Hello and welcome back to Headlines, your weekly dispatch on what’s happening in mental health. And a special hello to the 280+ new folks who have joined us since last week! :)

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This week, we’re diving into the AI therapy discourse, looking at troubling stats from the youth mental health crisis, and considering the future of telemedicine. Lots to explore.

THE AI THERAPY DEBATE

The first time I tried ChatGPT, I asked it to hold a session with me as a therapist.

I was impressed by its capabilities. “AI is going to revolutionize mental health,” I tweeted after my experiment.

A few months later, the AI therapy discourse has blown up — and gotten prickly to boot. Let’s break it down. 

ROBOT REMEDY

AI in mental health is nothing new. Providing instant responses 24/7, lending a nonjudgmental robot ear, and doing all the above for a fraction of what an in-person session would cost, chatbots are improving access and affordability across the space.

Companies like Wysa and Woebot have raised hundreds of millions in collective funding, and their products are already being used to fill the gap when mental health resources, like therapists, are scarce. 

GPT HAS ENTERED THE CHAT

Enter ChatGPT. With the introduction of a powerful new large language model (LLM), the AI therapy discourse has been reignited as people enthusiastically DIY engineer all sorts of experiments:

• Dan Shipper, CEO of newsletter company Every, has leveraged GPT to guide his journal entries, interpret his dreams, and drive personal growth. 

• Others have trained GPT as a tool to talk to their inner child, leverage Internal Family Systems-inspired coaching, or even script their meditation videos. 

Then came the Koko controversy. 

Earlier this month, Rob Morris, co-founder of behavioral platform Koko, posted on Twitter that he and his team used GPT to provide mental health support to around 4K patients. The catch? The bot support had taken place without their knowledge.  

The thread went viral, and the backlash was swift. 

Commenters deemed the experiment “deeply unethical” and “irresponsible” for not providing informed consent. Though Morris quickly penned a new thread to clarify what he described as “large misperceptions,” the damage was done. Controversy erupted.

Zooming out, there are persisting concerns around AI tools regarding bias and privacy. Elsewhere, a 2021 paper found that bots may help out in the short term but actually lead to more isolation in the long term. 

TAKEAWAY

It’s tough to determine whether mental health bots really work, or whether they’re exacerbating the problem. Studies to support their efficacy are mostly conducted by the companies who built them. 

But with the rise of self-guided GPT therapy, it seems that the use of AI for mental health is here to stay. Condoned or not, they’re already filling in therapeutically on some level — and that’s powerful. As AI evolves, future iterations could have an even bigger impact on our emotional journeys. 

Punchline: It’s unlikely that bots will displace human therapists anytime soon. But used ethically and properly, AI therapy could serve as a resource for less-severe mental health challenges, freeing up practitioners to focus on providing deep, individualized attention. And that requires an intimate, human approach — far beyond what AI is current capable of. 

QUICK HITS

• Leading the charge. Australia is becoming the world’s first country to legalize psychedelics as medicine; the change will take place this July. 

• Working together. Therapists at mental health startup Resilience Lab voted to unionize — the first-ever successful organizing effort at a digital health co. 

• Branching out. Headspace Health is expanding its workplace mental healthcare services to international markets, starting with the UK. 

• Brewing tea. Numinus Wellness received the green light from Health Canada to assess the safety and clinical efficacy of magic mushroom tea. 

• Powering down. Mental health app provider Mindstrong is ceasing patient services, closing its HQ, and laying off 127 employees, including the CEO. 

NEWS & TRENDS

1) The kids aren’t alright 

According to the latest poll from the Pew Research Center, parents are now more worried about their kids’ mental health than gun violence, bullying, kidnapping, or drugs/alcohol. 40% of parents are “extremely” or “very worried” that their children will struggle with anxiety or depression. 

The youth mental health crisis is a massive and growing concern. We may be clear from the worst of the pandemic, but the disruption has wreaked lasting havoc on kids’ mental and behavioral well-being. Stepping in, kid-oriented platforms like Elemy, Daybreak Health, and Brightline have landed hundreds of millions from VCs— but we’ll need a lot more than digital apps to treat the crisis. Read: A lot more outside play; a lot less inside screen.→ Read more

2)  Telemedicine: your time is up?

With the approaching end of the White House’s national COVID-19 public health emergency, many are wondering about the fate of telemedicine prescriptions. 

For context, 2020’s emergency declaration waived the Ryan Haight Act, which requires practitioners to conduct an in-person evaluation before prescribing controlled substances, such as Adderall or ketamine. 

But with nationwide lockdowns, the FDA relaxed rules, opening the door for companies to prescribe substances remotely — and cuing the rise of DTC prescription companies like Cerebral, Mindbloom, and more. 

So, what’s next for telemedicine? Some think a return to past regulations would do well to hedge against diagnosis-happy prescription dispensers, but others note that the waiver has also led to a lot of good. The APA and 71 other organizations sent a letter to the DEA and HHS last March, calling for a permanent removal of Ryan Haight regulations. 

Hopefully, there can be a middle ground — one that recognizes the benefits of telemedicine while balancing it with proper protections for patients.

DEALS & DEBUTS

🧠 Alto Neuroscience, a precision psychiatry company, announced a $60M Series B extension from Alpha Wave and K2 HealthVentures. Alto evaluates brain biomarkers with wearables, EEG activity, genetics, behavioral task performance, and other factors to develop new treatments for mental health conditions. → source 

💊 Irwin Naturals, a nutraceuticals company, secured $40M to expand its chain of psychedelic clinics. The move comes after its January acquisition of Braxia Scientific and numerous rollups of ketamine clinics across the country. → source

✨ NOCD, an obsessive-compulsive disorder treatment provider, raised $34M in funding in a round led by Cigna Ventures and 7wireVentures. The startup provides exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy for OCD and plans to expand its therapist workforce with the funds.→ source

🗨️ AnswersNow, a virtual autism therapy provider, landed $11M in Series A round led by Left Lane Capital. The platform pairs families with a dedicated clinician for behavioral therapy sessions and plans to expand territory and headcount with the funds.. → source

🩹 Revive Therapeutics, an R&D life sciences company, entered a research collaboration agreement with PharmaTher, a psychedelic pharmaceuticals development firm, to evaluate MDMA delivery via a transdermal microneedle patch. 

🪑🪑 Two Chairs, a hybrid behavioral healthcare company, launched new measurement-based care (MBC) capabilities for its clinicians. The platform leverages MBC (the use of repeated, validated measures to track symptoms and outcomes) to create “mental health snapshots.”→ source 

💵 Satori Capital, a “conscious capital” investment firm, launched Satori Neuro, a new business focused on companies developing innovative solutions for mental health. → source

🐶 Kona, an employee mental health tool built for Slack, launched Kona Chat, a GPT-powered support bot for remote employees. → source

WHAT I’M READING

• Are more people depressed and anxious, or are we just more willing to talk about it? “It’s likely that someone who may have been hesitant to report their depression symptoms to a national survey worker in 2005 is willing to do so now,” writes Laura Newberry. TLDR — it’s probably both. → LA Times

• What happens when you lose a layer of your ego after a 5-MeO-DMT trip? Sasha Chapin pens an expressive, detailed trip report on his experience with the powerful drug. → sashachapin.substack.com

That’s all for the week! Thanks for reading.

Fun fact: I moved out of LA this week after 7+ years and sold my desk and desk chair… let’s just say I had to get a little creative when I was writing this week.

Alright. Wishing you a great start to the first week of February. Til next Sunday!

-Mel 

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