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This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

Opinion: Viewpoints, Columns, and Perspectives (31) Digital Mental Health Interventions, e-Mental Health and Cyberpsychology (3321) Chatbots and Conversational Agents (1210) Generative Language Models Including ChatGPT (1600) Foundation Models and Their Applications in AI (123) Theme Issue 2025: AI-Powered Therapy Bots and Virtual Companions in Digital Mental Health (89)

Published on in Vol 17 (2025)

Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/69534, first published .
Hands holding a smartphone displaying a chat interface with text messages.

Is This Chatbot Safe and Evidence-Based? A Call for the Critical Evaluation of Generative AI Mental Health Chatbots

Is This Chatbot Safe and Evidence-Based? A Call for the Critical Evaluation of Generative AI Mental Health Chatbots

Authors of this article:

Acacia Parks1 Author Orcid Image ;   Eoin Travers1 Author Orcid Image ;   Ramesh Perera-Delcourt1 Author Orcid Image ;   Max Major1 Author Orcid Image ;   Marcos Economides1 Author Orcid Image ;   Phil Mullan1 Author Orcid Image
Article Authors Cited by (13) Tweetations Metrics

Journals

  1. Olla P, Wodwaski N, Long T. Beyond the Bot: A Dual-Phase Framework for Evaluating AI Chatbot Simulations in Nursing Education. Nursing Reports 2025;15(8):280 View
  2. Fattouh D. Shifting from social media to AI Chatbots: Saying goodbye to digital mental harms?. Strategic Business Research 2025;1(1):100011 View
  3. Li J, Shi C. Who do we follow online? An experimental study on source clarity and social proximity in digital health communication. Frontiers in Public Health 2025;13 View
  4. Ostermann M, Freyer O, Verhees F, Kather J, Gilbert S. If a therapy bot walks like a duck and talks like a duck then it is a medically regulated duck. npj Digital Medicine 2025;8(1) View
  5. Duffourc M, Verhees F, Gilbert S. Artificial intelligence characters are dangerous without legal guardrails. Nature Human Behaviour 2025;10(2):218 View
  6. Sobowale K, Humphrey D, Zhao S. Evaluating Generative AI Psychotherapy Chatbots Used by Youth: Cross-Sectional Study. JMIR Mental Health 2025;12:e79838 View
  7. MAZARAKI N, KORTUKOVA T. TOWARDS RESPONSIBLE AI IN LEGAL SERVICES:THE CASE FOR REGULATING CHATBOTS. Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Legal Studies 2025;(130):58 View
  8. Dev V, Consedine N, Boggiss A, Serlachius A. A systematic review of the use of artificial intelligence in mental health–based diabetes care: Current applications and future directions. Diabetic Medicine 2026;43(9) View
  9. Lamb E, Bystra T, Aillaud D, De Matas J. Epistemic Trust and the Problem of Shared Reality in Fictionalized CAI. The American Journal of Bioethics 2026;26(5):106 View
  10. Shim R. Why AI’s Mental Health Risks Demand Regulation Now. JAMA Health Forum 2026;7(7):e263056 View
  11. Cantor J, Huang E, Zhang L, Salas A, Zhang F, Burnett A, Lohn A, Pataranutaporn P, Rader B, Yu H, McBain R. Suicide-Related Responses from AI Chatbots through APIs and Consumer-Facing Apps: Comparative Study (Preprint). Journal of Medical Internet Research 2026 View
  12. Dev V, Consedine N, Gao Y, Narayanasamy R, Serlachius A. A scoping review of the use of artificial intelligence as a psychological assessment tool. Translational Psychiatry 2026;16(1) View
  13. Golden A, Aboujaoude E. Toward a Living Meta-Framework for Evaluating Generative AI in Mental Health (Preprint). JMIR AI 2025 View