Psychosis and PTSD: Can trauma-focused CBT therapy help?
The Stress and Trauma Recovery (STAR) study team are pleased to invite you to its end of project online event bringing together five NHS Trusts who took part in the trial including academics, staff, service users, carers and loved ones. The online event will take place on MS Teams on Friday 13 June 2025, between 12pm and 1:30pm. The link to join the event is www.tinyurl.com/TFCBTp.
Many people who experience psychosis have experienced distressing life events both in childhood and adulthood. At the moment, talking therapy focused on managing the impact of trauma is recommended to help with these problems (called ‘trauma-focused’ therapy).
Small studies have shown that this type of therapy is safe and can be helpful for people who also have problems such as voices, visions and sensations, or have worries about being unsafe or persecuted.
The STAR trial was for people who have been through stressful or traumatic events that have had a lasting impact on them and have problems such as hearing, seeing or feeling things that others can’t, or who have worries about harm or persecution. It looked at a type of therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Psychosis (TF-CBTp) and compared it to standard treatment.
The STAR Trial was a large clinical trial led by King’s College London and involved 305 people across 5 NHS Trusts in England. Locally, the trial took place in GMMH by researchers in the Complex Trauma & Resilience and Psychosis Research Units (C-TRU and PRU).
The event on Friday 13 June between 12 and 1:30pm will include:
Welcome - Sir Norman Lamb
Overview of the STAR trial - Dr Sarah Swan, Dr Raphael Underwood
STAR TF-CBTp therapy protocol & case example - Dr Nadine Keen, Dr Samantha Bowe
STAR trial results - Prof Emmanuelle Peters
Qualitative study findings: clinician & lived experience perspectives - Dr Rory Byrne
TF-CBTp implementation & next steps - Dr Alison Brabban
Q&A with NHS Trust sites - Prof Tony Morrison, Prof Filippo Varese, Prof Rob Dudley, Prof Craig Steel, Prof Kathy Greenwood
You can join the MS Teams event by clicking on the link: www.tinyurl.com/TFCBTp. If you’d like to find out more about the STAR trial, you can visit GMMH’s study page or the project website here. Please contact STAR@gmmh.nhs.uk for any enquiries.
