Preferences for psychological therapy in psychosis: trial participation, mode of treatment, and willingness to be randomised

Abstract

Background: Psychological therapies for psychosis are well evidenced; however, service user preferences for psychological treatment and trial participation have been little researched.

Aims: To investigate preferences for psychological treatments for psychosis and trial participation decisions within a sample of people with experience of psychosis.

Method: Hypothetical preferences were assessed in 90 individuals diagnosed with non-affective psychosis: (a) willingness/unwillingness to participate in a psychological therapy trial; (b) willingness/unwillingness to be randomised to treatment condition; (c) preference for mode of therapy; (d) reasons for preferences; (e) socio-demographic and clinical characteristics associated with preferences.

Results: Most participants reported willingness to participate in a therapy trial and preferred not to be randomly allocated. Reasons for preferences were diverse, and preferences were not associated with socio-demographic or clinical variables.

Conclusions: The need for treatment choice in services for psychosis and further research in this area has been highlighted.

• Cognitive behavioural therapy
• intervention
• preferences
• psychosis
• randomisation
• treatment

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements to individual members of the Service User Reference Group, Yvonne Awenat, Rory Byrne, Ellen Hodson, Sam Omar, Liz Pitt, Jason Price, Tim Rawcliffe and Yvonne Thomas for their work on this study. We would also like to thank Carla Innes and Kimberley Drummond for their help with data collection, and Professor Graham Dunn and Dr Andrew Stewart for assistance with the statistical analyses.