Child Mental Health in the Age of AI: Clinical Applications and Ethical Reflections

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making useful changes in field of child and adolescent mental health. The current review aims to look at use of AI in child psychiatry, with an emphasis on disorders including neurodevelopmental disorders, mood disorders, psychosis and suicide prevention. AI methods like machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) have shown promise in detecting early behavioral and neurobiological signs using home videos, neuroimaging, wearable technology, and electronic health information. AI-powered chatbots and virtual reality-based tests are already being utilized for diagnosis and treatment. AI has also demonstrated a high degree of predictive accuracy in suicide prevention by analyzing social media content and clinical data. Despite these advances, AI use in child mental health poses significant ethical challenges. For AI to be genuinely transformational, the emphasis on growing research must be accompanied with a high standard of responsibility, patient rights protection, inter-disciplinary collaboration, and clinician oversight.