Patients prefer human psychiatrists over chatbots: a cross-sectional study

To rate the level of patients' satisfaction with responses on questions regarding mental health provided by human psychiatrists, pharmacists, and chatbot platforms.

This cross-sectional study enrolled 89 patients who were pharmacologically treated for their mental disorder in one institution in Croatia and one in Bosnia and Herzegovina during October 2023. They asked psychiatrists, pharmacists, ChatGPT, and one Croatian chatbot questions about their mental disorder and medications and rated the satisfaction with the responses.

Almost half of the patients had used ChatGPT before the study, and only 12.4% had used the Croatian platform. The patients were most satisfied with the information provided by psychiatrists (4.67 out of 5 about mental disorder and 4.51 about medications), followed by pharmacists (3.94 about medications), ChatGPT (3.66 about mental disorder and 3.45 about medications), and the Croatian platform (3.66 about mental disorder and 3.44 about medications). Almost half of the participants believed it was easier for them to put a question to a psychiatrist than to a chatbot, and only 10% claimed it was easier to ask ChatGPT.

Patients with mental health disorders were more satisfied with responses from their psychiatrists than from chatbots, and satisfaction with chatbots' knowledge on mental disorders and medications was still too low to justify their usage in these patients.