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by Demiurge 235 days ago
Is it better or worse than alternatives? Where else would a suicidal person turn, a forum with other suicidal people? Dry Wikipedia stats on suicide? Perhaps friends? Knowing how ChatGPT replies to me, I’d have a lot of trouble getting negativity influenced by it, any more than by yellow pages. Yeah, it used to try more to be your friend but GPT5 seems pretty neutral and distant.
2 comments
btilly 235 days ago
I think that you will find a lot of strong opinions, and not a lot of hard data. Certainly any approach can work out poorly. For example antidepressants come with warnings about suicide risk. The reason is that they can enable people to take action on their suicidal feelings, before their suicidal feelings are fixed by the treatment.

I know that many teens turn to social media. My strong opinions against that show up in other comments...

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pasteldream 235 days ago
> The reason is that they can enable people to take action on their suicidal feelings, before their suicidal feelings are fixed by the treatment.

I see that explanation for the increased suicide risk caused by antidepressants a lot, but what’s the evidence for it?

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a study, just a reason why people believe it.

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btilly 235 days ago
Case studies support this. Which is a fancy way to say, "We carefully documented anecdotal reports and saw what looks like a pattern."

There is also a strong parallel to manic depression. Manic depressives have a high suicide risk, and it usually happens when they are coming out of depression. With akathisia (fancy way to say inner restlessness) being the leading indicator. The same pattern is seen with antidepressants. The patient gets treatment, develops akathisia, then attempts suicide.

But, as with many things to do with mental health, we don't really know what is going on inside of people. While also knowing that their self-reports are, shall we say, creatively misleading. So it is easy to have beliefs about what is going on. And rather harder to verify them.

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pasteldream 234 days ago
Can you point me to one of these reviews of case reports? As it is, your reply is too vague to be helpful.
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jamilton 235 days ago
The article links to the case of Adam Raine, a depressed teenager who confided in ChatGPT for months and committed suicide. The parents blame ChatGPT. Some of the quotes definitely sound like encouraging suicide to me. It’s tough to evaluate the counterfactual though. Article with more detail: https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/09/19/nx...
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