Co-designing a low-intensity psychological therapy for fear of recurrence in psychosis using translational learning from fear of recurrence in oncology: protocol for intervention development for future testing in a feasibility study.

Abstract

Fear of recurrence is a transdiagnostic problem experienced by people with psychosis, which is associated with anxiety, depression and risk of future relapse events. Despite this, there is a lack of available psychological interventions for fear of recurrence, and psychological therapies for schizophrenia are often poorly implemented in general. However, low-intensity psychological therapy is available for people who experience fear of recurrence in the context of cancer, which means there is an opportunity to learn what has worked in a well-implemented psychological therapy to see if any learning can be adapted for schizophrenia care. This article describes the design, methods and expected data collection of development, acceptab <b><i>i</i></b> lity, feasibility, a <b><i>n</i></b> d preliminary outcome signals for a copro <b><i>d</i></b> uced low-intensity psycholo <b><i>g</i></b> ical intervention targeting fear <b><i>o</i></b> f relapse in people with schizophrenia (INDIGO), which aims to develop an acceptable psychological intervention for fear of recurrence. INDIGO will use a mixed-methods approach to co-design and deliver a model and treatment pathway for a psychological intervention for people diagnosed with schizophrenia who experience fear of recurrence. The study will consist of four stages. First, in-depth interviews with mental health staff and people diagnosed with schizophrenia (with a further social network mapping task for patient participants only) to develop the intervention. Second, in-depth interviews with people who have accessed the Glasgow Fear of Recurrence service and oncology staff will be conducted to inform further development of the intervention. Third, co-design workshops will be held with people diagnosed with schizophrenia and mental health staff to co-design intervention content and the treatment pathway. Finally, people diagnosed with schizophrenia will be presented with an intervention prototype and invited to complete 'think-aloud' interviews to gather further feedback so adaptations can be implemented. The INDIGO study received ethical approval from East Midlands-Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee (24/EM/0124). The study received independent peer review prior to funding. This co-design study is expected to lead to a future feasibility study and, if indicated, a randomised controlled trial.