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Cited by 91Digital Mental Health InterventionsArtificial Intelligence in Healthcare and EducationPsychotherapy Techniques and Applications

The usefulness of ChatGPT for psychotherapists and patients

Open access
Raile, Paolo·2024·Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
DOI 10.1057/s41599-023-02567-0
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Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a topic that is currently (in spring of 2023) repeatedly producing headlines in all media worldwide. One update follows the next, areas of application are being tried out and developed, and there exist innumerable warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence, which has already arrived in the field of psychotherapy (e.g., Aktan et al., 2022 ; Cioffi et al., 2022 ; Sedlakova and Trachsel, 2022 ). Some psychotherapists offer AI-assisted psychotherapy (Helgadottir and Menzies, 2023 ), and a frequently asked question is whether AI chatbots can become the psychotherapists of the future (Wei, 2023 ). Commonly cited examples of psychotherapeutic applications in which AI might be useful relate to psychotherapeutic treatments which are manualized (e.g., Creed et al., 2022 ; Piette et al., 2022 ). AI can design a treatment plan adapted to answers to certain diagnostic questions, which patients (with or without therapeutic support) can follow. For example, a group of researchers in China developed a chatbot to help treat patients with anxiety disorders who take anxiolytics. The chatbot includes 15 treatment modules in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychoeducation, mindfulness therapy, problem solving, positive emotions, coping with insomnia, etc., twelve of which are presented to patients based on their input (Su et al., 2022 ).

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Raile, P.
Affiliations
Sigmund Freud Privatuniversität Wien (AT)
Corresponding author
Raile, Paolo
ORCID
Raile, Paolo
Venue
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2024-01-04
Volume
11
Issue
1
ISSN
  • 2055-1045 (ISSN-L)
  • 2662-9992
DOI
10.1057/s41599-023-02567-0
OpenAlex
W4390563428
Cited by
91
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 42 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 8
FWCI
36.25
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
Keywords
ChatGPT, artificial intelligence in psychotherapy, AI-assisted psychotherapy, chatbots, psychotherapists, patients, anxiety disorders, cognitive behavioral therapy, treatment planning, manualized psychotherapy, future of psychotherapy

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