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Previously submitted to: JMIR Mental Health (no longer under consideration since Jul 28, 2025)

Date Submitted: Jul 27, 2025

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

Redefining Patient-Therapist Relationships with Digital Working Alliance: A Commentary on “Establishing and maintaining a therapeutic alliance between people living with negative symptoms of schizophrenia and a digital therapeutic” by Snipes et al., 2025.

  • Lois Ann Parri; 
  • Matteo Cella

ABSTRACT

The influence of a positive therapeutic alliance on treatment success is well-established in psychotherapy. The emergence of digital therapeutics raises new questions about how therapeutic relationships function without human therapists. This commentary examines recent research demonstrating that individuals with schizophrenia can form and maintain a meaningful therapeutic alliance with digital interventions. It discusses the methodological approach, clinical implications, and future directions, while also situating digital alliance within the evolving landscape of human-technology interactions.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Parri LA, Cella M

Redefining Patient-Therapist Relationships with Digital Working Alliance: A Commentary on “Establishing and maintaining a therapeutic alliance between people living with negative symptoms of schizophrenia and a digital therapeutic” by Snipes et al., 2025.

JMIR Preprints. 27/07/2025:80833

DOI: 10.2196/preprints.80833

URL: https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/80833

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