Seeking Help from Chatbots for Suicide Thoughts: Associations with Other Help Seeking Sources and Mental Health Symptoms

Individuals show significantly lower intentions to seek help from chatbots for suicide thoughts compared to informal and formal sources, with only a weak connection to anonymous online sources.

• Why it matters: Understanding help-seeking behaviors for suicide thoughts is critical for public health, especially as AI chatbots become more prevalent in mental health support, yet their safety and role remain unclear.
• What they did: Researchers surveyed 58 participants with depression or anxiety, comparing their intentions to seek help from chatbots, informal, formal, and anonymous online sources, using questionnaires and statistical analyses.
• The result: Findings suggest that intentions to use chatbots are largely independent of other support sources and are linked to specific factors like anxiety severity, highlighting the need to explore chatbot use within broader help-seeking behaviors.