Digital Support for Mental Health Intervention in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Purpose
This is a small, exploratory study that will investigate using an artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR), digital wellness application (app) to deliver a mental health support session in outpatient and hospitalized patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and co-existing symptoms of mild to moderate anxiety or depression. The purpose of this study is to explore if a mental health support session using the app is feasible, safe, and acceptable to IBD patients and whether it could possibly help with physical and comorbid psychological symptoms of these patients.
Conditions
- Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Ulcerative Colitis
- Crohn Disease
Eligibility
- Eligible Ages
- Over 18 Years
- Eligible Genders
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria
- 18+ years of age - Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative Colitis) - English-speaking - Patients with score of 5-14 on General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) questionnaire or 5-19 on Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) within 3 months - Able to provide written consent
Exclusion Criteria
- Unwilling and/or unable to participate - Non-English speakers - Self-reported history of severe motion sickness - The presence of a facial/head deformity that will prohibit comfortably wearing of a VR headset - Legally blind or deaf - Having had a seizure in the past year - Unable to understand the instructions or to consent to participation in the study. - Those who are pregnant
Study Design
- Phase
- N/A
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- N/A
- Intervention Model
- Single Group Assignment
- Primary Purpose
- Other
- Masking
- None (Open Label)
Arm Groups
| Arm | Description | Assigned Intervention |
|---|---|---|
|
Experimental Patients with IBD who self-report mild to moderate levels of anxiety or depression |
|
Recruiting Locations
More Details
- Status
- Recruiting
- Sponsor
- University of Chicago
Detailed Description
The mental health support session is delivered by a virtual reality digital wellness application (app). The app is a Chat GPT-4 powered AI and VR platform called XAIA (eXtended reality Artificially Intelligent Ally). [Chat GPT is an AI program that generates dialogue.] The app is publicly available on the Apple Vision Pro (a VR tool). It was developed by a group of providers, including a psychiatrist, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to devise a scalable solution for the increasing demand for mental wellness experiences. The application uses the combination of an AI-powered virtual avatar, named "XAIA," and a VR environment to deliver immersive and personalized mental health support in mixed-reality environments. This is a mixed method study with primarily a qualitative focus. Patients with IBD who self-report mild to moderate levels of anxiety or depression will be invited to try a single AI-VR mental health support session using the XAIA app. Participant observations, experiences, and opinions of the application will be collected through surveys and semi-structured interviews. Pre- and post- session pain and state anxiety scores will be collected.
