Response to a comment on: Rates and correlates of study enrolment and use of a chatbot aimed to promote mental health services use for eating disorders following online screening

Abstract

Highlights In response to a comment on our recent article, this paper highlights that the goal of our chatbot was to reach individuals with eating disorders who are not engaged with traditional mental health services using a scalable digital screening and intervention approach. We describe our rationale for the lack of clinical assessments in our study, namely, the importance of conducting digital mental health research under real‐world conditions and the need to reduce barriers to research participation for individuals in need of treatment for eating disorders. We emphasise the substantial public health impact that a chatbot, like the one we developed and evaluated, could have for increasing treatment‐seeking and uptake among adults with eating disorders and encourage researchers to consider study designs that are conducted under real‐world conditions.