Psychiatric News (10/23) reports that “tools using large language models (LLMs) to provide psychotherapy – even those prompted to adhere to an evidence-based model – are prone to a slew of ethical violations, according to a new study [PDF] issued…at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and Association for Computing Machinery’s Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society.” The researchers “had conversations with peer counselors who conducted 110 self-counseling sessions with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)–prompted LLMs.” The researchers next “simulated 27 therapy sessions with an LLM counselor using publicly available transcripts of sessions with human therapists.” Afterwards, “three licensed clinical psychologists with CBT experience independently evaluated these simulations to explore how the LLMs might violate ethical standards.” Researchers ultimately found several ethical violations, including: rigid methodological adherence, poor therapeutic collaboration, deceptive empathy, unfair discrimination, and lack of safety and crisis management.

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— “Chatbot Psychotherapists Prone to Serious Ethical Violations,” Psychiatric News, October 23, 2025

MedPage Today (10/23, Firth) reports a study found that “adolescents and young adults were at greater risk of using opioids if their parents had multiple opioid prescriptions.” Researchers observed that “for more than 21,000 adolescents and young adults participating in a population health survey, those who had mothers who received two or more opioid prescriptions had an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.34 for any opioid prescription over 7-year follow-up, while those who had fathers with two or more opioid prescriptions had an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.19.” Furthermore, they found that “those with a mother or father who received two or more opioid prescriptions had more than double the risk of persistent opioid use compared with those whose parents did not receive any opioid prescriptions.” The study was published in PLOS Medicine.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The American Journal of Managed Care (10/22, Jeremias) reports, “Financial hardship – including poverty, food insecurity, and housing instability – was found to be common among US health care workers, particularly those in direct care and support roles, according to a new research letter.” The investigators “highlighted inequities within the workforce, noting that racial and ethnic minority groups were overrepresented in the lowest-paid health care occupations.” The findings were published in JAMA.

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— “Many US Health Care Workers Face Poverty, Food Insecurity, and Housing Instability,”Skylar Jeremias, The American Journal of Managed Care , October 22, 2025

HealthDay (10/22, Solomon) reports a study found that “among survivors of drug overdose, fewer than half visited the emergency department.” The researchers “examined service use following a nonfatal overdose (NFOD).” They found that “25.7 percent of participants had experienced at least one NFOD in the prior year. During the most recent NFOD, use of naloxone was reported by 82.1 percent of survivors, while calls to 911 were reported by 61.3 percent and visits to the emergency department were reported by 47.0 percent.” Researchers highlighted the “most common reasons cited for not calling 911 were that the person regained consciousness without naloxone (28.6 percent) or that a bystander administered naloxone (26.8 percent). Of those going to the emergency department, most (61.5 percent) received take-home naloxone in the hospital, while fewer reported receiving buprenorphine (21.9 percent) or methadone (16.2 percent) before discharge.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Fewer Than Half of Drug Overdose Survivors Go to the Hospital,”Lori Solomon, HealthDay, October 22, 2025

HealthDay (10/21, Gotkine) reports a study found that “school disengagement (SD) rates were higher during the pandemic years, especially for children with mental health conditions (MHCs).” The researchers “examined temporal changes in SD and SD rates among children with MHCs in a representative sample of U.S. children aged 6 to 17 years from 2018 to 2022.” They found that “the rates of SD were higher during pandemic years versus 2018, especially for children with MHCs. Higher odds of SD were seen in 2020, 2021, and 2022 versus 2018; there were no differences between 2018. “Higher SD odds were observed in boys, those with overall health status lower than very good, those with special ed programs, those who repeated a grade, those with high rates of absenteeism, those who experienced food insecurity, those who had high residential mobility, and those from lone-parent/unmarried households.” The study was published in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “School Disengagement Increased During Pandemic Years,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay , October 21, 2025