A scoping review on the mental health harms of LLM-based chatbots
NPJ digital medicine, 2026
Mapungraded
- Design
- Scoping review (evidence map)
- Risk of bias
- Some concerns
- Sample
- Not reported
- AI type
- General-purpose assistants
- Outcomes
- Psychosis, Mood, Dependence, Self-harm
Authors' conclusion
“Problematic use of LLM-based chatbots, marked by symptoms of emotional or social dependency and withdrawal, correlates with mental health symptoms. Articles on AI psychosis propose several potential links between delusional beliefs and LLM-based chatbot use, such as risks of chatbots reinforcing and validating delusional beliefs.This structured, integrative overview shows that theoretical and empirical work identify various hypothetical and observed harms associated with the use of LLM chatbots in mental health.”Quoted verbatim from the abstract.
Draft grade. Level and risk of bias were assigned by our agent and await expert review. How we grade
Read the paper →DOI 10.1038/s41746-026-03054-xRelated
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