What is this study about?
People with a diagnosis of personality disorder have high levels of contact with health services but the care they receive is often poor. National guidelines recommend that people are offered evidence-based psychological treatments. These treatments last between one to two years and require people to attend therapy groups on a regular basis, but these intensive treatments are not suitable for everyone with a personality disorder.
In an effort to provide services that are more inclusive and to increase the number of people with a personality disorder that receive effective treatment, clinicians have begun to develop lower-intensity treatments. However, we do not have good quality evidence about whether they help patients in the long term or provide value for money.
Structured Psychological Support (SPS) is an individual low-intensity intervention, which was developed in collaboration with people with lived experience of personality disorder. The aims of this study are to test whether SPS is a clinically and cost-effective intervention for improving mental health and social functioning in people with a probable personality disorder. The study also aims to conduct a parallel process evaluation where people that have been involved in the study tell us about their experiences. This will help the researchers gain a better understanding of the reasons for the study findings.
Contact
Prof. Mike Crawford m.crawford@imperial.ac.uk
Sponsor
Imperial College London
Funder
National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment Programme