People with schizophrenia often hear voices or see things (hallucinations) and have strange beliefs (delusions). Characteristics of the
illness are disordered thoughts, feelings, beliefs and perceptions. People with schizophreniamay also find it difficult to find employment,
make friends and socialise with other people.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) works by focusing on people’s thoughts, emotions and behaviours and by challenging strange
or dysfunctional thoughts. CBT was originally developed to help people with psychological disorders such as Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder.More recently it has been used to help people with psychosis (CBTp).Working with a therapist, people establish links between
their thoughts, feelings or actions. They are encouraged to re-evaluate their beliefs, perceptions and reasoning as well as to monitor
their own thoughts, feelings, behaviours and symptoms. CBTp is suggested to provide alternative ways of coping with strange thoughts
and the symptoms of schizophrenia, which should reduce distress and improve people’s functioning.
Standard CBTp tends to involve around 16 sessions (12 to 20 sessions) over 4 to 6 months, while brief CBTp involves around 6 to 10
sessions, in less than 4 months.
The aim of this review was to compare two types of CBTp, brief CBTp and standard CBTp for people with schizophrenia. A search
was run for relevant randomised studies in 2013. Only seven potentially-relevant studies were found. However, although all of them
randomised people with schizophrenia, none of these studies compared brief CBTp with standard CBTp. In the main they compared
brief CBTp with standard care or other therapies. There is, therefore, no information or literature available to compare brief with
standard CBTp for schizophrenia and psychosis.
There is a need for large scale research and trials that compare brief CBTp with standard CBTp. This research needs to evaluate costs,
have clear definitions of standard and brief CBTp and focus on the time period or number of sessions, i.e. the ‘effective dose’ of CBTp.
This plain language summary has been written by a consumer, Ben Gray, Service User Expert, Rethink Mental Illness