NCT04959916

Group-based Metacognitive Therapy for Burns and Plastics Patients

Group-Based Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Mood Symptoms in Burns and Plastics Patients: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 14 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Manchester · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Serious burns and other traumatic or disfiguring injuries represent a significant public health burden. Survivors often need intense medical or surgical treatment, including plastic surgery. As well as devastating physical injuries, up to 45% of people develop significant mental health difficulties following a traumatic injury. These difficulties include depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is the most widely offered treatment within the National Health Service (NHS) and the most common treatment provided for burns and plastics patients. However, CBT is limited in efficacy, time-consuming, and focuses on treating the most distressing problem first. One way to overcome these limitations is to evaluate a group therapy that can treat multiple mental health problems at once. One such treatment is called Metacognitive Therapy (MCT; Wells 2009). MCT targets metacognitive beliefs (beliefs people hold about their thinking) rather than the content of patients' thoughts (i.e. reality testing), which is advantageous over cognitive therapies as often following a burns or plastics injury patients experience realistic negative thoughts (e.g. thoughts about disfigurement). MCT has been shown to be more effective at treating anxiety and depression in mental health settings than CBT, however, more research is needed to evaluate MCT in physical health settings. The aim of this study is to examine the acceptability and feasibility of group-MCT within the Department of Burns, Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery at Wythenshawe Hospital. We aim to recruit 20 patients to receive six weekly sessions of group-MCT. Sessions will last approximately 90 minutes. Indicators of feasibility and acceptability will be described including rates of referrals, recruitment, and dropout. Data on symptom outcomes (as measured by the PHQ-9 and GAD-7) at pre and post treatment will be assessed and benchmarked against usual treatment delivered. The data will be used to inform a future large-scale trial on the effectiveness of MCT.

Conditions

• Anxiety
• Low Mood

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Group Metacognitive Therapy	Group Meta-Cognitive Therapy (Group-MCT) will consist of six weekly sessions delivered by two trained trainee clinical psychologists over 1-1.5 hours. The aims of the intervention are to help participants develop knowledge that can facilitate control of worry, rumination and attention, and to modify the metacognitive beliefs that maintain these unhelpful patterns of thinking. The treatment follows a manual that has been previously evaluated in the treatment of cardiac patients suffering from anxiety and depression. Sessions include group discussions, experiential learning and homework tasks that participants will be expected to complete between sessions.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-10-01
• Primary completion: 2022-07-01
• Completion: 2022-09-01
• First posted: 2021-07-13
• Last updated: 2022-02-25

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom