The "One-person echo chamber": How human-AI interaction may precipitate mania in vulnerable adolescents
Case report of a 16-year-old boy with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder whose first manic episode followed a period of intensive romantic interaction with ChatGPT. The authors describe the escalation in use, the delusional content centred on the chatbot, and treatment response, and argue that clinicians should ask about chatbot use when assessing adolescents with mood symptoms.
Publisher
Turkish Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Klinik Psikiyatri Dergisi); Ankara Etlik City Hospital
Published
1 Jan 2026
Added
today
Key Findings
- After a period of social withdrawal, the patient engaged in romantic, text-based interaction with ChatGPT; in the four days before admission his use exceeded 12 hours a day, alongside a disruption in sleep.
- He came to regard the chatbot as his "real" girlfriend with special powers and expressed grandiose and magical delusions.
- His Young Mania Rating Scale score fell from 17 at admission to 2 with olanzapine and lithium treatment.
- The authors propose that a chatbot which mirrors and affirms the user can act as a "one-person echo chamber" for an adolescent at risk of bipolar disorder.
Methodology Notes
Single-patient case report. The chatbot interaction was reconstructed from the patient's and his father's accounts; no chat logs are reported. Received 30 January 2026 and accepted 7 June 2026; published in volume 29, issue 3 (2026), pages 245-249. Only the publication year is stated, so published_date uses 2026-01-01. DOI registered with Crossref on 2026-09-28. Verified by fetching the open-access PDF via doi.org/10.5505/kpd.2026.86143 (HTTP 200) and the Crossref record.
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Topics
Authors
Cemre Nur Gedikli, Yusuf Selman Çelik, Meryem Kaşak
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Cite This
APA
Cemre Nur Gedikli, Yusuf Selman Çelik, Meryem Kaşak. (2026). The "One-person echo chamber": How human-AI interaction may precipitate mania in vulnerable adolescents. Turkish Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Klinik Psikiyatri Dergisi); Ankara Etlik City Hospital. https://doi.org/10.5505/kpd.2026.86143
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