VISION-QUEST
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Visual hallucinations: A questionnaire study
IRAS ID
332680
Contact name
Charlotte Aynsworth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
One in three people with psychosis experience distressing visual hallucinations (VH) – seeing things that others cannot. When VH occur, they can have a detrimental impact on people’s lives, such as more frequent and prolonged hospital admissions, and greater likelihood of suicide.
A previous study by this team (The experience of VH in psychosis from the first-person perspective: IRAS ID: 291872) spoke to 12 people with VH. We found that the way in which people make sense of their VH are one of the keys factors driving distress. For example, when people thought VH were negative or threatening, they found them to be more distressing and this had a bigger impact on their lives. The next step is therefore to explore this on a larger scale to understand more about people’s appraisals of VH. Then this can be used to validate a scale of VH appraisals and develop targeted treatments for these.
To do so, this study will develop a questionnaire focused on people’s beliefs about VH. It will also explore the relationship of visions to other potential casual mechanisms such as poor sleep, and excessive worry.
900 people with psychosis will complete self-report questionnaires (approximately 30-45 minutes). After this, a subgroup of 100 participants will be asked to repeat some of the measures a week later to test if the appraisals measure is consistent.
We will recruit participants via the Clinical Research Network (CRN), which has research staff based in NHS Trusts nationwide. The study is funded by the National Institute of Health Research. Recruiting via the CRN is a method which has been successfully used by other research group, with minimal risks identified.By developing a new measure and our knowledge of causal mechanisms of visions, it will be the next important steps to developing better treatments for these.
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/NW/0358
Date of REC Opinion
5 Dec 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion