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Psychiatrists say AI can help but warn about hallucinations and privacy in mental‑health care
Summary
The Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society told lawmakers AI can expand care and assist documentation, but mental‑health providers cautioned about hallucinations, confidentiality, and the need for human verification for nuanced clinical findings.
Dr. Kirkland Caith, speaking for the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society, said AI offers decision‑support and documentation benefits that could help psychiatrists see more patients and catch medical issues that often go unaddressed in psychiatric populations. He highlighted the potential to use AI to populate treatment plans and prompt screenings that prevent downstream medical complications.
At the same time, Caith warned of known risks: generative models can “hallucinate” and misrecord delusions or nuanced clinical details, which is particularly consequential in psychiatric care where clinicians must detect fixed false beliefs and subtle signs of imminent risk. He gave an example — an AI note that recorded a patient as “having trouble with his cat” instead of capturing a fixed delusional belief that the cat was an alien — to illustrate how automated summaries can strip essential clinical nuance.
Caith also stressed privacy concerns for ambient listening and mental‑health notes, which sometimes require stricter confidentiality than general medical records; he recommended HIPAA‑compliant, segregated AI implementations for sensitive encounters and said patients who decline AI‑enabled options should still be able to access care without penalty.
Committee members asked about FDA‑cleared mental‑health devices and safeguards; Caith said providers must ensure a human steps in when warning signs appear and that organizations must implement technical segregation and governance for sensitive AI uses.
