{"id":230706,"date":"2026-04-03T07:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/03\/chatbots-are-now-prescribing-psychiatric-drugs\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T08:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:10:15","slug":"chatbots-are-now-prescribing-psychiatric-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/03\/chatbots-are-now-prescribing-psychiatric-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Chatbots are now prescribing psychiatric drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chatbots are now prescribing psychiatric drugs<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/ai-artificial-intelligence\/906525\/ai-chatbot-prescribe-refill-psychiatric-drugs<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-04-03 07:43:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.theverge.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Utah is allowing an AI system to prescribe psychiatric drugs without a doctor. It\u2019s only the second time the state \u2014 and the country \u2014 has delegated this kind of clinical authority to AI. State officials say it could bring costs down and ease care shortages, but physicians warn the system is opaque, risky, and unlikely to expand mental health care to those who need it.<\/p>\n

The one-year pilot, announced last week, will allow Legion Health\u2019s AI chatbot to renew certain prescriptions for psychiatric medications, in some cases. The San Francisco startup promises Utah-based patients \u201cfast, simple refills\u201d through a $19-a-month subscription. The program starts at some point in April, though the company is only operating a waitlist at the moment.<\/p>\n

The AI chatbot will renew certain prescriptions for psychiatric medications, in some cases.<\/p>\n

The program is deliberately narrow in scope, limited both in terms of the medications it covers and the conditions patients must meet to qualify. According to Legion\u2019s agreement with Utah\u2019s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, the chatbot can renew only 15 lower-risk maintenance medications that have already been prescribed by a clinician. That includes fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), bupropion (Wellbutrin), mirtazapine, and hydroxyzine, commonly used to treat anxiety and depression. Patients must also be considered stable: Anyone with a recent dose or medication change or a psychiatric hospitalization in the last year is excluded, and patients must check in with a healthcare provider every 10 refills or after six months, whichever comes first.<\/p>\n

The system cannot issue new prescriptions or handle medications that require closer clinical oversight, including drugs that need blood-test monitoring. Controlled substances are also barred, ruling out many ADHD medications. The exclusion of benzodiazepines, used for anxiety; antipsychotics, used for conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; and lithium \u2014…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chatbots are now prescribing psychiatric drugs https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/ai-artificial-intelligence\/906525\/ai-chatbot-prescribe-refill-psychiatric-drugs Publish Date: 2026-04-03 07:43:00 Source Domain: www.theverge.com Utah…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.theverge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/STKS524_AI_HEALTH_E.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.732984293194%2C100%2C78.534031413613&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-230706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230708,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230706\/revisions\/230708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}