Exploring frameworks of understanding in psychosis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring frameworks of understanding and meaning-making processes in experiences of psychosis: a qualitative cross-sectional study
IRAS ID
286804
Contact name
Andrew Fox
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
How do people with psychosis make sense of their experiences/negotiate other people's way of making sense of this? Epistemic injustice is defined as a person being treated unfairly based upon the fact they belong to a particular group, for example, having a mental illness. This form of treatment could potentially be the foundation for more severe forms of injustice i.e. coercion or involuntary admission to a psychiatric hospital. Past literature has used descriptive approaches of real-life case studies to discuss this idea in healthcare, psychiatry, and the assessment of delusions, however, no studies have examined schizophrenia specifically and there is a need for a more detailed approach to examining possible epistemic injustice. 24-40 participants will be recruited from Early Intervention Service (EIS), Community Mental Health Teams (CMHT), and the general population. The sample will be split into 4 groups of 6-10 participants each. The first group (non-clinical) will explore epistemic injustice in people with psychotic-like experiences who have not been diagnosed with schizophrenia. A cross-sectional sample will be used for the second two groups (clinical) to explore and compare possible epistemic injustice in individuals in their 1st or 2nd year of using EIS and individuals in their 3rd - 5th year of using EIS. The final group (clinical) will explore possible epistemic injustice in individuals with schizophrenia recruited from CMHT. To be eligible for the study, individuals must be native English speakers diagnosed with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder or people who have psychotic-like experiences, over the age of 18, with the capacity to consent. Participants will be interviewed and partly audio-recorded for 2-3 hours at the University of Birmingham. Transcribed interviews will then be coded and analysed following the guidelines of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/PR/0616
Date of REC Opinion
1 Apr 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion