Cognitive Bias Modification for Paranoia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cognitive Bias Modification for Paranoia
IRAS ID
187338
Contact name
Jenny Yiend
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN90749868
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Psychosis is one of the most disabling mental health condition, associated with distress and impairment in work, family and social functioning. Many people with psychosis continue to have paranoid beliefs, despite the best treatments available. Paranoia is especially amenable to biased interpretations as paranoid individuals are thought to interpret everyday information as personally threatening. Several psychological interventions target cognitive processes in psychosis/paranoia, but none focus specifically on biased interpretations of emotional ambiguity.\n‘Cognitive Bias Modification for paranoia’ (CBM-pa) is a self-administered psychological procedure that has been developed by combining basic research on biases in paranoia with established CBM techniques. CBM-pa involves participants reading stories on a computer screen, completing missing words and answering questions about each story in a way that encourages more helpful beliefs about themselves and others. Therefore, CBM-pa encourages people to develop alternative ways of interpreting paranoid thoughts (i.e. “someone is watching me”), leading participants to change their understanding of what these situations might mean. \nThus far, CBM has been used in anxiety, but has not been appropriately applied to other disorders. Preliminary research shows that, after one session of CBM-pa, people with paranoia display a range of helpful effects, including significant belief change, and less distress in ambiguous social situations. This study will test whether, in addition to usual treatment, six sessions of CBM-pa produces significant benefit for patients (for example by reducing symptoms and distress) immediately, and at 1 and 3 month follow-up, compared to reading passages of text alone. 60 participants will be randomly allocated to receive either the therapy,\nor the control intervention.\nThe overall aim is to test whether CBM-pa could be an effective treatment for paranoia. If so, CBM-pa would have a number of potential advantages over other approaches, including, minimal effort to complete, no homework, no therapist, and portability.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0071
Date of REC Opinion
26 Feb 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion