Effectiveness of group arts therapies (art therapy, dance movement therapy and music therapy) compared to group counselling for diagnostically heterogeneous psychiatric community patients: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial in mental health services (the ERA study)

This study will test whether manualised group arts therapies (art therapy, dance movement therapy and music therapy) are effective in reducing psychological distress for diagnostically heterogeneous patients in community mental health compared to active group counselling control.MethodsA pragmatic multi-centre 2-arm randomised controlled superiority trial with health economic evaluation and nested process evaluation. Adults aged  ≥ 18, living in the community with a primary diagnosis of psychosis, mood, or anxiety disorder will be invited to participate and provide written informed consent. Participants are eligible if they score ≥ 1.65 on the Global Severity Index of the Brief Symptom Inventory. Those eligible will view videos of arts therapies and be asked for their preference. Participants are randomised to either their preferred type of group arts therapy or counselling. Groups will run twice per week in a community venue for 20 weeks. Our primary outcome is symptom distress at the end of intervention . Secondary outcomes include observer-rated symptoms, social situation and quality of life. Data will be collected at baseline, post-intervention and 6 and 12 months post-intervention. Outcome assessors and trial statisticians will be blinded. Analysis will be intention-to-treat. Economic evaluatio n will assess the cost-effectiveness of group arts therapies. A nested process evaluation will consist of treatment fidelity analysis, exploratory analysis of group ...
Source: Trials - Category: Research Source Type: clinical trials