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AI or Human Support for Suicide Prevention? Examining Help-Seeking Intention in Suicidal Crisis

A cross-sectional web survey of 1,024 Japanese adults aged 18-69 with severe psychological distress (Kessler-6 score of 13 or more) asks whether they would use chat-based crisis support delivered by a human counsellor or by an AI chatbot when feeling suicidal, and how intention relates to background characteristics. The peer-reviewed version appears in Suicide Policy Research 5(1):1-12.

Read at jscp.or.jp (opens the original source in a new tab) Archived copy(opens in a new tab)

Publisher

Suicide Policy Research (Japan Suicide Countermeasures Promotion Center); Specified Nonprofit Corporation OVA; Kyoto University; Wako University

Published

30 Sept 2026

Added

today

DOI

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Key Findings

  • 19.5% intended to use AI-based crisis chat and 21.3% human-based crisis chat
  • 15.6% would use both, 3.9% AI chat only, 5.7% human chat only, and 74.8% neither
  • Group membership differed by gender (p=0.028), prior crisis-support use (p<0.001), financial problems (p=0.002) and sexuality-related concerns (p=0.006)
  • The authors note that intention is not behaviour and that the intention items were adapted rather than standardized

Methodology Notes

Online panel (internet research company), quota of 100 per gender x age-decade cell, K6 >= 13 inclusion, attention check; fielded 7-10 November 2023 (before most current-generation assistants). Chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis and Fisher's exact tests; no multivariable model. Received 2026-03-30, accepted 2026-08-28; published in Vol. 5 No. 1 dated September 30, 2026 on the JSCP journal page. One author reports honoraria from OVA, which runs online crisis chat. Preprint versions: PsyArXiv z5wrv_v1 (2025-06-05) and z5wrv_v2 (2026-10-01, notice pointing to the published version).

Topics

Crisis detectionSuicide risk assessmentDigital mental healthVulnerable users

Authors

Daisuke Nakamura, Hajime Sueki, Jiro Ito

Tags

japancrisis-chathelp-seekingk6ovasuicide-prevention

Cite This

APA

Daisuke Nakamura, Hajime Sueki, Jiro Ito. (2026). AI or Human Support for Suicide Prevention? Examining Help-Seeking Intention in Suicidal Crisis. Suicide Policy Research (Japan Suicide Countermeasures Promotion Center); Specified Nonprofit Corporation OVA; Kyoto University; Wako University. https://jscp.or.jp/assets/img/SPR_5-1_1_Nakamura.pdf