Exploring the Efficacy of Mental Health Care Chatbots: A Comprehensive Review

This comprehensive review paper examines the land-scape of mental health care chatbots, focusing on their design, effectiveness, ethical considerations, and future directions. Mental health care chatbots have emerged as innovative tools to support individuals in managing their mental well-being, offering a range of services from diagnosis to therapy. Furthermore, the paper discusses the importance of meeting standards, regulations, and protecting user privacy in implementing AI-based mental health interventions. It addresses the need to inform mental health providers and users about the main features and potential benefits of chatbots, while also considering the challenges of oversight and accountability. It emphasizes the importance of social and emotional aspects in chatbot design, highlighting dimensions like sociability, empathy, and understandable medical vocabulary. Ethical considerations in digital mental health care, including assessment, diagnosis, and treatment, are also addressed in the review. It discusses the educational implications of mental health care chatbots and offers research recommendations for future studies, including investigations into mobile apps for mental health and addressing challenges in digital mental health research.