Compassion-Focused Therapy for Distressing Mood Swings: A Case Series

An Investigation Into the Safety, Acceptability and Feasibility of a Brief Compassion-Focused Intervention for People Who Experience Distressing Mood Swings: A Case Series.

The goal of this case series is to investigate whether a brief compassion-focused intervention is a safe, acceptable and feasible therapy for clients with bipolar affective disorder. The secondary questions are whether a brief compassion focused intervention for BPD clients is associated with changes in bipolar mood symptoms and/ or with changes in psychological processes linked to mood symptoms in bipolar, including: Self-compassion, perfectionism, social comparison and social safeness. Four visual analogue scales will also be completed daily by each participant throughout the project. These scales will measure domains relevant to BPAD symptomology and self-compassion.

Participants will complete a 4 session Compassion-Focused Therapy Intervention. The first session will involve completion of the psychoeducation and formulation work which was started during the initial assessment session. Each intervention session will also involve the introduction and practice of CFT techniques or exercises. The trial therapist will introduce the exercise and practice it together with the participant during the session. Participants will then be asked to continue practicing the exercises for homework. Their experience of the practice and any difficulties can then be discussed at the start of the next session.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Bipolar Affective Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Compassion-Focused Therapy

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 6
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • London, United Kingdom
    • Recruiting
    • Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
    • Contact: Tom Marsay, BSc; Phone Number: 07596892500; Email: tom.marsay@kcl.ac.uk

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adults (18 years and older)
• Diagnosis of Bipolar Affective Disorder

Exclusion Criteria:

• Client considered to be actively at acute risk - judgement made by responsible clinical team and also by risk assessment at our first assessment session. High risk clients are excluded as due to time constraints it will be difficult to address risk issues and complete the intervention in the short time frame we have outlined.
• Client already receiving some form of CFT intervention, as this be a potential confounder.
• Level of English not strong enough to complete assessment and intervention sessions without use of interpreter. Again, due to time constraints it would be difficult to complete the intervention with clients in the timeframe outline whilst using an interpreter or navigating the language barrier.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Other: 1 week waitlist	Other: Compassion-Focused Therapy; Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) is based on the premise that we have three emotion regulation systems, the threat, drive and soothing systems. It has been suggested that our psychological wellbeing is dependent on maintaining a balance between these three systems, and if we lose this balance, e.g. the threat or drive systems become more dominant, then we start to experience emotional difficulties (Gilbert, 2009). In this study, participants are given various exercises to develop their soothing system, and help them to balance overactive threat.
Other: 2 week waitlist	Other: Compassion-Focused Therapy; Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) is based on the premise that we have three emotion regulation systems, the threat, drive and soothing systems. It has been suggested that our psychological wellbeing is dependent on maintaining a balance between these three systems, and if we lose this balance, e.g. the threat or drive systems become more dominant, then we start to experience emotional difficulties (Gilbert, 2009). In this study, participants are given various exercises to develop their soothing system, and help them to balance overactive threat.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
the Credibility and Expectancy Questionnaire (CEQ)(Devilly & Borkovec, 2000)	Assessment/Baseline Only
Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8) (Larsen, Attkison, Hargreaves & Nguyen, 1979).	Follow-up (2 weeks post-intervention)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
internal states scale (ISS) (Bauer, 1991)	Assessment (Baseline) and Follow-Up (2 weeks post intervention)
The Self Compassion Scale Short Form(SCS-SF) (Raes, Pommier, Neff & Van Gucht, 2011)	Assessment (Baseline) and Follow-Up (2 weeks post intervention)
The Short Revised Almost Perfect Scale (SAPS) (Rice, Richardson & Tueller, 2014)	Assessment (Baseline) and Follow-Up (2 weeks post intervention)
The Social Comparison Scale (Allan & Gilbert, 1995)	Assessment (Baseline) and Follow-Up (2 weeks post intervention)
The Social Safeness and Pleasure Scale (Gilbert et al, 2009)	Assessment (Baseline) and Follow-Up (2 weeks post intervention)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Institute of Psychiatry, London
• Collaborators: South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 15, 2022
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): June 9, 2023
• Study Completion (Anticipated): June 9, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 25, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 5, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): May 16, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 16, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 5, 2023
• Last Verified: May 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Bipolar and Related Disorders; Bipolar Disorder; Mood Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: R&D2022/059

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: No plan to share individual data with researchers outside of research team at this time

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No