Coping Strategy Enhancement for Auditory Verbal Hallucinations Within Routine Clinical Practice

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are distressing experiences impacting many individuals.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles, including brief Cognitive Strategy Enhancement (brief-CSE), show potential for reducing AVH distress.
• Previous research on brief-CSE benefits has primarily focused on English-speaking populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of brief-CSE in a French-speaking population experiencing AVH.
• To assess the feasibility of implementing brief-CSE in routine clinical practice for non-English speakers.
• To measure changes in AVH distress, severity, and anxiety levels post-intervention.

Main Methods:

• An uncontrolled pilot study involving 32 French-speaking patients with AVH.
• Intervention: brief Cognitive Strategy Enhancement (brief-CSE).
• Data collection: Self-administered questionnaires completed pre- and post-intervention.

Main Results:

• Significant reduction in AVH distress observed, with a large effect size.
• Clinically meaningful reduction in distress for over half of the participants.
• Significant decreases in AVH severity and anxiety levels were also noted.

Conclusions:

• Brief-CSE is implementable in non-English speaking clinical settings.
• The intervention effectively reduces subjective aspects of the AVH experience, including distress, severity, and anxiety.
• Further investigation with larger sample sizes is warranted to confirm these findings.