The Use Of The Socially Assistive Robot (SAR) “Pepper” In Prevention And Treatment Of Psychiatric Diseases – Project Descriptions

Background: Digital applications are having a long-lasting impact on our day-to-day lives, and digital technologies like robots are becoming increasingly omnipresent in our modern world. In the psychiatric setting the SAR “Pepper” holds a lot of potential. Objectives: Project 1: The aim of this study is to test the acceptance of “Pepper” by acute psychiatric inpatients. Project 2: The aim of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of “Pepper” in schools to strengthen students’ mental health by developing healthy learning strategies. Method: Project 1: The study will be conducted at the Clinical Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapeutic Medicine in Graz, Austria between July 2023 and December 2024. Participants perform various tasks like psychoeducation, cognitive training or games which are guided by the SAR Pepper. After each task, participants complete online questionnaires that assess the acceptance of each exercise. Project 2: The project will be conducted at schools in Austria between September 2023 and 2024. The students will be divided into 2 groups. The SAR intervention group will receive digital learning content on the SAR Pepper and get suggestions from the robot for breaks and relaxation exercises during the learning session. The other half of the class will receive the same content, but taught by a teacher. The two groups will be compared and evaluated. Results: The study protocol, study design and the methodology of both projects will be presented at the Psych Congress 2023. Conclusion: New technologies bring great benefits in psychiatry and therefore should be evaluated.