# Towards Reliable and Empathetic Depression-Diagnosis-Oriented Chats

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.05012 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.05012/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 53 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Apr 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04805/) (2018)
- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [A Diversity-Promoting Objective Function for Neural Conversation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1510.03055/) (2015)
- [MultiWOZ -- A Large-Scale Multi-Domain Wizard-of-Oz Dataset for Task-Oriented Dialogue Modelling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.00278/) (2018)
- [Towards Emotional Support Dialog Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.01144/) (2021)
- [A Computational Approach to Understanding Empathy Expressed in Text-Based Mental Health Support](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.08441/) (2020)
- [Challenges in Building Intelligent Open-domain Dialog Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05709/) (2019)
- [CPT: A Pre-Trained Unbalanced Transformer for Both Chinese Language Understanding and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.05729/) (2021)
- [Towards Facilitating Empathic Conversations in Online Mental Health Support: A Reinforcement Learning Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.07714/) (2021)
- [MentaLLaMA: Interpretable Mental Health Analysis on Social Media with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.13567/) (2023)
- [Evaluation of ChatGPT for NLP-based Mental Health Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.15727/) (2023)
- [Towards Interpretable Mental Health Analysis with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03347/) (2023)
- [Adding Chit-Chat to Enhance Task-Oriented Dialogues](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.12757/) (2020)
- [Knowledge-enhanced Mixed-initiative Dialogue System for Emotional Support Conversations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10172/) (2023)
- [D4: a Chinese Dialogue Dataset for Depression-Diagnosis-Oriented Chat](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11764/) (2022)
- [Fusing task-oriented and open-domain dialogues in conversational agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.04137/) (2021)
- [COKE: A Cognitive Knowledge Graph for Machine Theory of Mind](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.05390/) (2023)
- [Scalable Multi-Domain Dialogue State Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.10224/) (2017)
- [UniDS: A Unified Dialogue System for Chit-Chat and Task-oriented Dialogues](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08032/) (2021)
- [Understanding Client Reactions in Online Mental Health Counseling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.15334/) (2023)
- [Perla: A Conversational Agent for Depression Screening in Digital Ecosystems. Design, Implementation and Validation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.12875/) (2020)
- [A Simple and Flexible Modeling for Mental Disorder Detection by Learning from Clinical Questionnaires](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.02955/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Depression Diagnosis Dialogue Simulation: Self-improving Psychiatrist with Tertiary Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15084/) (2024)
- [Breaking the Stigma! Unobtrusively Probe Symptoms in Depression Disorder Diagnosis Dialogue](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.15260/) (2025)
- [CARE: Counselor-Aligned Response Engine for Online Mental-Health Support](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.21352/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Chatbots can serve as a viable tool for preliminary depression diagnosis via interactive conversations with potential patients. Nevertheless, the blend of task-oriented and chit-chat in diagnosis-related dialogues necessitates professional expertise and empathy. Such unique requirements challenge traditional dialogue frameworks geared towards single optimization goals. To address this, we propose an innovative ontology definition and generation framework tailored explicitly for depression diagnosis dialogues, combining the reliability of task-oriented conversations with the appeal of empathy-related chit-chat. We further apply the framework to D4, the only existing public dialogue dataset on depression diagnosis-oriented chats. Exhaustive experimental results indicate significant improvements in task completion and emotional support generation in depression diagnosis, fostering a more comprehensive approach to task-oriented chat dialogue system development and its applications in digital mental health.