Social Robots in Psychiatry for Patients Suffering from Major Depression-A Pilot Study

Since the coronavirus pandemic in 2019, interest in implementing and establishing digital media, for example, in the form of humanoid social robots, in everyday psychiatric and psychotherapeutic practice has grown enormously.

Thirty patients with depressive disorders (24 men and 6 women, mean age [standard deviation]: 39.1 [14.4] and 30 healthy subjects (14 men and 16 women, mean age [standard deviation]: 33.1 [14.2]) were videotaped in a standardised experimental setting while interacting with the robot "Pepper" and completed questionnaires about their attitudes and experiences with it for comparative analysis.

There was no significant difference between the depressed patients and the healthy subjects in their individual statements on the robot's user-friendliness (system usability scale). Overall, patients reported that they could imagine using Pepper more, even though they did not find it easy to use, understand or master in practical applications, but they felt safer in its presence than healthy subjects. There were significant differences in the statements that the depressed patients attributed less human-like attributes to the robot and considered it less of an interesting enrichment in life in general.

Some initial studies and our findings on experiences and attitudes towards the use of a social robot suggest that depressed patients do not differ significantly from healthy subjects in their assessment of the robot's user-friendliness or in their critical but favourable attitude towards it. Despite all skepticism, also in Germany, patients with depressive disorders appear to be receptive to robot applications, so further clinical expansion of the robot use is recommended.