Sentio University AI and Mental Health Research
Sentio University's AI Research Team studies how people use large language models for mental health support and how safely those systems respond. Since 2025 the team has published four peer-reviewed empirical studies, a conference paper, and a commentary in The Lancet Psychiatry, working with the Digital Safety Research Institute at UL Research Institutes and as an affiliate of the International Association for Safe and Ethical AI (IASEAI). The team also teaches the AI certification course for therapists and publishes the Sentio Statement on AI.
Publications
| Study | Published in | Type | Sentio's role | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent Clinical Evaluation of General-Purpose LLM Responses to Signals of Suicide Risk | Proceedings of IASEAI Conference, 2026 | Conference paper | Equal collaboration with the Digital Safety Research Institute at UL Research Institutes, funded by both | Article | PDF | arXiv |
| The association of transformer-based sentiment analysis with symptom distress and deterioration in routine psychotherapy care | Frontiers in Digital Health, 2026 | Peer-reviewed empirical study | Funded and authored by Sentio | DOI | PDF | Online |
| Evaluating the clinical safety of large language models in response to high-risk mental health disclosures | Practice Innovations, 2026 | Peer-reviewed empirical study | Funded and authored by Sentio with academic and clinical collaborators | DOI | Preprint |
| “What happens, what helps, what hurts”: A qualitative analysis of user experiences with large language models for mental health support | Practice Innovations, 2026 | Peer-reviewed empirical study | Funded and authored by Sentio with academic and clinical collaborators | DOI |
| Large language models as mental health providers | The Lancet Psychiatry, 2026 | Commentary | Lead author at Sentio | DOI |
| Large language models as mental health resources: Patterns of use in the United States | Practice Innovations, 2026 (online 2025) | Peer-reviewed empirical study | Funded and authored by Sentio | DOI | PDF |
Sentio AI Program
Sentio University advances the scientific discourse on safe AI, built upon a foundation of peer-reviewed research and partnerships with world-leading AI safety organizations.
Setting Educational Standards: We are the first to develop a hands-on AI Certification Course that trains clinicians to use major general-use AI programs safely and ethically as tools for clinical reasoning without sacrificing human empathy.
Leading with Evidence-Based Research: Our broad range of research includes a national survey identifying AI as a major mental health provider, a clinical safety evaluation comparing how leading LLMs handle crisis scenarios, and one of the largest qualitative studies on how users actually experience AI for mental health support.
Collaborating with Global AI Safety Leaders: Through our collaboration with the Digital Safety Research Institute (DSRI) at UL Research Institutes and as an affiliate of International Association for Safe and Ethical AI (IASEAI), Sentio is working to ensure that the specific needs of the mental health field are represented in global AI governance discussions.
See the Sentio Statement on AI and sign up for email list to be alerted of new events and research.
See free recorded webinars on AI in Mental Health on our YouTube channel.
Sentio Mental Health education training webinar on Safe and Ethical use of AI for Therapists
Sentio webinar on AI Mental Health Education Training and Research