ECNP brings together 19 experts to build a framework for AI in psychiatry
According to its own announcement, the European neuropsychiatric organisation ECNP has established the first Europe-wide expert group on artificial intelligence in mental health.
The working group, led from King's College London, is to draw up a coordinated framework for assessing risks and benefits — but the details of its three-year plan have not yet been made public.
The working group was launched on 12 October 2026 at the ECNP Congress in Munich, where the group is holding an open discussion on the opportunities, problems and possible directions for AI in psychiatry and neuroscience. The initiative is driven by ECNP (the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology), which is described as Europe's largest clinical neuroscience organisation, with interests spanning psychiatry, drug development, psychology and neuroscience (News-Medical).
Who is behind it
The group is chaired by Dr Paris Alexandros Lalousis of King's College London, with Tim Hahn of the University of Münster as deputy chair. According to Lalousis, the new structure will develop an expert-based framework for assessing the risks and benefits of AI use in mental health, as well as recommendations for the field's further development (UA.NEWS).
The 19 members come from Europe and the United States, and cover a deliberately broad range: from fundamental machine learning for drug discovery and basic neuroscience to patients' concerns — and all the way to building and evaluating chatbots. Hahn described the plan as follows, as quoted by News-Medical: "Our working group consists of 19 experts from Europe and the USA. We have already drawn up an initial plan for the next three years, and we are now meeting the wider psychiatric and neuroscience community to gather feedback and refine our plans."
What the group will do
The core of the work, as Hahn and Lalousis present it, is to establish a coordinated framework at European level for assessing the risks and benefits of AI in mental health, in response to fragmented and siloed European research efforts. One concrete task is to systematise information on researchers, regulators and projects in the field, in order to strengthen collaboration between specialists (UA.NEWS). The group is also discussing acting as a resource for media enquiries about AI and mental health (News-Medical).
Launch activities
The introductory session "Artificial Intelligence in Mental Health — Progress and Dangers" takes place at the congress on 13 October. Immediately after the launch, Lalousis is representing the ECNP group at a conference in the European Parliament, where he will, according to the announcement, argue for cross-border validation, regulation, implementation, workforce development and equitable access in precision psychiatry (News-Medical).
ECNP's president, Professor Andreas Reif, places the initiative in a larger strategic context: "AI has many implications for mental health, from research to risk factors to therapy; it will certainly change the way we interact with our patients. That is why ECNP has decided to make AI in mental health one of its priority areas; the AI network is one of the key structures in this, and I am personally delighted that we have managed to bring together such an outstanding international team for this."
Independent assessment of the field
Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London, who is not involved in the group, welcomed the initiative — while offering a critical assessment of the field as it stands today: "I applaud ECNP for orchestrating this timely and much needed initiative. I trust it will bring balance and quality control to a rapidly expanding field that so far has little of either."
Open questions
Several things remain unresolved. The details of the three-year plan beyond the framework for assessing risks and benefits have not been made public, and it is unclear whether the group's recommendations will be linked to existing regulation such as the EU's AI Act. In addition, all the coverage — News-Medical, an identical copy, and the summary at UA.NEWS — stems from the same ECNP announcement; independent confirmation is not available.