Artificial intelligence in psychiatry: issues and questions

Several recent research prototypes and applications are discussed with the goal of identifying key issues and open questions for further research and discussion. Special opportunities and challenges presented by the psychiatric domain are identified, and an attempt is made to relate artificial intelligence issues in the psychiatric domain with current trends in other domains. The author maintains that one of the most promising application areas is clinical monitoring, which, instead of giving advice, provides the clinician with information alerts calling attention to clinical situations that require the physician´s attention. Another promising area identified is quality assurance monitoring, which represents an institutional or peer group activity to ensure that patients receive the best care possible