COGNITIVELY-ORIENTED PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR EARLY PSYCHOSIS (COPE) - PRELIMINARY-RESULTS

Background The present study describes the results of the pilot testin g of a therapy we have developed for people with first-episode psychos is. Cognitively-oriented psychotherapy for early psychosis (COPE) is a imed at facilitating the adjustment of the person, and at preventing o r alleviating secondary morbidity in the wake of the first psychotic e pisode. Method Eighty people formed three groups: those who were offer ed and accepted COPE (COPE subjects); those who refused COPE (refusal subjects); and those who were offered neither COPE nor any other conti nuing treatment from our service (control subjects).The individuals we re assessed prior to. and at the end of. COPE treatment (a 12-month pe riod) on the Integration/Seating Over, Explanatory Model, Scale for th e Assessment of Negative Symptoms, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale,Qual ity of Life, SCL-90- R, and Beck Depression inventory measures. Result s People who received COPE obtained significantly superior scores (P < 0.05) to the control group on four of the seven measures but only sig nificantly out-performed the refusal group on one of the seven measure s (P < 0.05). The COPE group performed significantly worse on the BDI than the refusal group (P < 0.05). Effect sizes are also provided for each measure. Conclusions There seems to be a place for psychological therapy in this group of people butour results need to be replicated i n a more definitive randomised controlled trial and such a study is no w in progress.