Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Mental Health Care

This post is offered as a concise overview of important advances in artificial intelligence that will soon impact the way mental health care is practiced in day to day clinical settings. The result will be more individualized treatment incorporating both conventional and evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities, more effective and more cost-effective treatments of many common mental health problems, and improved outcomes. To have practical clinical utility in medicine and mental health care, an AI system must encompass machine-learning software capable of processing very large volumes of structured data, and natural language processing (NLP) software capable of mining unstructured data such as narrative text in electronic health records and medical imaging data. To assist health-care providers with clinical decision-making, the AI system must be'trained' to a requisite level of expertise within a particular domain of medical knowledge. Following completion of training, it is vital to keep the supply of pertinent medical data current.