A Mentored Self-Help Intervention for Psychotic Symptom Management

Revision with unchanged content. Evidence supports the benefit of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) of psychosis for people experiencing psychotic symptoms, often diagnosed with schizophrenia. This study explores whether a mentored self-help intervention with similarities to CBT of psychosis benefits people experiencing psychotic symptoms and diagnosed with major mental disorders. A self-help workbook stemming from the British psychiatric survivor and voice hearers' movements is used. Research results show significant between-group differences on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale subscale for Anxious Depression. While a conservative interpretation of this result is that it is due to chance, a more positive interpretation is that the mentored self-help intervention made an improvement in participant levels of depression-anxiety. If so, this supports further research on the intervention and is particularly important as over two-thirds of those diagnosed with schizophrenia experience a major depressive episode. This book is addressed to all mental health professionals who work with clients who hear voices. Mental health service users may also find it of interest.