The Trauma-Voice Hearing Relationship in Refugees and non-Refugees
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Examining the Relationship between Trauma and Voice-Hearing in Refugee and non-Refugee Populations
IRAS ID
261934
Contact name
Emily Smyth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Holloway, University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Research is increasingly evidencing a relationship between traumatic experiences and voice-hearing, i.e. voice-hearing may be a response to severe trauma. Until recently however, trauma and voice-hearing have largely been understood and treated as distinct from one another. Evidencing a trauma-voice relationship may thus have significant consequences for making more appropriate diagnoses and referrals to services, and on the treatment received and its subsequent effectiveness.
To date, research examining the trauma-voice relationship has predominantly been conducted in non-Refugee, native populations. Refugees however remain largely under-researched, in spite of evidence of higher prevalence rates of psychotic disorders and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than non-Refugees.
This study proposes to examine the trauma-voice relationship further, in a sample of 50 participants with experiences of trauma and voice-hearing. The sample will incorporate both Refugees and non-Refugees. We predict:
(1) Refugees will show significantly higher rates of trauma-voice links than non-Refugees. For example, more Refugees will show a direct link between the content of their traumatic experiences with that of the content of their voices than non-Refugees; and more Refugees will show a link in the identity of the perpetrator in their traumatic experiences with that of the perpetrator of their voices than non-Refugees etc.
(2) The degree of voice-hearing distress will be associated with the number of PTSD symptoms one presents with, and this association will be greater in Refugees than non-Refugees.25 Refugees with trauma-voice experiences will be recruited from NHS Refugee/trauma services in London. Anonymised non-Refugee data collected in a sub-study of The Temstem Trial (van den Berg & Hardy, in prep) will be used to allow comparison to Refugees, and their procedures will be replicated. Four trauma/voice measures will be administered to Refugee participants in one-off, face-to-face research interviews which will last approximately one hour.
REC name
London - Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0706
Date of REC Opinion
5 Jun 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion