D05 — Delusional Fusion, Reality Distortion, and Clinical Vulnerability
Clinical Vulnerability Context
Description
Known vulnerability, trauma, loneliness, sleep disruption, substance use, prior psychiatric symptoms, acute stressors, or crisis factors interact with AI use.
Rationale
Clinical vulnerability does not exist in isolation from AI use — it shapes what the person brings to the interaction and what the interaction reinforces. Established psychiatric history, acute stressors, trauma, loneliness, or substance use all affect how AI content is processed and integrated. The interaction between vulnerability and AI use must be assessed jointly.
Evidence Base
Inside a Mass Shooter’s Harrowing History With ChatGPT
Mark Follman, 2024. Inside a Mass Shooter’s Harrowing History With ChatGPT. Mother Jones.
News / journalism“You Need to Drop the App”: Online Community Responses to Teens’ Disclosures of Overreliance on AI Companion Chatbots
Mohammad (Matt) Namvarpour, Ananya Mhetras, Jessica Y Medina, Mamtaj Akter, and Afsaneh Razi, 2026. “You Need to Drop the App”: Online Community Responses to Teens’ Disclosures of Overreliance on AI Companion Chatbots. In ACM Conversational User Interfaces 2026 (CUI ’26), July 21–24, 2026, Bremen, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 16 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3816046.3816214
Peer-reviewed study (original research)When patients consult artificial intelligence before clinicians: restoring clinical prioritisation in mental health care
Yudai Kaneda, 2026. When patients consult artificial intelligence before clinicians: restoring clinical prioritisation in mental health care. The British Journal of Psychiatry, First View, pp. 1 - 2. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2026.10741
Commentary / Editorial