Creative bibliotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Creative bibliotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): an exploratory study of PTSD patient and clinician experiences with creative bibliotherapy
IRAS ID
194736
Contact name
Calla EY Glavin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent condition globally; the World Health Organization estimated that 3.1-6% of people will experience PTSD at some point in their lives. Victims of violent crime, veterans, first responders and others are at high risk to develop PTSD. Unfortunately, stigma and other barriers obstruct effective care for the condition so the development of adjunct, community-based therapies is compelling.
Creative bibliotherapy – or the guided reading of fiction or poetry – is used widely by both private and public organizations for general mental health and conditions like depression. Considering the widespread employment of creative bibliotherapy in mental health, a systematic review was conducted to explore its effectiveness at reducing symptoms specifically in adult populations with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but no high-quality controlled randomized or non-randomized trials were located. However, there was no evidence to suggest harms from the trial designs related to creative bibliotherapy. Furthermore, some low-quality qualitative studies indicated that this intervention may have potential to reduce PTSD symptoms.
Our study will explore creative bibliotherapy by remarking on PTSD patients' current engagement with fiction (in literature or film) and on PTSD clinicians' opinions on creative bibliotherapy and identification of possible barriers to implementation.
Semi-structured interviews will help us understand the above through questions that are not held to the rigidity of response codes. We will investigate patient preferences regarding different means of delivery (e.g. Kindle, mobile application, paperback), modes of delivery (e.g. read-aloud, silent reading, audiobook, group v. individual) and type of fiction (e.g. genre, length of work). These sessions will also identify or highlight possible barriers to implementation from clinician input. Baseline PTSD through the PCL-5 and baseline literacy through the REALM-R will be assessed in order to contextualize patient responses.
REC name
South Central - Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SC/0070
Date of REC Opinion
26 Feb 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion