Innovations in psychological therapy for psychosis: Using digital health to make real change happen

Psychosis is associated with significant distress and disability for individuals, families and society (Schizophrenia Commission, 2013). Cognitive-behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) has beneficial outcomes and is... [ view full abstract ]

Psychosis is associated with significant distress and disability for individuals, families and society (Schizophrenia Commission, 2013). Cognitive-behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) has beneficial outcomes and is recommended by NICE (2014).  However, CBTp is delivered to just 10% of eligible service users, with modest effect sizes, and has expensive training and delivery costs (Burns et al, 2014; Haddock et al, 2014; Thomas, 2015; Turner et al, 2014; van der Gaag et al, 2014).  Technology has the potential to address these obstacles, significantly improving people’s experience of care and extending the reach of therapy to people’s everyday lives (Alvarez-Jimenez et al, 2014).  Developing effective digital health interventions for psychosis presents novel challenges and opportunities, requiring greater interdisciplinary collaboration between experts by experience, clinicians, researchers and technologists.  This symposium will showcase four digital innovations, highlighting how they show promise in promoting meaningful change for people affected by psychosis.   David van den Berg will outline the development of a novel mobile app, Temstem, which consists of language games that aim to reduce the distress and disability associated with voice hearing, through supporting coping, enhancing self-esteem and targeting episodic memories.  Amy Hardy will describe the development and feasibility testing of SlowMo, the first digital therapy platform for paranoia, which assists people to visualise their thoughts to find ways of feeling safer.  Mar Rus-Calafell will describe the development of a new virtual reality paradigm to assess and treat cognitive (fear of negative evaluation), affective (social distress) and behavioural (social avoidance) components of social performance (CSP) in people with psychosis. Tom Ward will present findings from the AVATAR randomised controlled trial, and share experiences of the therapy process.