Generative AI-Enabled Therapy Support Tool Improves Clinical Outcomes and Patient Engagement in NHS Talking Therapies

Background

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of therapy that helps people manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Between therapy sessions, patients are given materials to help them practice what they learned in therapy and use it in their daily lives. These materials are typically worksheets patients fill out on paper or on a computer. However, sometimes patients forget or don't complete the worksheets, so we wanted to find a better way to help them. To help with this, we wanted to study whether our AI care companion, Limbic Care, could help patients better use these materials. Limbic Care is more interactive and personalised than the worksheets, and we wanted to understand if it would also support patients' therapy engagement and therefore treatment outcomes.

Methods

Limbic Care was used in several Everyturn mental health services across the UK to provide interactive support to patients between therapy sessions. In our study, we compared 150 patients who used Limbic Care with 94 who did not use the AI tool. The results were promising. We found that the app significantly influenced engagement with therapy, such as the number of therapy sessions attended, the proportion of sessions patients missed, and the rate at which patients dropped out of therapy. Moreover, patients' mental health improvements were substantial, with reliable improvement, recovery rates and reliable recovery rates showing significant progress. Most notably, we observed that patients who actively engaged with the app for therapeutic materials experienced even better therapy results. This approach helped us understand the app's real-world effectiveness in supporting mental health therapy.

Results

The study found that people who used Limbic Care engaged more with treatment and, therefore, had better treatment outcomes. People who used Limbic Care attended two more therapy sessions, missed fewer sessions and were less likely to stop therapy. They had a 21 percentage point higher rate of improvement, a 25 percentage point higher recovery rate, and a 21 percentage point higher reliable recovery rate compared to the patients who did not use it. In addition, those who used Limbic Care more and completed more in-between session materials had better outcomes. The tool was beneficial in ensuring that individuals engaged with the treatment, leading to improved treatment outcomes.

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_15%
Lower proportion of Did Not Attends

_23%
Reduction in drop out rate

_21%
Increase in Reliable Improvement

_21%
Increase in Reliable Recovery

Conclusions

The study shows that digital tools and AI can effectively support CBT between sessions to ensure patients get the most out of their treatment. In addition, it is also helpful for mental health services that experience missed appointments and dropouts from treatment. Limbic Care is a cost-effective tool that can create around £228 based on observed recovery improvement. Therefore, integrating digital AI-enabled products, such as Limbic Care, can lead to positive outcomes for patients and mental health services.