In this project, a 10-session treatment program was developed aimed at young people who experience voice hearing. The treatment has potential to easily be implemented in everyday clinical practice in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and eventually in Educational Psychological Counselling (PPR) and the newly established STIME services (low-threshold municipal treatment offers for children and young people).
As part of the treatment, the young person's caregivers are involved. This means a high degree of involvement from adults who know the young person well and are part of their daily life.
In addition to traditional Compassion-focuced therapy (CFT), the treatment is expanded with an intervention where an audio file is recorded with content corresponding to the adolescent's voice hearing. The parents are invited to listen to the audio file while participating in a therapy session. This will help improve the caregivers understanding of the young person's experiences and challenges.
The participants should have been referred to a child and adolescent psychiatric hospital in Denmark .
The participants have heard voices within the last 2 weeks.
The participant can hear the content of the voices. The content takes the form of spoken works.
A caregiver who can participate in 5 sessions
Participants has an estimated IQ under 70
Participants who don't speak and understand Danish,
Current drug misuse / abuse (during sessions)
Brain injury or neurological disorder e.g. severe epilepsy
Single group
ECHO Manualized CFT treatment for young voice heares
BehavioralA manualized 10 session, intervention inspired by compassion focused therapy. A primary caretaker paticipates in 5 sessions.
Interpretation and relationship with the voices
Psychotic symptoms are measured with: BAVQ-R (Beliefs about Voices Questionnaire - Revised) (Chadwick et al., 2000).( 35 items are rated (0-3) total minimum score 0, maximum score 105. Some scores indicate higher distress, while other indicate lower distress).
Severity and phenomenological characteristics of voice hearing
PSYRATS AH (Psychotic Symptoms Rating Scale Auditory Hallucinations) (Haddock et al., 1999). (11 items are rated (0-4) total minimum score 0, maximum score 44. Higher score being more severe)
Perceived ability to control or influence the voices
The Yale Control Over Perceptual Experiences (COPE) Scales measures voluntary control over voices such as being able to intentionally influence the timing, frequency, or intensity of voice hearing experiences (Mourgues et al., 2022). (36 items are rated (1-7) total minimum score 36, maximum score 252. Higher scores indicate stronger perceived control over voices)
Social Cognition
Social cognition is tested with TASIT 2A DK (The Awareness of Social Inference Test) (McDonald et al., 2003). (60 items are rated, minimum total score 0, maximum score is 60. Lower score being more severe)
Subjective experience of feeling safe, accepted, and soothed in social relationships.
SSPS (Social safeness and pleasure scale) (Gilbert et al., 2009). (11 items are rated (1-5). Total minimum 11, total maximum 55. Lower score being more severe).
Compassion towards self.
SCS-SF (Self-Compassion Scale Short Form) (Raes et al., 2011; Neff et al., 2019) (12 items are rated (1-5) total minimum 12, total maximum 60. Lower score being more severe).
Subjective sense of interpersonal closeness and belonging
The Social Connectedness Scale Revised (Lee et al., 1995; Sabitelli et al., 2005). (8 items are rated (1-6). Total minimum score 8, total maximum score 48. Lower score being more severe).
Primary caregivers
Factual information about the young person: Education, cohabiting or divorced parents, the young person's residence, family history of mental illness, diagnosis and medication of the young person
Additional questions
Additionally, questions are asked about how well you feel your parents understand you (e.g., do they know what motivates you and what scares you?) (Likert scale 1-10). Questions about daily stress, sleep, violence and abuse, well-being and quality of life, interaction with family and friends (from the "How are you?" survey among youth in the Central Denmark Region). Quality of life is measured with WHO-5.
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
University of Southern Denmark
Lead sponsor
Region Syddanmark
Collaborator
This trial is not recruiting at the moment. You can still explore other options:
