Publications by authors named "Amy Hardy"

Background: Symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (cPTSD) may play a role in the maintenance of psychotic symptoms. Network analyses have shown interrelationships between post-traumatic sequelae and psychosis, but the temporal dynamics of these relationships in people with psychosis and a history of trauma remain unclear. We aimed to explore, using network analysis, the temporal order of relationships between symptoms of cPTSD (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Trauma-related beliefs are theorized to contribute to the development and maintenance of psychosis symptoms. However, the evidence for this proposal has yet to be systematically reviewed. This article is the first to synthesize and meta-analyze studies examining associations between trauma-related beliefs and psychosis symptoms, including hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and negative symptoms.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Digital technology is positioned as a potential solution to improving access, experience, and outcomes of psychological therapies for psychosis. Digital solutions need to be fit for purpose and tailored to context to deliver real world benefits. To address this, co-production is often used, where stakeholder involvement informs intervention development.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Trauma and post-traumatic stress play a significant role in voice-hearing, and trauma-focused therapy (TFT) may help, but previous research has been inconclusive.
  • The study aimed to evaluate the impact of TFT on voice-hearing in individuals with PTSD and psychosis, using daily questionnaires to assess changes over time.
  • Results indicated that TFT led to a significant reduction in voice-hearing compared to a waiting-list control group, with improvements in PTSD symptoms also correlated with reductions in voice-hearing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Distressing voices are a core symptom of psychosis, for which existing treatments are currently suboptimal; as such, new effective treatments for distressing voices are needed. AVATAR therapy involves voice-hearers engaging in a series of facilitated dialogues with a digital embodiment of the distressing voice. This randomized phase 2/3 trial assesses the efficacy of two forms of AVATAR therapy, AVATAR-Brief (AV-BRF) and AVATAR-Extended (AV-EXT), both combined with treatment as usual (TAU) compared to TAU alone, and conducted an intention-to-treat analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been shown to predict psychotic symptomology. However, few studies have examined the relative contribution of PTSD compared to broader post-traumatic sequelae in maintaining psychosis. Complex PTSD (cPTSD), operationalized using ICD-11 criteria, includes core PTSD (intrusions, avoidance, hyperarousal) as well as additional "disturbances of self-organisation" (DSO; emotional dysregulation, interpersonal difficulties, negative self-concept) symptoms, more likely to be associated with complex trauma histories.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Digital Mental Health Interventions (DMHIs) that meet the definition of a medical device are regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK. The MHRA uses procedures that were originally developed for pharmaceuticals to assess the safety of DMHIs. There is recognition that this may not be ideal, as is evident by an ongoing consultation for reform led by the MHRA and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Digital approaches are seen as valuable in addressing the mental health needs of individuals with schizophrenia and severe mental illness, and an international group was formed to discuss challenges and solutions in this area.
  • The group identified four main challenges: user involvement, methodological issues, regulatory and funding hurdles, and real-world implementation, and provided specific examples and recommendations for each.
  • The consensus includes calls for improved digital mental health research standards, the importance of social factors, and integrating lived experiences into the design and delivery of mental health interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Given the rapid expansion of research into digital health interventions (DHIs) for severe mental illness (SMI; eg, schizophrenia and other psychosis diagnoses), there is an emergent need for clear safety measures. Currently, measurement and reporting of adverse events (AEs) are inconsistent across studies. Therefore, an international network, iCharts, was assembled to systematically identify and refine a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for AE reporting in DHI studies for SMI.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Traumatic events, particularly childhood interpersonal victimisation, have been found to play a causal role in the occurrence of psychosis and shape the phenomenology of psychotic experiences. Higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related mental health problems are also found in people with psychosis diagnoses compared to the general population. It is, therefore, imperative that therapists are willing and able to address trauma and its consequences when supporting recovery from distressing psychosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Childhood trauma is a risk factor for psychosis. It is proposed this is due to traumatic events giving rise to psychological mechanisms that are implicated in the development and maintenance of symptoms. Investigation of the psychological mechanisms accounting for relationships between trauma and psychosis will be assisted by focusing on specific trauma profiles, hallucination modalities, and delusion subtypes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Concern for symptom exacerbation and treatment drop-out is an important barrier to the implementation of trauma-focused therapy (TFT), especially in people with a psychotic disorder. This study, which was part of a multicenter randomized controlled trial, investigated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom exacerbation during eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR) therapy and prolonged exposure (PE) in a sample of 99 participants with PTSD and psychosis. Symptom exacerbations during the first four sessions (early exacerbation) and between-session exacerbations over the course of therapy were monitored using the PTSD Symptom Scale-Self Report.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the implementation of trauma-focused therapy for individuals with post-traumatic stress and psychosis in a U.K. NHS clinic, highlighting its safety, acceptability, and efficacy despite past concerns about potential harm.* -
  • Out of 71 referrals to the clinic, 51 attended an assessment, with 20 showing clinically significant PTSD symptoms and 16 completing an average of 17 therapy sessions without any dropouts or serious adverse events.* -
  • Post-therapy results indicated that 68.8% of participants experienced clinically significant improvements, with some no longer meeting PTSD criteria, and qualitative interviews provided insights into users' therapy experiences.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study, RE.PROCESS, aims to compare the effectiveness of cognitive restructuring (CR), prolonged exposure (PE), and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) as trauma-focused therapies for individuals with psychotic disorders and PTSD against a waiting list control group.
  • * The trial will include 200 participants aged 16 and older who meet specific diagnostic criteria, and they will receive 16 sessions of one of the therapies alongside their usual psychosis treatment.
  • * The primary goal is to evaluate changes in PTSD symptoms over time, while secondary objectives look at symptom severity at different points and the presence of PTSD diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Periwinkle is a temperate bacteriophage that was isolated on the host Gordonia terrae 3612. The genome has a length of 55,657 bp and a GC content of 62.9% and contains 109 protein-coding genes and no tRNA genes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Marginalized groups are more likely to experience problems with technology-related access, motivation, and skills. This is known as the "digital divide." Technology-related exclusion is a potential barrier to the equitable implementation of digital health.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: People with psychosis have high rates of trauma, with a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevalence rate of approximately 15%, which exacerbates psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. Pilot studies have shown that trauma-focused (TF) psychological therapies can be safe and effective in such individuals. This trial, the largest to date, will evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a TF therapy integrated with cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis (TF-CBTp) on post-traumatic stress symptoms in people with psychosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: SlowMo is the first blended digital therapy for paranoia, showing significant small-moderate reductions in paranoia in a recent large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT). This study explored the subjective service-user experience of the SlowMo therapy content and design; the experience of the blended therapy approach, including the triangle of the therapeutic alliance; and the experience of the digital aspects of the intervention.

Design: Qualitative co-produced sub-study of an RCT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: SlowMo therapy is a pioneering blended digital therapy for paranoia, augmenting face-to-face therapy with an interactive 'webapp' and a mobile app. A recent large-scale trial demonstrated small-moderate effects on paranoia alongside improvements in self-esteem, worry, well-being and quality of life. This paper provides a comprehensive account of therapy personalisation within this targeted approach.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Post-traumatic mechanisms are theorised to contribute to voice-hearing in people with psychosis and a history of trauma. Phenomenological links between trauma and voices support this hypothesis, as they suggest post-traumatic processes contribute to the content of, and relationships with, voices. However, research has included small samples and lacked theory-based comprehensive assessments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: People with psychosis experience higher rates of childhood victimisation compared to the general population, which may impact on mental health and recovery. This study aimed to identify childhood victimisation profiles in a clinical sample to inform recommendations for routine care.

Methods: Participants were 146 adults (ages 19-65 years; M = 42.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionpnheulhqpev7p7us8spfifj4n3p2ujia): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once