A case series of culturally-adapted CBTp for Black people in the UK
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Culturally-adapted cognitive-behavioural therapy for Black Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean people experiencing psychosis: A case series
IRAS ID
360641
Contact name
Peter Panayi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchestser
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Some people feel suspicious of others or hear things that others don’t. These experiences can be upsetting or affect daily life. This is sometimes called ‘psychosis’. Talking therapies can help people manage psychosis. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (or ‘CBT’) is one type of talking therapy. CBT helps people make sense of their problems by breaking them down into smaller parts, like thoughts and feelings. Studies testing if CBT can help people with psychosis mostly included White people. But in the UK, Black people are more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis than White people. So, we do not know if CBT works as well for Black people experiencing psychosis.
CBT focuses on changing the way we think and act to feel better. These parts of life are important in American and European cultures. But in other cultures, like Asian and African, family or religion might be equally or even more important. So, CBT has been changed to meet the needs of non-White people. This is called ‘culturally adapted CBT’. Only three studies have tested if culturally adapted CBT is helpful for people experiencing psychosis. Most people in these studies were South Asian. So, we can’t be sure if culturally adapted CBT is helpful for Black people with psychosis.
We want to find out if culturally adapted CBT is safe, practical and acceptable among Black people experiencing psychosis.
We will offer 16 sessions of culturally adapted CBT to a small group of Black Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean people with psychosis over 5 months. We will track how many sessions people attend, how much they like the therapy, and if it causes any harm. We will also track if the therapy helps people meet their goals or makes life easier. We hope this research will improve talking therapies offered to Black people experiencing psychosis.
REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/SW/0128
Date of REC Opinion
18 Nov 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion