Elomia - Digital Mental Health and Well-Being

Elomia is a generative AI program that can respond to text users type in with unique responses that are designed to address therapeutic targets like stress, anxiety, procrastination, feeling overwhelmed and so on. Elomia was "trained" by real therapists with expertise in cognitive-behavioral therapy who responded to many different real people typing about their concerns. Thus, Elomia can suggest a number of different evidence based therapeutic strategies and can help the user process negative feelings, think through problems, plan solutions, and trouble shoot things that might get in the way of implementing those strategies. Elomia's arsenal includes:

• exercises for calming;
• exercises for falling asleep;
• grounding techniques;
• exercises to reduce anxiety;
• breathing exercises;
• exercises to improve self-esteem. The algorithm determines the user's need for one or another type of help while communicating with the chatbot and suggests an exercise to ease their emotional state. Elomia is not a substitute for professional care, and will detect when a person needs something more than a chatbot and will suggest connecting with other resources. More information about Elomia can be found via this website: https://elomia.com/

The ultimate goal of this study is to explore whether a mental health chatbot is acceptable and can improve symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and promote general psychological well-being in college students. The investigators will compare Elomia to a curated collection of digital wellness resources that are typically provided to students at our University.

Inclusion criteria

• Undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.
• At least 18 years of age.

Exclusion criteria

• Severe depression or suicidality as indicated by Beck Depression Inventory score of >= 30, and/or a score of 2 or 3 on the Item (the suicide item) of the Beck Depression Inventory