Guided self-help CBT for voices
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Increasing access to CBT for psychosis patients: a randomized controlled trial evaluating brief, targeted CBT for distressing voices delivered by Assistant Psychologists
IRAS ID
312765
Contact name
Mark Hayward
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN12748453
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Aims
Our research aims to give more people with a diagnosis of psychosis the chance to receive a helpful talking therapy.
Background
Psychosis is a severe form of mental health condition. People with a diagnosis of psychosis may experience distress associated with delusional beliefs and hearing voices. The National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) recommend Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for psychosis (CBTp) as one of the best treatments for people with a diagnosis of psychosis. But only 26% of people with a diagnosis of psychosis have the chance to receive this talking therapy. CBTp is scarce because it can take a long time to deliver and needs to be delivered by highly trained therapists. We have adapted CBTp in several ways to make it less resource intensive. Firstly, we have targeted CBTp at only one of the problems commonly associated with psychosis – hearing voices. Secondly, this targeted approach has enabled us to reduce the number of sessions over which the therapy is conducted (from the recommended minimum of 16 sessions, down to 10 sessions). Finally, we have structured the therapy in the form of a workbook to enable briefly trained therapists to guide people through the therapy. Our therapy is called Guided self-help CBT for distressing voices (also known as the GiVE intervention). Our briefly trained therapists are called Assistant Psychologists. They have a degree in psychology and usually work in NHS Mental Health Services under the supervision of highly trained therapists. We want to see if our GiVE intervention is helpful for people with a diagnosis of psychosis who are distressed by hearing voices, when delivered by Assistant Psychologists.
Design and methods used
We have successfully completed a smaller version of this study. The lessons that we learnt from the smaller version have helped us to design this larger study.
We will include 130 people with a diagnosis of psychosis in our study:
• 65 people will be offered the GiVE intervention over 10 sessions, delivered by an Assistant Psychologist
• 65 people will continue to receive the usual support and treatments offered by their mental health team
Our findings will tell us if the GiVE intervention is helpful to people with a diagnosis of psychosis who are distressed by hearing voices, when delivered by Assistant Psychologists.REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/NW/0118
Date of REC Opinion
21 Jun 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion