Abstracts Education

Desenvolvimento de um chatbot de psicoeducação para transtornos de adaptação em pacientes internados em hospitais gerais

by José Bernardo Ramos Boeira Júnior

Introduction: Adjustment disorders can be defined as a non-adaptive response to an identifiable stressor. Adjustment disorders are very prevalent in non-psychiatric patients admitted to general hospitals, and can, if not managed properly, worsen the patient's prognosis. The approach to adjustment disorders in the hospital setting is not a consensus and, often, patients end up not receiving or receiving inadequate treatment. According to literature, a well-established option for treating adjustment disorders is psychoeducation. Within mental health, chatbots have been identified as tools for different purposes. Chatbots are computer programs capable of exchanging messages with human beings, simulating a conversation, being able to bring information quickly and according to the user's interest. Objective: To create the proof of concept of a chatbot able to perform interventions based on psychoeducation for adjustment disorders in clinical patients admitted in general hospitals. Methods: The project was carried out in six stages. In the first one, a narrative review was carried out to collect content on adjustment disorders and psychoeducation for adjustment disorders to be incorporated into the tool. Then the first version of the chatbot was developed (step 2). After its creation, the chatbot had its content evaluated by a panel of experts (step 3) and was redesigned based on the feedback obtained (step 4). Its usability was then evaluated by patients admitted in a general hospital (step 5) and, finally, in the last step (step 6), the development of the final version of the tool was carried out Results: Based on the studied literature and the proposed method, a chatbot based on conversational flow was developed with the objective to perform psychoeducation for adjustment disorders in individuals hospitalized in general hospitals. For this, an avatar was created as a virtual representation of the bot, called D.A.P.T.A. It has the function of interacting with the user, explain how the tool works and present the different topics available. The tool was didactically divided into sections based on established psychoeducation precepts and addresses what is psychoeducation, the definition of adjustment disorders, their symptoms, treatment, clinical course, among others. The product had its content evaluated and approved by a panel of experts using the Instrumento de Validação de Conteúdo Educativo em Saúde and its usability evaluated and approved by patients admitted in a general hospital using the System Usability Scale. The final product is an interactive chatbot with the purpose of performing psychoeducation for adjustment disorders in clinical patients admitted in general hospitals. Conclusion: The development of this chatbot allowed us to glimpse new possibilities in patient care. Our perception is that bots could play a key role in the management of psychiatric disorders and be an important complement to traditional approaches.