ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2021
Perceptions and Opinions of Patients About Mental Health Chatbots: Scoping Review.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 110 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
110 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Unleashing the potential of chatbots in mental health: bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Empathic Conversational Agent Platform Designs and Their Evaluation in the Context of Mental Health: Systematic Review.JMIR mental health · 2024Pooled it
- Scope, Characteristics, Behavior Change Techniques, and Quality of Conversational Agents for Mental Health and Well-Being: Systematic Assessment of Apps.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Effectiveness and Acceptability of Conversational Agents for Smoking Cessation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Pooled it
- Mental Health Chatbot for Young Adults With Depressive Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Single-Blind, Three-Arm Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Trial
- Design Preferences for Mental Health Apps Among Nondigitally Native Adults With Chronic Pain: Qualitative Analysis.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Article
- Optimizing Usability of Digital Health Interventions for Nondigitally Native Adults: A Framework-Based Approach to Develop Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs) and Other Adaptations.JMIR human factors · 2026Article
- Exploring Student Perceptions of Generative AI Therapists and Their Benefits and Challenges in Schools.International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie · 2026Article
- Exploring the potential of ChatGPT as a digital advisor in acute psychiatric crises: a feasibility study.Der Nervenarzt · 2026Article
- Building EVA (Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Physicians' expectations of the use of conversational agents in healthcare: a qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- What should be included in a digital mental health intervention, based on solution-focused therapy, for young people who self-harm? A qualitative exploration of young people and clinicians' views.PLOS digital health · 2026Article
- Adolescent Perceptions of an Online Safety Chatbot: Survey Study.JMIR human factors · 2026Article
- A qualitative study assessing the acceptability of a multi-agent AI Chatbot for providing HIV and mental health support among men who have sex with men and transgender women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2026Article
- Increasing Use of a Postpartum and Newborn Chatbot among Birthing Individuals and Caregivers: Development and Implementation Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2026Article
- Rethinking directiveness in AI coaching chatbots.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Predicting adherence to fully-automated, chatbot-delivered digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (dCBT-I) using machine learning: A pilot real-world study.PLOS digital health · 2026Article
- Mental health chatbots and their technical features: A systematic review of reviews and a thematic analysis.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- User experience and safety of generative AI-based mental health chatbots: Scoping review protocol.PloS one · 2026Article
- Privacy assurances and professional-boundary warnings in generative AI mental health chatbots: a randomized vignette experiment on calibrated trust, overreliance risk, and professional help-seeking intentions.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
50 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChatbots have been used in the last decade to improve access to mental health care services. Perceptions and opinions of patients influence the adoption of chatbots for health care. Many studies have been conducted to assess the perceptions and opinions of patients about mental health chatbots. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no review of the evidence surrounding perceptions and opinions of patients about mental health chatbots.
objectiveThis study aims to conduct a scoping review of the perceptions and opinions of patients about chatbots for mental health.
methodsThe scoping review was carried out in line with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) extension for scoping reviews guidelines. Studies were identified by searching 8 electronic databases (eg, MEDLINE and Embase) in addition to conducting backward and forward reference list checking of the included studies and relevant reviews. In total, 2 reviewers independently selected studies and extracted data from the included studies. Data were synthesized using thematic analysis.
resultsOf 1072 citations retrieved, 37 unique studies were included in the review. The thematic analysis generated 10 themes from the findings of the studies: usefulness, ease of use, responsiveness, understandability, acceptability, attractiveness, trustworthiness, enjoyability, content, and comparisons.
conclusionsThe results demonstrated overall positive perceptions and opinions of patients about chatbots for mental health. Important issues to be addressed in the future are the linguistic capabilities of the chatbots: they have to be able to deal adequately with unexpected user input, provide high-quality responses, and have to show high variability in responses. To be useful for clinical practice, we have to find ways to harmonize chatbot content with individual treatment recommendations, that is, a personalization of chatbot conversations is required.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.