Meet your new therapist - your understanding computer

An innovative new computer program called Beating the Blues claims to be able to help patients suffering from depression and anxiety. But can a machine really be a replacement for face-to-face treatment? Steve Boggan investigates

Published: 16 January 2002

" Douglas Adams will be laughing in his grave and Arthur C Clarke could be forgiven for saying 'I told you so,' but at the Priory Clinic they're deadly serious: they have installed a computer to treat patients for depression and anxiety. Not since Marvin, Adams's depressed robot in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Clarke's HAL, the paranoid computer of 2001: A Space Odyssey, has science fiction seemed so crazy. But this is science fact, and it works. The north London branch of the clinic, better known for helping the rich and famous deal with their addictions, is trialing an interactive therapy system where patients sit at a console and learn to identify and manage their problems through two-way communication with the computer. ... If their condition seems to be cause for concern, the computer alerts a clinician. ... 'In the past, people found it difficult to use computers, but you could argue now that they feel more comfortable with a computer than with a therapist,' said Rob Wilson, the Priory's CBT co-ordinator. 'They feel they can tell a computer things they wouldn't tell another person, and that helps....'"

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