Therapist on Tap? Therabot Makes the Couch Optional
If an AI gives better therapy than your last psychologist, should we still be charging $200 an hour for a human with a clipboard?
Dartmouth’s clinical trial of Therabot shows AI can match certified therapists in treating depression and anxiety. The app led to a 51% drop in depression symptoms and up to 31% reduction in anxiety, comparable to gold-standard care.
Users with body image struggles also saw meaningful improvement. I’ve long believed that access and affordability are broken in healthcare; this result puts scale back on the table:
- Therabot reduced depressive symptoms significantly.
- Anxiety and eating disorder risks improved measurably.
- Patients rated it “comparable to human therapists.”
We face a crossroads: democratise access through AI or risk overcorrecting with machines we can’t fully trust. This isn’t about replacing therapists. It’s about extending their reach. But what happens when empathy is programmed and a misstep costs a life?
Read the full article on Digital Trends.
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