Developing a brief clinical screening tool for trauma and its impact
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of a brief clinical screening tool for trauma and post traumatic reactions in people with psychosis
IRAS ID
187370
Contact name
Miriam Fornells-Ambrojo
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
It is well established that people with psychosis or schizophrenia-spectrum disorders experience more traumatic events compared to the general population (Grubaugh et al, 2011). Trauma in psychosis is associated with higher rates of PTSD, more severe psychotic symptoms and worse functional and clinical outcomes (Varese et al, 2012). Given this, the National Institute for Social Care and Clinical Excellence (NICE, 2014) recommend that trauma and PTSD should be assessed in psychosis services.
However, trauma is rarely routinely assessed by clinicians, which appears to partly be due to a lack of a sufficiently efficient, valid and reliable screening tool. Existing trauma measures tend to be lengthy, or only focus on certain types of traumatic events and there are currently no validated measures which specifically assess for traumas related to the experience of psychosis (e.g. restaint, involuntary sedation).
This study therefore aims to develop and establish the psychometric properties of a brief, comprehensive clinical screening tool of traumatic events, that can be used routinely in psychosis services. A secondary aim will be to investigate the experience of distressing trauma memories in a subgroup of participants, to inform our understanding of post-traumatic stress in psychosis and the development of targeted trauma-focused treatments for this clinical group.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1486
Date of REC Opinion
9 Oct 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion