iMAgery focused therapy for PSychosis: iMAPS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
iMagery focused psychological therapy for persecutory delusions in PSychosis: A Case Series Investigation
IRAS ID
165908
Contact name
Christopher Taylor
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 17 days
Research summary
Some people have distressing experiences associated with psychosis and schizophrenia. Persecutory delusions (a belief that harm is happening or is going to happen and the person you think is going to hurt you, intends to cause that harm) is a particularly distressing aspect of some service users/patient’s psychosis.
These experiences/symptoms can also be associated with service users having troublesome mental images (e.g. seeing a picture in the “mind’s eye”). These can also sometimes be similar to “flashbacks” where unpleasant past events reappear in the mind.
Antipsychotic medication and psychological therapies are recommended as the main treatments for people who experience psychosis and schizophrenia. However, there is lots of evidence that many service users decide to refuse or stop taking medication (e.g. the large CATIE study of newer medications found 74% of service users stopped taking their medication within 18 months). Psychological therapies ("talking therapies") such as Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a recommended psychological treatment for psychosis. However, CBT does not work for everyone and it has a small to moderate benefit for people with psychosis, highlighting the need to further develop psychological treatments for psychosis.
Intrusive mental images, which make people feel anxious are often linked with stressful events or trauma and are linked with lots of mental health problems. This imagery can be a route to accessing core beliefs, especially the meaning of these images.
Imagery focused therapy has been used successfully for people who struggle with anxiety or post-traumatic stress difficulties. They have been promising results but it has not been formally evaluated for people who have suspicious beliefs and have intrusive mental images (pictures in their head or “mind’s eye”). The current study iMAPS (IMAgery focused therapy for Psychosis) aims to assess this therapy in psychosis for the first time.REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/1490
Date of REC Opinion
22 Dec 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion