Randomised controlled trial of cognitive behaviour therapy to prevent psychosis among people with at-risk mental states.

Funded Activity Summary

Recent advances in the accurate identification of individuals at high risk of developing a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia, have inspired the development of interventions designed to delay, ameliorate or even prevent the onset of such disorders. To date, the results of only three randomised controlled trials of such interventions have been published. Although these results have shown that interventions are able to delay the onset of psychosis, and may even prevent psychosis in some cases, it is unclear which treatment should be preferred for this population because the three trials have assessed, respectively, a combination of anti-psychotic medication and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), CBT alone, and anti-psychotic medication alone. Since the trial of CBT alone produced results that were at least as favourable as the two other trials, and since ethical and clinical objections have been raised concerning the use of anti-psychotic medications with young people who may never develop a psychotic disorder, CBT may be the preferred treatment. Far from posing unnecessary risks, CBT has the potential to provide important therapeutic benefits even to those not destined to develop a psychosis. The current study is significant in that it proposes a controlled trial of a form of CBT which has been specially adapted for preventing transition to psychosis among young high-risk individuals, to test whether the previous favourable results for CBT can be independently replicated. It will be compared with a control treatment. Since cannabis abuse is common among young people who are at risk, and is a known risk factor for psychosis, CBT will include elements of treatment for cannabis abuse. The trial will be run in both Newcastle and Orange, NSW, enabling us to compare the effectiveness of CBT in urban and rural settings. This study has the potential to have large impacts on the quality of life of young people at risk of psychosis.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2006

End Date: 01-01-2008

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $619,604.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Mental Health

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

cognitive behaviour | delusions | early intervention | first episode psychosis | psychosis | psychosis/schizophrenia | substance abuse | therapy | young people | youth

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