Background: Substantial epidemiological research has shown that psychotic experiences are more common in densely populated areas. Many patients with persecutory delusions find it difficult to enter busy social urban settings. The stress and anxiety caused by being outside lead many patients to remain in-doors. We therefore developed a brief CBT intervention, based upon a formulation of the way urban environments cause stress and anxiety, to help patients with paranoid thoughts to feel less distressed when outside in busy streets. Aims: The aim was to pilot the new intervention for feasibility and acceptability and gather preliminary outcome data. Method: Fifteen patients with persecutory delusions in the context of a schizophrenia diagnosis took part. All patients first went outside to test their reactions, received the intervention, and then went outside again. Results: The intervention was considered useful by the patients. There was evidence that going outside after the intervention led to less paranoid responses than the initial exposure, but this was only statistically significant for levels of distress. Conclusions: Initial evidence was obtained that a brief CBT module specifically focused on helping patients with paranoia go outside is feasible, acceptable, and may have clinical benefits. However, it could not be determined from this small feasibility study that any observed improvements were due to the CBT intervention. Challenges in this area and future work required are outlined.

Background: Randomized controlled trials have established that individual cognitive therapy based on the Clark and Wells (1995) model is an effective treatment for social anxiety disorder that is superior to a range of alternative psychological and pharmacological interventions. Normally the treatment involves up to 14 weekly face-to-face therapy sessions. Aim: To develop an internet based version of the treatment that requires less therapist time. Method: An internet-delivered version of cognitive therapy (iCT) for social anxiety disorder is described. The internet-version implements all key features of the face-to-face treatment; including video feedback, attention training, behavioural experiments, and memory focused techniques. Therapist support is via a built-in secure messaging system and by brief telephone calls. A cohort of 11 patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for social anxiety disorder worked through the programme and were assessed at pretreatment and posttreatment. Results: No patients dropped out. Improvements in social anxiety and related process variables were within the range of those observed in randomized controlled trials of face-to-face CT. Nine patients (82%) were classified as treatment responders and seven (64%) achieved remission status. Therapist time per patient was only 20% of that in face-to-face CT. Conclusions: iCT shows promise as a way of reducing therapist time without compromising efficacy. Further evaluation of iCT is ongoing.

Background: Interpretation training programs, in which individuals are trained to interpret ambiguous scenarios in either a negative or benign way, have proven effective in altering anxiety-related cognitive biases in both children and adults. Aims: The current study investigated whether the effects of the interpretation training procedure in children are differentiated according to the mode of presentation of the training. Method: Ninety-four primary school children (aged 10–12 years) scoring above the mean on a social anxiety scale were randomly allocated to four groups, in which they were trained using written or spoken presentation of training materials in either the negative or benign direction. Results: For the negative training, children who heard the training material spoken aloud (spoken presentation) made more negative interpretations of ambiguous social events, compared to children who read the training material (written presentation). However, for the benign training, there was less clear evidence for a differentiation of the effects between the two modes of presentation, although children in the spoken presentation group performed better in a stressful task and showed a trend to rate their mood as more positive after the task than children in the written presentation group. Conclusions: These results not only forward our understanding of the mechanism of the genesis of cognitive bias in children, but also highlight the need for further investigation of how to optimize the effectiveness of interpretation training in children.

Background: Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) is currently a recommended form of psychosocial treatment for persons suffering from persistent psychotic symptoms. It has been argued that effect sizes from efficacy studies cannot be generalized to real clinical settings. Aims: Our aim was to evaluate whether the positive results from randomized controlled trials conducted by experts could be replicated in clinical setting with a heterogeneous sample of patients with psychotic disorder. Method: Patients referred to the study were either randomized to CBTp + TAU (the treatment group) or to a waiting-list group, only receiving TAU. The patients were assessed on different outcome measures such as the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), and the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS), at pretreatment, at posttreatment (6 months), and at 12 months follow-up. In total, 45 patients participated in the study. Results: The results showed that 20 sessions of CBTp performed significantly better than the waiting list controls with respect to the global score on the BPRS, the delusional scale on the PSYRATS, and the GAF symptom score at posttreatment. At 12 months follow-up only the GAF symptom score remained significantly changed for the total sample. Conclusions: The study revealed that CBTp delivered by non-experts in routine clinical settings can produce improvements in positive psychotic symptoms, and also that some of these improvements can be maintained at one year follow-up.

Background: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) of anxiety disorders is usually delivered in weekly or biweekly sessions. There is evidence that intensive CBT can be effective in phobias and obsessive compulsive disorder. Studies of intensive CBT for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are lacking. Method: A feasibility study tested the acceptability and efficacy of an intensive version of Cognitive Therapy for PTSD (CT-PTSD) in 14 patients drawn from consecutive referrals. Patients received up to 18 hours of therapy over a period of 5 to 7 working days, followed by 1 session a week later and up to 3 follow-up sessions. Results: Intensive CT-PTSD was well tolerated and 85.7 % of patients no longer had PTSD at the end of treatment. Patients treated with intensive CT-PTSD achieved similar overall outcomes as a comparable group of patients treated with weekly CT-PTSD in an earlier study, but the intensive treatment improved PTSD symptoms over a shorter period of time and led to greater reductions in depression. Conclusions: The results suggest that intensive CT-PTSD is a feasible and promising alternative to weekly treatment that warrants further evaluation in randomized trials.