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This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

Digital Health Reviews (3537) Digital Mental Health Interventions, e-Mental Health and Cyberpsychology (3104) mHealth for Wellness, Behavior Change and Prevention (4214) Anxiety and Stress Disorders (1586) Mental Health Issues in Adolescence (751) Chatbots and Conversational Agents (1140) Artificial Intelligence (4577) AI-Powered Therapy Bots and Virtual Companions in Digital Mental Health (81)

Published on in Vol 27 (2025)

This is a member publication of University of Pittsburgh

Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/79850, first published .
Laptop screen displaying ChatGPT interface with examples, capabilities, and limitations.

The Effectiveness of AI Chatbots in Alleviating Mental Distress and Promoting Health Behaviors Among Adolescents and Young Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The Effectiveness of AI Chatbots in Alleviating Mental Distress and Promoting Health Behaviors Among Adolescents and Young Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Authors of this article:

Xinyu Feng1 Author Orcid Image ;   Lidan Tian1 Author Orcid Image ;   Grace W K Ho1 Author Orcid Image ;   Janelle Yorke1 Author Orcid Image ;   Vivian Hui1, 2 Author Orcid Image
Article Authors Cited by (18) Tweetations (2) Metrics

Journals

  1. Uzoma C, Chukwuedo G, Isaac E, Uzoma V, Eneh S, Chinyere F, Precious O, Onukansi F. Chatbots as frontline educators in sexual reproductive health rights: evidence, limitations, and ethical considerations. Frontiers in Digital Health 2026;8 View
  2. Su K, Chen S, Chang J. The digital pandemic in youth: unpacking the algorithmic impact on mental health in an urbanized world. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 2026;39(3):269 View
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  5. Madfa A, Alshammari A, Alanazi B, Alshammari S. Evaluating the effectiveness of an artificial intelligence–based chatbot for reducing dental anxiety among adult dental patients. Frontiers in Oral Health 2026;7 View
  6. Liu Z, Yang Y, Chen J, Zhang S, Zhang X, Zhuang Y, Hu R. Chatbot-based interventions for improvement of diet, physical activity, and tobacco use behaviors: protocol for a systematic review. Systematic Reviews 2026;15(1) View
  7. Perle J. A Behavioral Health Practitioner’s Primer for the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science 2026 View
  8. Khan A. Push-Pull-Mooring approach to investigate the word-of-mouth intention to use AI-Driven mental health care platforms: insights from CDT, ELM and IRT. VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems 2026:1 View
  9. Witkowska W, Bzikowska-Jura A. Artificial Intelligence in Anorexia Nervosa Care: Comparing ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Nutrients 2026;18(11):1705 View
  10. Khosravi M, Izadi R. Mental health chatbots and their technical features: A systematic review of reviews and a thematic analysis. Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health 2026;13 View
  11. Cheng S, Kim E, Bhalodi R, Um T, Wong D, Yuen E. Artificial Intelligence in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: A Narrative Review of Recent Clinical Applications and Ethical Considerations. Current Psychiatry Reports 2026;28(1) View
  12. Gong G, Li G. The adaptive ecological trap: a grounded theory study of adolescent AI dependency. Frontiers in Psychology 2026;17 View
  13. Bernaerts S, Buelens F, De Witte N, Balaskas A, Colman T, Van Daele T. Exploring Real-world Use of Artificial Intelligence Chatbots for Mental Health Support: A cross-sectional survey study (Preprint). JMIR Mental Health 2026 View
  14. Lengier M, Zych S, Powęska N, Świstak S, Pastuszak F, Małyszek P, Świderska M, Buziak J, Papińska J, Pielacha J. DIGITAL MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS: A NARRATIVE REVIEW OF TELEPSYCHIATRY AND AI-DRIVEN CHATBOTS IN BURNOUT MITIGATION. International Journal of Innovative Technologies in Social Science 2026;4(2(50)) View
  15. Entenberg G. Debate: Conversational AI and young people's mental health – friend or foe? – conversational AI and young people's mental health: the case for clinically informed design. Child and Adolescent Mental Health 2026 View
  16. Walther M, Taubner S, Gertz M. Multimodale Sprachmodelle in der psychotherapeutischen Aus- und Weiterbildung. Die Psychotherapie 2026 View

Conference Proceedings

  1. N S, K M, John Baskar S, S D. 2026 6th International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Social Networking (ICPCSN). EMO-GUIDE: Emotion-Driven Interactive Chatbot for Mental Well-Being using FSM-based Dialogue Control View
  2. Gupta M, Kiyohara M, Naruganahalli Rangaswamy R, Roesner F, Kientz J. Proceedings of the 25th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference. Exploring AI Companions Together: A Structured Family Co-Investigation of Character.AI View