ArticleJournal of psychiatric research2025
ChatGPT as therapy: A qualitative and network-based thematic profiling of shared experiences, attitudes, and beliefs on Reddit.
Article in Journal of psychiatric research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Barriers and Facilitators to the Use of Large Language Model-Based Conversational Agents in Mental Healthcare: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- New and old challenges for clinical psychology and psychotherapy toward 2030.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
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
Abstract
In recent years, large language models (LLMs), including ChatGPT, have exponentially grown in application. Given existing barriers to mental health services, alongside the capability of LLMs to generate therapeutic responses, LLMs have potential to serve as accessible precursors, adjuncts, or alternatives to traditional therapy. However, little is known about the opinions of persons who have used LLMs for mental health-related problems. Thus, the current work investigated the positive and negative experiences of those who have interacted with ChatGPT for their mental health using posts from relevant Reddit threads (N = 1594). A 33-item coding scheme was applied to code the presence/absence of each item, and coded posts were modeled using an Ising network graph to explore pairwise and groupwise thematic associations of items. Results from the qualitative coding indicated that the codes representing positive sentiment, experiencing affect/emotion, and attaining personal benefit from using ChatGPT for therapy were among the most frequently coded. Moreover, the Ising network model revealed the most important associations were between items representing positive experiences with ChatGPT (e.g., it performs better than a human therapist in some way and is empathetic), negative experiences (e.g., restrictions worsened their mental health), and specific pathologies (e.g., used it for both anxiety and stress). In addition, the node representing ChatGPT as functioning well as a therapist was the most central node in the network Taken together, the current study indicates that, while users endorse several benefits from using ChatGPT for their mental health, they also report significant drawbacks, including restrictions by ChatGPT that can harm them or exacerbate their symptoms. Thus, ChatGPT may be a useful tool for persons not able to receive standard care, but it may not be as beneficial for persons with more severe pathologies or mental health concerns.
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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.