Coping Strategy Enhancement for Auditory Verbal Hallucinations Within Routine Clinical Practice

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are often multiple distressing experiences. Emerging evidence suggests that interventions informed by the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy, such as brief Cognitive Strategy Enhancement (brief-CSE), can reduce the distress related to AVH. The benefits of brief-CSE have been demonstrated for English-speaking patients. This uncontrolled pilot study, conducted in routine clinical practice, evaluated the benefits of brief-CSE within a group of French-speaking AVH hearers. Thirty-two patients were offered the brief-CSE intervention. Self-administered questionnaires were completed pre-post intervention. A significant reduction was observed in AVH distress, with a large effect size, and for more than half of the patients, this reduction was clinically meaningful. AVH severity and anxiety also decreased significantly. This study demonstrates that brief-CSE can be implemented in non-English-speaking routine clinical practice and can reduce several aspects of AVH subjective experience. There is a need to confirm these findings in a larger sample.