STOP- Successful Treatment of Paranoia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
STOP- Successful Treatment Of Paranoia: Replacing harmful paranoid thoughts with better alternatives
IRAS ID
303876
Contact name
Jenny Yiend
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN17754650
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NA, NA
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Psychosis is one of the most disabling mental health condition, associated with distress and impairment in work, family and social functioning. Many people with psychosis continue to have paranoid beliefs, despite the best treatments available.
STOP is a mobile app self-administered psychological procedure that has been developed by combining basic research on biases in paranoia with established intervention techniques and builds on promising feasibility study data, IRAS ID 187338.
Participants read stories on a computer screen, complete missing words and answer a question about each story in a way that encourages more helpful beliefs about themselves and others. STOP encourages people to develop alternative ways of interpreting paranoid thoughts (i.e. “someone is watching me”), leading participants to change their understanding of what these situations might mean.
Preliminary research shows that, after one session, people with paranoia display a range of helpful effects, including significant belief change, and less distress in ambiguous social situations. Feasibility testing over 6 sessions showed the currently proposed RCT to be feasible and suggested belief change and reduced symptoms. The present 3 arm RCT will randomise patients to 6 or 12 sessions of STOP or an active control, in addition to usual treatment. Patients will be assessed at baseline, 6, 12, 18 and 24 weeks post randomisation on a range of outcome measures including paranoia symptom change, belief change, and user-endorsed measures of recovery. 273 participants will be randomised across two study sites, London and Bath.
The overall aim is to test whether STOP could be an effective treatment for paranoia and identify an optimum dose (number of sessions). If efficacious STOP would have a number of potential advantages over other approaches, including, minimal effort to complete, no homework, no therapist, and accessibility.
REC name
London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/LO/0896
Date of REC Opinion
14 Jan 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion