Treating Unhelpful Suspicious Thoughts in teenagers (TRUST): RCT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Treating Unhelpful Suspicious Thoughts in teenagers (TRUST): A feasibility Randomised Controlled Clinical Trial
IRAS ID
349714
Contact name
Christopher Taylor
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 30 days
Research summary
Aim. We want to see if it is feasible to test a novel psychological treatment for teenagers who feel mistrusting and/or suspicious towards other people. The therapy is called TRUST ("TReating Unhelpful Suspicious Thoughts"). We will test it by delivering it to teenagers in schools. We hope TRUST will help them feel better and prevent serious mental health problems when they get older.
Background. Many UK teenagers struggle with their mental health. Feeling very suspicious of others, called paranoia, is common in teenagers. About 20-30% have paranoid thoughts every week. In the short term, this makes them feel distressed and bad about themselves, and often gets in the way of friendships. In the longer term, these paranoid worries could lead to serious mental health problems. Currently, there are no treatments for paranoid thoughts in teenagers. It is important to develop treatments that help early and are easy to access at school.
Design and methods. We will invite 40 teenagers aged 16-18 with moderate to severe paranoid thoughts to take part. They will be randomly split into two equal groups. One group will get TRUST therapy and the other will get usual school support. We will find out whether TRUST can be efficiently delivered at school, ask teenagers what they thought of it, and compare the groups to gain preliminary evidence about whether the therapy helps.
Patient and Public Involvement. We have been meeting with teenagers who have experience of paranoid thoughts. They have helped us make decisions about key aspects of the study design. They thought school-based therapy for paranoia was needed and that our plans were ethical. Two teenagers will be part of the research team.
Sharing results. We will share results with stakeholders. If feasible, we will use our findings to plan a larger study.REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
25/WA/0364
Date of REC Opinion
4 Feb 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion