Alleviating Distress Associated With Psychotic-Type Disorders With a 10-Session, Manualised Combination of CBT and ACT in New Zealand

Abstract

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a treatment that combined techniques from cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to alleviate the psychological distress and symptom severity resultant from psychotic-type disorders. This treatment (EVoLVE Therapy; an acronym for Exposing Virtues of Living Valued Existences) was designed to primarily target the psychological distress associated with psychosis and secondarily to facilitate improvement in psychotic-type symptoms. Participants in this study were selected based on previous diagnoses of schizophrenia, schizoaffective, and other psychiatric disorders with psychotic features. Seven participants, who each had been long-term consumers of mental health services, completed 10 weeks of therapy. Postgraduate clinical psychology students, in training to become professional psychologists, delivered supervised therapy using a structured treatment manual written by the researchers. Pretreatment, posttreatment and 5-week follow-up data were collected, using a variety of measures to assess the effectiveness of treatment. Results were very encouraging, with some clients making considerable improvements at the end of therapy and at the 5-week follow-up assessment. All 7 participants showed a decrease in symptom severity after treatment. In addition, 6 out of the 7 participants reported an improved quality of life and marked improvements in both positive and negative affect were also evident.