Voice hearing in an African and Caribbean population
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring experiences and distress in African and Caribbean clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers: A mixed methods study.
IRAS ID
219888
Contact name
Dawn Edge
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
RDMP6598, Research Data Management Plan
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 17 days
Research summary
Hearing voices (auditory hallucinations) has traditionally been considered a sign of mental illness. However, research has found the hearing voices is an experience commonly reported by people with no history of mental health difficulties. One of the main factors that determines whether someone will require mental health services in relation to their voice hearing experiences is whether or not they are distressed by them. Understanding distress in relation to voice hearing is likely to be very beneficial in developing effective and efficient psychological interventions.
This current study aims to explore the relationship between voices, important life goals and distress in an African-Caribbean and Black-African population. In particular, we aim to examine whether distress can be understood by the impact of hearing voices on life goals within this population. The second phase of the study also aims to explore people’s experiences of voice hearing using a qualitative approach, for more in-depth and rich data.
We plan to recruit approximately 40 people reporting distressing and voices that are not distressing (20 from each group), with 20 of these people (10 from each group) completing the qualitative study. Through a series of tasks and measures, we will explore differences between these two groups that might help to understand why some voices are perceived as distressing and others are not. This will include beliefs about voices, information about important life goals and any potential conflict surrounding these goals and content and characteristics of the voices. We will also explore how people make sense of their voice hearing, with a particular focus on culture and spirituality.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/NW/0150
Date of REC Opinion
10 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion