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Join today<\/a><\/p>\n \n Already a member? An increasing number of people across all age groups are relying on artificial intelligence<\/a> chatbots to seek emotional support and advice, according to recent research.<\/p>\n Data from a survey of 2,000 UK children aged 11 to 17, conducted by Barnardo\u2019s and the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS), revealed that 43 per cent have used AI<\/a> for advice or emotional support.<\/p>\n Adults are following a similar pattern. The 2026 Bupa Wellbeing Index indicated that nearly three in five adults (57 per cent) now choose AI chatbots instead of booking a GP visit due to time constraints. <\/p>\n This rises to 65 per cent among 18 to 24-year-olds and 61 per cent for those aged 25 to 34.<\/p>\n Speaking to Dr Daniel Masud, a consultant psychiatrist at Central Health London who specialises in general adult psychiatry and addictions, we examined the drivers, benefits and risks of this trend. <\/p>\n He identified lengthy waiting times for mental health<\/a> services as the primary driving factor.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you go and see your GP, you might have to spend lots of time on the phone and wait a long time for an appointment. Professional support is often quite difficult to get, so I think that\u2019s why lots of people are turning to their phones,\u201d Masud said. <\/p>\n \u201cYou can tell large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT<\/a> and Claude<\/a> what\u2019s going on, and these chatbots will get something coherent back to you very quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I think it\u2019s a symptomatic of there being unmet need and an increased demand, and I would say that people are getting pretty desperate for support.\u201d<\/p>\n What are the potential risks of using chatbots for mental health advice?<\/p>\n Chatbots can be too validating and not objective enough<\/p>\n The models are designed to be conversational and agreeable.<\/p>\n \u201cLLM models like ChatGPT are trained to validate you, so won\u2019t necessarily question the information you are giving it,\u201d Masud said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, if you told it \u2018I\u2019m worried that my mum is trying to poison me\u2019, it would genuinely believe that that was the case, and would advise you accordingly.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it\u2019s gives advice through the prism of what that patient\u2019s seeing\/telling it rather than having a more objective view.<\/p>\n \u201cWhereas, a human psychiatrist is more likely to be a little bit more curious and inquisitive about the actual information that is being given, and query whether or not this person might be paranoid or potentially psychotic.\u201d <\/p>\n The psychiatrist adds that chatbots also have a tendency to lean into your own bias.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you ask it a question which is quite leading, such as \u201cCan cannabis be good for you?\u201d, for example, it\u2019s likely that the chatbot will come up with more positives than relevant negatives. This is because it\u2019s more likely to lean into your own bias, and that\u2019s one of the things that people will be concerned about when they\u2019re using it,\u201d Masud said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhereas, if you were to say, \u201cWhat\u2019s the evidence base for cannabis, and what are the positives and negatives in healthcare to consider?\u201d it\u2019s much more likely to give you a much more balanced output.\u201d<\/p>\n Important symptoms can be missed<\/p>\n \u201cThese AI chatbots rely on logic and the prompts that they are given and are not trained to recognise patterns of specific mental health conditions,\u201d Masud said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, what sometimes ends up happening is that important symptoms that would have otherwise gone through the conduit for mental health services are missed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be great if LLMs were able to better detect serious mental health problems, such as psychosis, but I\u2019ve tested it myself and put in prompts that could be suggestive of illness, but it didn\u2019t manage to pick those up.\u201d<\/p>\n Not enough safeguarding<\/p>\n \u201cThere isn\u2019t a lot of clarity about what safeguards are in place for severe mental illnesses from these large language model companies,\u201d the psychiatrist warned.<\/p>\n Risk of developing a pseudo-relationship with the chatbot<\/p>\n \u201cSome people are almost develop relationships with their chatbots, where it can become like a third person in a relationship,\u201d Masud said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s quite difficult to establish firm boundaries around the appropriateness of how much somebody\u2019s using that model to support them.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople will sometimes use these chatbots for therapy and will ask it lots of quite deep questions, that the chatbot will not necessarily have the experience or answers to.\u201d<\/p>\n Providing general wellbeing advice<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes patients don\u2019t really feel like they\u2019ve got the language to be able to coherently tell you what\u2019s going on or what they\u2019re thinking and feeling, and talking to a chatbot might be able to help them understand their own perspective and map those feelings out,\u201d said Masud.<\/p>\n The psychiatrist said that AI chatbots have the potential to help people reframe their thinking and adopt a growth mindset under the right circumstances.<\/p>\n \u201cChatbots can sometimes help people reframe thoughts that are difficult that they might be having,\u201d said the psychiatrist.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, if they think their boss hates them, or they have encountered a difficult scenario at work. The chatbots can often offer some light advice about how they might handle that situation next time and grow from that.\u201d<\/p>\n Providing chatbots with context and prompts might help improve the quality of the advice.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has to have context to give you sound advice. Sometimes patients will tell the chatbot how they are feeling and I might ask them to give it prompts such as \u2018give me some reasonable, safe steps to take to adapt a growth mindset to this\u2019,\u201d said Masud.<\/p>\n \u201cOften the chatbot then will give a bit of a spiel about what\u2019s happening and do a validation piece, but then often gives some really helpful generic advice for general stress and wellbeing situations.\u201d<\/p>\n He noted that chatbots could be a useful tool while people are waiting for professional support.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can act as a stopgap for someone who needs immediate support who might not be in a very serious situation but might just need some reassurance,\u201d said Masud.<\/p>\n In conclusion<\/p>\n \u201cThe main point is that these chatbots don\u2019t replace proper psychiatric care, but can certainly be a useful tool,\u201d Masud said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that there needs to be much more regulation around it, and I also think that psychiatrists need to engage with it more and understand how their clients are using it.\u201d<\/p>\n Staying inquisitive and learning how to use it safely was key, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it might be good to teach people how to prompt it to get the most value from it, while also recognising where things can get missed because of the chatbot\u2019s natural propensity to validate you,\u201d Masud said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? 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The 2026 Bupa Wellbeing Index indicated that nearly three in five adults now choose AI chatbots instead of booking a GP visit due to time constraints (PA)<\/p>\n![\"Providing](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/01M5ME6WSQW5JW245ST3TVVP4M.jpg\")
Providing chatbots with context and prompts might help improve the quality of the advice (PA)<\/p>\n![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/01M5ME70JAEQCFW2B184T7JH2W.jpg\")
Dr Daniel Masud noted that chatbots could be a useful tool while people are waiting for professional support (PA)<\/p>\n