Auditory hallucinations schizophrenia trial#

Outcomes were measured using a number of valid psychometric questionnaires measuring overall psychotic symptoms, as well as specific qualities of voices, e.g.

Auditory hallucinations schizophrenia trial#

The study was a single blind, randomised control trial at the South London and Maudsley Hospital (only the assessors of therapeutic outcome were blinded to allocation).

Sessions included themes of quality of life, identity, and coming to terms with previous trauma. It’s not entirely clear from the Lancet Psychiatry article (Craig et al, 2017) whether this was followed exactly for this present trial, or whether it was adapted to match the time of individuals in AVATAR therapy. This details that supportive counselling was conducted over a 5-week period with a total of 15-20 hours per person, including booster sessions at 2 weeks, 1, 2, and 3 months. The details of the supporting counselling sessions are a little hidden in this article, but the authors did mention that they followed the guidelines in a previous research study (Lewis et al, 2002).

Supportive counselling sessions with a supervised, graduate psychology assistant.

AVATAR therapy with a skilled clinician in weekly 50-minute sessions over 6 weeks, or.

Methodsġ50 participants were equally assigned to either AVATAR therapy or supportive counselling (over 6 weeks), and outcome measures for psychotic symptoms, depression, anxiety, and auditory hallucinations were taken at 12 and 24 weeks. Who are you? We might create or relate to our internal characters through computer games, theatre, and art. Tom Craig, Phillipa Garrety, and colleagues from the University of Manchester, University College London, and King’s College London investigated how effective a virtual reality (VR) treatment called AVATAR therapy is for distressing auditory hallucinations, compared to traditional supportive counselling (Craig et al, 2017). Will this help improve the efficacy of therapy? Now, new digital approaches open up the possibility that those with distressing voices can visually personify their characters and try to create dialogue with them. However, a recent meta-analysis has found effect sizes are consistently small with current techniques. Work in the field (Chadwick et al, 2004) has suggested that trying to conceptualise the voices and characters with an experienced therapist can help take the edge off them to accept their presence, understand and conceptualise them, and thereby gain some ownership. This blog will focus on a study including those with psychosis and who hear voices these voices tend to be far more negative and distressing (Andrew et al, 2008) than those who don’t need clinical care. NOTE: Not all those with psychosis hear voices and not all voice hearers have psychosis (Waters et al, 2017). Not all voice hearers want to get rid of their voices just the ones that aren’t exactly helpful or constructive.

Hearing voices involves a huge range of sensations sometimes they’re obvious, other times they can be a ‘silent voice’ (Humpston et al, 2016). Now imagine these characters weren’t just confined to our sense of self, but sounded like they were right next to you, behind you, or surrounding you, seemingly talking as if the person was right there in the room out of your control and what’s more, some of them are saying cruel things to you.įor those with psychosis, this can be a daily reality. Look closer still and you might spot the different characters that occupy your thoughts, maybe a parent or a friend pops into your head just before you’re about to post that article online. Look a little closer though and you’ll notice that actually we’re made up of a jumble of processes happening all at the same time it’s a beautiful feat of orchestration. It can be like a family Christmas dinner in your head, but without the nice food and mulled wine.įor most of the time the mind is seemingly neat and together. Therapy can highlight how fractured and odd the mind can be at times, how we might not have the whole picture of who we are, and how easy it is to give yourself a really hard time. Trying to talk about these bits of who we are can often be really difficult to articulate, especially if they’re a bit obscure. Therapy can be a bloody tough slog, especially when you notice annoying things about yourself.