PsycoLLM: Enhancing LLM for Psychological Understanding and Evaluation

Mental health has attracted substantial attention in recent years and large language model (LLM) can be an effective technology for alleviating this problem owing to its capability in text understanding and dialogue. However, existing research in this domain often suffers from limitations, such as training on datasets lacking crucial prior knowledge and evidence, and the absence of comprehensive evaluation methods. In this article, we propose a specialized psychological LLM, named PsycoLLM, trained on a proposed high-quality psychological dataset, including single-turn QA, multiturn dialogues, and knowledge-based QA. Specifically, we construct multi-turn dialogues through a three-step pipeline comprising multiturn QA generation, evidence judgment, and dialogue refinement. We augment this process with real-world psychological case backgrounds extracted from online platforms, enhancing the relevance and applicability of the generated data. Additionally, to compare the performance of PsycoLLM with other LLMs, we develop a comprehensive psychological benchmark based on authoritative psychological counseling examinations in China, which includes assessments of professional ethics, theoretical proficiency, and case analysis. The experimental results on the benchmark illustrate the effectiveness of PsycoLLM, which demonstrates superior performance compared with other LLMs.