The Next Generation: Chatbots in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy to Foster Mental Health – A Scoping Review
Abstract
Background and Purpose: The present age of digitalization brings with it progress and new possibilities for health care in general and clinical psychology/psychotherapy in particular. Internet- and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) have often been evaluated. A fully automated version of IMIs are chatbots. Chatbots are automated computer programs that are able to hold, e.g., a script-based conversation with a human being. Chatbots could contribute to the extension of health care services. The aim of this review is to conceptualize the scope and to work out the current state of the art of chatbots fostering mental health. Methods: The present article is a scoping review on chatbots in clinical psychology and psychotherapy. Studies that utilized chatbots to foster mental health were included. Results: The technology of chatbots is still experimental in nature. Studies are most often pilot studies by nature. The field lacks high-quality evidence derived from randomized controlled studies. Results with regard to practicability, feasibility, and acceptance of chatbots to foster mental health are promising but not yet directly transferable to psychotherapeutic contexts. Discussion: The rapidly increasing research on chatbots in the field of clinical psychology and psychotherapy requires corrective measures. Issues like effectiveness, sustainability, and especially safety and subsequent tests of technology are elements that should be instituted as a corrective for future funding programs of chatbots in clinical psychology and psychotherapy.
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The inconclusive effectiveness finding is in accordance with some previous reviews conducted on evaluation of CAs in adult healthcare.
“This finding is in accordance with some of the previous reviews conducted on evaluation of CAs in adult healthcare14,53.”
From Use of automated conversational agents in improving young population mental health: a scoping review (2024) · cites this paper as [53]
State-of-the-art mental health chatbots are still experimental and little evidence for transferring results to real psychotherapy contexts is available.
“The meta-analysis by Bendig et al [17] supports the view that state-of-the-art mental health chatbots are still experimental and that little evidence for transferring results to real psychotherapy contexts is available.”
From A conversational artificial intelligence agent for a mental health care app: Evaluation study of its participatory design (2021) · cites this paper as [17]
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eSano – An eHealth Platform for Internet- and Mobile-based Interventions
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- Authors
- Bendig, E., Erb, B., Schulze-Thuesing, L., & Baumeister, H.
- Affiliations
- Universität Ulm (DE)
- Venue
- Verhaltenstherapie
- Publisher
- S. Karger AG
- Published
- 2019-08-20
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- Suppl. 1
- Pages
- 64-76
- ISSN
- 1016-6262 (ISSN-L)
- 1423-0402
- OpenAlex
- W4233023712
- Cited by
- 214
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 48 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 10
- FWCI
- 20.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Verhaltenstherapie (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
- Keywords
- chatbots, clinical psychology, psychotherapy, mental health, digital healthcare, feasibility and acceptability, chatbot safety
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