Washington, Oct 13 (PTI) A virtual interviewer is morelikely to make people open up about post-traumatic stressdisorder (PTSD), as anonymity with social connection helpspatients reveal more about their mental health symptoms, astudy has found.
Soldiers who have experienced combat can develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which includes disturbingthoughts, feelings and dreams.
The stigma around mental health problems means thattroops can be reluctant to admit to symptoms or seek help.
"Allowing PTSD to go untreated can potentially havedisastrous consequences, including suicide attempts," saidGale Lucas of the University of Southern California in the US.
Following a tour of duty, the US military assesses themental health of its troops in a written survey called thePost-Deployment Health Assessment (PDHA), which measures PTSDsymptoms.
However, the results can affect a soldier's careerprospects in the military. This means they may be reluctant tobe completely honest.
Previous studies have shown that people are often morelikely to provide sensitive information in anonymous surveys,as they feel safer and less exposed.
However, human interviewers can build rapport withinterviewees, which is not possible in an anonymous survey.
When an interviewer forms a social connection with aninterviewee, they often open up more easily.
A computer-generated 'human' interviewer could provide asolution that combines the rapport-building skills of realhuman interviewers with the feelings of anonymity and safetyprovided by anonymous surveys.
Such virtual interviewers can use a variety of techniquesto build rapport, including a welcoming expression andposture, and being attentive and responsive.
Researchers tested a virtual interviewer in a group ofsoldiers following a year-long deployment in Afghanistan.
The troops underwent their official survey, and thencompleted an anonymous version by selecting answers on acomputer.
They also underwent an anonymous interview with a virtualinterviewer, who built rapport before asking them questionsabout common post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Strikingly, the troops revealed significantly more PTSDsymptoms to the virtual interviewer than in either of thesurveys.
The research team repeated the experiment in a largergroup of soldiers and veterans, this time comparing only theanonymous survey and an anonymous interview with a virtualinterviewer.
In this second experiment, soldiers and veterans withmilder symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder opened upand disclosed more symptoms to the virtual interviewercompared to the anonymous survey.
This suggests that virtual interviews could help touncover PTSD symptoms that current interview techniques cannot detect and help soldiers access much-needed treatments.
"These kinds of technologies could provide soldiers asafe way to get feedback about their risks for post-traumaticstress disorder," said Lucas.
"By receiving anonymous feedback from a virtual humaninterviewer that they are at risk for PTSD, they could beencouraged to seek help without having their symptoms flaggedon their military record," he said. PTI MHN SARMHN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.