Got emotional wellness app? It may be doing more harm than good.
Health Got emotional wellness app? It may be doing more harm than good. Julian De Freitas. Photo by Grace DuVal Christina Pazzanese Harvard Staff Writer June 25, 2025 8 min read Study sees mental health risks, suggests regulators take closer look as popularity rises amid national epidemic of loneliness, isolation Sophisticated new emotional wellness apps powered by AI are growing in popularity. But these apps pose their own mental health risks by enabling users to form concerning emotional attachments and dependencies to AI chatbots, and deserve far more scrutiny than regulators currently give them, according to a new paper from faculty at Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School. The growing popularity of the programs is understandable. Nearly one-third of adults in the U.S. felt lonely at least once a week, according to a 2024 poll from the American Psychiatric Association. In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General warned of a loneliness “epidemic” as more Americans, especially those aged 18-34, reported feeling...