  The growing demand for mental health support has highlighted the importance
of conversational agents as human supporters worldwide and in China. These
agents could increase availability and reduce the relative costs of mental
health support. The provided support can be divided into two main types:
cognitive and emotional support. Existing work on this topic mainly focuses on
constructing agents that adopt Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) principles.
Such agents operate based on pre-defined templates and exercises to provide
cognitive support. However, research on emotional support using such agents is
limited. In addition, most of the constructed agents operate in English,
highlighting the importance of conducting such studies in China. In this study,
we analyze the effectiveness of Emohaa in reducing symptoms of mental distress.
Emohaa is a conversational agent that provides cognitive support through
CBT-based exercises and guided conversations. It also emotionally supports
users by enabling them to vent their desired emotional problems. The study
included 134 participants, split into three groups: Emohaa (CBT-based), Emohaa
(Full), and control. Experimental results demonstrated that compared to the
control group, participants who used Emohaa experienced considerably more
significant improvements in symptoms of mental distress. We also found that
adding the emotional support agent had a complementary effect on such
improvements, mainly depression and insomnia. Based on the obtained results and
participants' satisfaction with the platform, we concluded that Emohaa is a
practical and effective tool for reducing mental distress.
