ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2023
Vickybot, a Chatbot for Anxiety-Depressive Symptoms and Work-Related Burnout in Primary Care and Health Care Professionals: Development, Feasibility, and Potential Effectiveness Studies.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Chatbots in Mental Health Screening and Assessment: Systematic Review.JMIR mental health · 2026Pooled it
- The effectiveness of multilingual AI-based simulator for suicide risk assessment training in improving self-efficacy among young psychiatrists: a pilot study across twenty languages.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
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- Charting the evolution of artificial intelligence mental health chatbots from rule-based systems to large language models: a systematic review.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of a Chatbot-Based Internet-Support-Coping-Caring Intervention in Improving Sleep Quality and Work-Related Outcomes Among Nurses in Taiwan During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pilot Study.The journal of nursing research : JNR · 2025Article
- Understanding the Mental and Physical Burdens of Physicians and Identifying Support Interventions in Bangladesh: Qualitative Study.Interactive journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Machine Learning in Primary Health Care: The Research Landscape.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Users' Needs for Mental Health Apps: Quality Evaluation Using the User Version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2025Article
- Medical accuracy of artificial intelligence chatbots in oncology: a scoping review.The oncologist · 2025Article
- AI Chatbots for Psychological Health for Health Professionals: Scoping Review.JMIR human factors · 2025Article
- The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Mental Health Nursing Practice: An Integrative Review.International journal of mental health nursing · 2025Review
- Persuasive chatbot-based interventions for depression: a list of recommendations for improving reporting standards.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Digital health: current applications, challenges, and future directions for enhancing healthcare quality and safety.Frontiers in public health · 2025Review
- Trends and associated factors of mental health diagnoses in Catalan Primary Care (2010-2019).European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2024Article
- Roles, Users, Benefits, and Limitations of Chatbots in Health Care: Rapid Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Review
- Adapting and Evaluating an AI-Based Chatbot Through Patient and Stakeholder Engagement to Provide Information for Different Health Conditions: Master Protocol for an Adaptive Platform Trial (the MARVIN Chatbots Study).JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- A review on the efficacy of artificial intelligence for managing anxiety disorders.Frontiers in artificial intelligence · 2024Review
- A chatbot-delivered intervention for optimizing social media use and reducing perceived isolation among rural-living LGBTQ+ youth: Development, acceptability, usability, satisfaction, and utility.Internet interventions · 2023Article
- Overview of Chatbots with special emphasis on artificial intelligence-enabled ChatGPT in medical science.Frontiers in artificial intelligence · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
50 authors at 6 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMany people attending primary care (PC) have anxiety-depressive symptoms and work-related burnout compounded by a lack of resources to meet their needs. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this problem, and digital tools have been proposed as a solution.
objectiveWe aimed to present the development, feasibility, and potential effectiveness of Vickybot, a chatbot aimed at screening, monitoring, and reducing anxiety-depressive symptoms and work-related burnout, and detecting suicide risk in patients from PC and health care workers.
methodsHealthy controls (HCs) tested Vickybot for reliability. For the simulation study, HCs used Vickybot for 2 weeks to simulate different clinical situations. For feasibility and effectiveness study, people consulting PC or health care workers with mental health problems used Vickybot for 1 month. Self-assessments for anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item) and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) symptoms and work-related burnout (based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory) were administered at baseline and every 2 weeks. Feasibility was determined from both subjective and objective user-engagement indicators (UEIs). Potential effectiveness was measured using paired 2-tailed t tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank test for changes in self-assessment scores.
resultsOverall, 40 HCs tested Vickybot simultaneously, and the data were reliably transmitted and registered. For simulation, 17 HCs (n=13, 76% female; mean age 36.5, SD 9.7 years) received 98.8% of the expected modules. Suicidal alerts were received correctly. For the feasibility and potential effectiveness study, 34 patients (15 from PC and 19 health care workers; 76% [26/34] female; mean age 35.3, SD 10.1 years) completed the first self-assessments, with 100% (34/34) presenting anxiety symptoms, 94% (32/34) depressive symptoms, and 65% (22/34) work-related burnout. In addition, 27% (9/34) of patients completed the second self-assessment after 2 weeks of use. No significant differences were found between the first and second self-assessments for anxiety (t
conclusionsThe chatbot was useful in screening for the presence and severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and for detecting suicidal risk. Potential effectiveness was shown to reduce work-related burnout but not anxiety or depressive symptoms. Subjective perceptions of use contrasted with low objective-use metrics. Our results are promising but suggest the need to adapt and enhance the smartphone-based solution to improve engagement. A consensus on how to report UEIs and validate digital solutions, particularly for chatbots, is required.
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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.