-based internet communities within this prospective cohort. Informed consent is received from participants within the app, and the Wysa for Chronic Pain intervention is delivered remotely for 8 weeks. Outcome measures including a numeric pain rating scale and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System–Pain Interference, Generalized Anxiety Disorder–7, and Patient Health Questionnaire–9 questionnaires administered to test the effectiveness of the intervention on reducing levels of pain interference, depression, and anxiety. The therapeutic alliance created with the conversational agent will be assessed through the Working Alliance Inventory–Short Revised instrument. Retention and use statistics will be observed for adherence and engagement. RESULTS: The study will open for recruitment in April 2022, and data collection is expected to be completed by August 2022. The results for the primary outcomes are expected to be published by late 2022. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health conversational agents driven by artificial intelligence could be effective in helping patients with chronic pain learn to self-manage their pain and common comorbidities like depression and anxiety. The Wysa for Chronic Pain app is one such digital intervention that can potentially serve as a solution to the problems of affordability and scalability associated with interventions that include a human therapist. This prospective study examines the efficacy of the app as a treatment solution for chronic pain. It aims to inform future practices and digital mental health interventions for individuals with chronic pain. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/36910 JMIR Publications 2022-03-31 /pmc/articles/PMC9015778/ /pubmed/35314423 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/36910 Text en ©Megha Gupta, Tanya Malik, Chaitali Sinha. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 31.03.2022. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Research Protocols, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.researchprotocols.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Protocol
Gupta, Megha
Malik, Tanya
Sinha, Chaitali
Delivery of a Mental Health Intervention for Chronic Pain Through an Artificial Intelligence–Enabled App (Wysa): Protocol for a Prospective Pilot Study
title Delivery of a Mental Health Intervention for Chronic Pain Through an Artificial Intelligence–Enabled App (Wysa): Protocol for a Prospective Pilot Study
title_full Delivery of a Mental Health Intervention for Chronic Pain Through an Artificial Intelligence–Enabled App (Wysa): Protocol for a Prospective Pilot Study
title_fullStr Delivery of a Mental Health Intervention for Chronic Pain Through an Artificial Intelligence–Enabled App (Wysa): Protocol for a Prospective Pilot Study
title_full_unstemmed Delivery of a Mental Health Intervention for Chronic Pain Through an Artificial Intelligence–Enabled App (Wysa): Protocol for a Prospective Pilot Study
title_short Delivery of a Mental Health Intervention for Chronic Pain Through an Artificial Intelligence–Enabled App (Wysa): Protocol for a Prospective Pilot Study
title_sort delivery of a mental health intervention for chronic pain through an artificial intelligence–enabled app (wysa): protocol for a prospective pilot study
topic Protocol
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9015778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35314423
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/36910
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