Optimal psychological intervention doses for psychosis and paranoia V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Clinicians and service users views of psychological intervention doses for psychosis and paranoia: a qualitative study.
IRAS ID
319668
Contact name
Carolina Fialho
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN17754650
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NA, NA
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Psychosis, and the commonly associated paranoid thinking, is one of the most debilitating forms of mental illness. Therefore, it is of critical importance that people who experience psychosis and paranoia receive the most appropriate treatment.
NICE guidelines recommend Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Family Intervention (FI) for people who experience psychosis. However, there is a lack of certainty regarding the most helpful number of sessions as NICE merely recommended ‘at least 16 sessions’ of CBT and ‘at least 10 sessions’ of FI. Similarly, a systematic review on the most helpful number of sessions of psychological interventions for psychosis stated that they were not able to reach a conclusion on this. There is, therefore, a need to further investigate the most appropriate number of sessions of psychological interventions for psychosis and paranoia.
One way of informing dose is through qualitative methods, such as focus groups with key stakeholders. Therefore, this study aims to explore the views of clinicians and service users on the most helpful duration of psychological interventions for psychosis and paranoia.
Participants will be clinicians with at least 2 years of experience working with clients with psychosis and/or paranoia and experience of delivering a psychological therapy with this population; and service users with experience of receiving a psychological therapy for psychosis and paranoia in the past 2 years.
Thirty two participants (16 clinicians and 16 service users) will be asked to complete a 5-minute online questionnaire about their experiences of psychological interventions for psychosis or paranoia and to take part in a 1-hour online focus group. Therefore, participation in the study will last approximately a total of 1 hour and 10 minutes.
This research is being done as part of a self-funded PhD project. King’s College London is the lead sponsor of the research. The study will be conducted at KCL and SLAM.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0202
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion