Background: Group CBT (G-CBT) for heterogeneous acute psychiatric inpatients (HAPIs), which allows patients to choose the group therapeutic target, might have clinical utility but is empirically untested. Aims: To test the feasibility, acceptability and patient-rated effectiveness of G-CBT for HAPIs in which patients' themselves choose the group therapeutic targets, within a previously rarely used sole-standalone session format. Method: Weekly G-CBT was run for two HAPI wards. The G-CBT was evaluated in terms of attendances/re-attendances, and patient feedback on 5-point scales of how strongly patients agreed/disagreed that the group was useful, enjoyable, worth re-attending, and had led to them learning something they could use to reduce their distress. Results: One hundred and thirty-seven separate patients attended a total of 291 times across 31 groups. Being female or having a diagnosis of bipolar disorder significantly predicted re-attendance. Sixty-three percent of patient feedback questionnaires were obtained from groups 10–31 and over 75% of respondents agreed positively with each of the evaluation dimensions. Conclusions: Practise-based evidence from this pilot study suggests that G-CBT for HAPIs, allowing patients to choose therapeutic targets in a sole-session format, is feasible, acceptable and patients find it effective. This supports more widespread deployment of this CBT treatment format. Future research might now test the format's clinical effectiveness with standardized and objective clinical outcome measures.

Background: An inflated sense of responsibility is characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). No previous studies have investigated its origins. Five potential pathways to inflated responsibility beliefs have been proposed; these are tested in this study. Method: A novel measure, the Origins Questionnaire for Adolescents (OQA), was developed to assess experiences on these five pathways. Reliability of the OQA was investigated. The experiences on the five pathways to inflated responsibility beliefs of 16 adolescents with a history of OCD were compared to 16 adolescents with no history of OCD. Parents also reported on adolescents' experiences on the five pathways. Results: Test-retest reliability was high. The internal consistency of the subscales was only partly satisfactory. The groups differed on one pathway; the clinical group reported a higher sense of responsibility for significant incidents with a negative outcome prior to onset of OCD. Conclusions: An inflated sense of responsibility, in combination with the occurrence of specific incidents, might act as a vulnerability factor for development of OCD. Future research should consider how to measure the subtle effects of experiences of responsibility over the course of development.

Background: A premise of cognitive behavioural treatment is that individuals make cognitive, behavioural and situational changes prompted by interventions and that these changes bring about improvements in targeted outcomes. Aims: The present project set out to provide reliability and validity information for a brief measure of therapeutically induced change. Methods: A total of 281 participants, comprising three samples who took part in three different intervention studies, completed items relating to cognitive, behavioural and situational changes and completed measures relating to the intervention in which they participated. Results: The internal consistency of the scale assessing therapeutically induced change was high in the three samples. The scale showed evidence of validity through association with (1) more involvement in an intervention (2) reporting that an intervention was meaningful (3) being instructed to incorporate insights gained from an intervention into one's daily life (4) greater decreases in psychological distress and negative affect from pre-intervention to post-intervention, and (5) greater increases in positive affect from pre-intervention to post-intervention. Conclusions: The therapeutically-induced change scale may have utility as a process measure in various interventions.

Background: Although recommended in national treatment guidelines, there is much that is still unknown about CBT for psychosis (CBTp) in terms of the process and experience of the therapy. One way to investigate these gaps in knowledge is to explore service users' experiences through qualitative research. Aims: To consolidate existing qualitative explorations of CBTp from a service user perspective. Method: Qualitative synthesis and comparison with previous research findings. Results: Two analytical themes were created from initial descriptive themes common to multiple studies: “The ingredients in the process of therapy” and “What is the process of therapy?” Conclusions: Qualitative synthesis is a useful method for generating new insights from multiple qualitative studies. Service user perspectives on CBTp corroborate existing research and may also offer more novel findings regarding the ingredients and process of therapy. However, qualitative studies are limited in number and do not always maximize the prominence of service user experience.

Background: Sleeping difficulties are an increasing problem for youths, but there is a lack of treatment research for this age group. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Cognitive Therapy for Insomnia (CT-I) on youths with primary insomnia; this treatment has never been tested on youths before. Method: The study was conducted according to an AB single-case experimental phase design, with pre-tests and post-tests. After 7–10 days of baseline assessment, three youths aged 16–18 (2 male) with primary insomnia participated in a 7-week long treatment. A sleep diary was used throughout the treatment. A follow-up assessment including one week with a sleep diary was conducted 3 months later. Visual inspection was used to analyze outcome. Results: Insomnia severity was greatly reduced for all participants after treatment. Daily measures showed that sleep onset latency was reduced for two participants but no change in total sleep time was confirmed. Daytime symptoms fluctuated for the participants. The insomnia-specific psychological processes were reduced to varying extents. These results were maintained at the follow-up measure. Conclusions: CT-I may be a promising treatment for youths with insomnia and the treatment should be tested further in randomized controlled studies.

Background: It is recommended that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) instructors should undertake MBCT themselves before teaching others. Aim: To investigate the impact of MBCT (modified for stress not depression) on trainee clinical psychologists. Method: Twenty trainees completed questionnaires pre- and post-MBCT. Results: There was a significant decrease in rumination, and increases in self-compassion and mindfulness. More frequent home practice was associated with larger decreases in stress, anxiety and rumination, and larger increases in empathic concern. Only first-year trainees showed a significant decrease in stress. Content analysis of written responses indicated that the most commonly reported effects were increased acceptance of thoughts/feelings (70%), increased understanding of what it is like to be a client (60%), greater awareness of thoughts/feelings/behaviours/bodily sensations (55%) and increased understanding of oneself and one's patterns of responding (55%). Participants reported increased metacognitive awareness and decentring in relation to negative thoughts. Eighty-five percent reported an impact on their clinical work by the end of the course. Conclusions: Trainee psychologists undergoing MBCT experienced many of the psychological processes/effects that they may eventually be helping to cultivate in clients using mindfulness interventions, and also benefits in their general clinical work.

Background and Aims: This pilot study tested the efficacy of a developmentally modified CBT for young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to teach emotion regulation strategies for reducing anger and anxiety, commonly noted problems in this population. Method: Eleven 5–7 year-old children participated in a CBT-group while parents participated in psychoeducation. Children were randomly assigned to an experimental or delayed-treatment control group. Results: From pre- to post-treatment, all children had less parent reported negativity/lability, better parent reported emotion regulation, and shorter outbursts, and also generated more coping strategies in response to vignettes. Parents also reported increases in their own confidence and their child's ability to deal with anger and anxiety. Conclusions: This study suggests that young children with high functioning ASD may benefit from CBT to improve regulation of anger and anxiety, and parent training may improve parental self-efficacy. Future studies are needed to make conclusions about its efficacy.

Background: Women in secure psychiatric settings have gender specific treatment needs. The current study examined the feasibility of a Dealing with Feelings Skills Group training for dual diagnosis women admitted to a medium secure setting. Method: A pre-test – post-test design was used to evaluate a group programme adapted from dialectical behaviour therapy skills training. Results: Most patients had a primary diagnosis of personality disorder. Treatment completers (n = 29) were compared with non-completers (n = 15). Clinically significant changes in treatment completers were apparent on coping response measures of positive reappraisal, problem solving and alternative rewards; on measures of anxiety and suicidality; on self-reported ability to engage in activities to reduce negative mood and to recognize mood changes. Self-harming and aggressive behaviours also reduced in the 3 months following group treatment. Conclusion: An adapted coping skills component of DBT benefit many dual diagnosis patients: issues related to treatment drop-out and failure to benefit are discussed.