Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40467886›Full record

ArticleNPJ digital medicine2025

Racial bias in AI-mediated psychiatric diagnosis and treatment: a qualitative comparison of four large language models.

Ayoub Bouguettaya, Elizabeth M Stuart, Elias Aboujaoude

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in NPJ digital medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
25citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

25 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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  9. Ethical Considerations in Personal Health Large Language Models.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026
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  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Acceptability of Using Large Language Models to Support Smoking Cessation Attempts: a Qualitative Study Among African Americans Who Smoke.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Ayoub BouguettayaDepartment of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Elizabeth M StuartJonathan Jaques Children's Cancer Institute, Miller Children's & Women's Hospital Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, USA.
Elias AboujaoudeDepartment of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA. elias.aboujaoude@cshs.org.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models (LLMs), is increasingly integrated into mental health care. This study examined racial bias in psychiatric diagnosis and treatment across four leading LLMs: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and NewMes-15 (a local, medical-focused LLaMA 3 variant). Ten psychiatric patient cases representing five diagnoses were presented to these models under three conditions: race-neutral, race-implied, and race-explicitly stated (i.e., stating patient is African American). The models' diagnostic recommendations and treatment plans were qualitatively evaluated by a clinical psychologist and a social psychologist, who scored 120 outputs for bias by comparing responses generated under race-neutral, race-implied, and race-explicit conditions. Results indicated that LLMs often proposed inferior treatments when patient race was explicitly or implicitly indicated, though diagnostic decisions demonstrated minimal bias. NewMes-15 exhibited the highest degree of racial bias, while Gemini showed the least. These findings underscore critical concerns about the potential for AI to perpetuate racial disparities in mental healthcare, emphasizing the necessity of rigorous bias assessment in algorithmic medical decision support systems.

Identifiers

PMID40467886
PMCPMC12137607

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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.