Cultivating Well-being in Severe Psychiatric Conditions

Universidad Complutense de Madrid140 enrolled

Overview

The multicomponet psychological intervention is called Feliz-Mente, with third generation therapy components that aims to improve wellbeing and self-enhancement. Without intervening directly on the symptoms, it is expected to increase positive experiences, the use of personal strengths and positive relationships, and aims to build a more meaningful self-narrative in persons with severe psychiatric conditions. Feliz-Mente is a group intervention of 12 sessions in which participants are expected to perform exercises during and between sessions to improve treatment adherence and daily practice. The design for the present study is a randomized controlled trial, which compares the post-intervention measures of the experimental group (group receiving the intervention) with the post-intervention measures of the control group (treatment as usual + waiting list).

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

140

Conditions

Wellbeing

Interventions

The intervention aims to improve well-being, without denying the existence of symptoms or problems, focusing on generating positive emotions and actions congruent with the person's values through 11 weekly 90-minute group sessions. The multi-component intervention manual was composed of evidence-based exercises of Positive Psychoterapy Interventions, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness and was theory driven according the broaden-and-build-theory (Fredrickson, 2001) and the self-serving model of paranoia (Murphy et al., 2018). It was also informed by previous pilot studies carried out on people with paranoid tendencies (see Valiente et al., 2020) and with Severe Psyquiatric Condition samples.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 65 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * 1\) were aged 18-65 years * 2\) had a minimum of motivation and commitment to participate in group therapy Exclusion Criteria: * 1\) limited cognitive resources or serious formal thinking disorder and/or * 2\) a concurrent diagnosis of substance dependence or a severe personality disorder that could interfere with benefiting from a psychotherapy group.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Well-being

Psychological Well-Being Scales (Ryff, 1995)

Time frame: Change from Well-being at 12 weeks and 6 months

Well-being

Satisfaction with life Scale ( Diener et al. 1985)

Time frame: Change from Well-being at 12 weeks and 6 months

Secondary Outcomes

Self-esteem

Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965)

Time frame: Change from self-esteem at 12 weeks and 6 months

Attachment

Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991)

Time frame: Change from Attachment at 12 weeks and 6 months

Psychological Symptoms

Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 2002)

Time frame: Change from Psychological Symptoms at 12 weeks and 6 months

Experiential Avoidance

The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ; Hayes et al.,2004)

Time frame: Change from Experiential Avoidance at 12 weeks and 6 months