Developing a Virtual Reality-assisted Intervention for Emotion Regulation Difficulties in Psychosis (MANOEUVRE)

May 28, 2026 updated by: King's College London

MANaging emOtions in Everyday Life Using Virtual REality (MANOEUVRE): Developing a VR-assisted Intervention for Emotion Regulation Difficulties in Psychosis

Supporting people with psychosis to manage their emotions using virtual reality

Many people who have experienced psychosis feel overwhelmed by their emotions. Emotions get in the way of doing what matters to them. They want support to manage emotions differently. There is evidence that people with psychosis find talking therapies that teach skills for managing emotions helpful. People said it helped them to understand and manage their emotions. However, they also wanted more help to apply skills they learned to their lives.

It is hard to help people to use therapy skills in real-life situations. Therapists cannot be present when the skills are needed. One solution is to use virtual reality (VR) to bridge the gap between the clinic and real-life. VR involves using a headset to see and hear a very life-like computer-generated simulation of everyday life situations. People with psychosis find VR therapies engaging and helpful. It can feel safer to try things out in VR.

Guided by the feedback of people with psychosis, this research will evaluate a novel therapy to help people with psychosis manage their emotions. Face-to- face therapy will be combined with VR so that people can practice emotion regulation skills safely with "live" coaching from a therapist. This should support people to use these skills when they need them.

Fifteen people with psychosis will be offered the therapy. Everyone will be asked what they think of it and complete questionnaires before and after therapy to see what impact it had on their lives.

A lived experience advisory group will support all aspects of the research process.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Background Many people with psychosis report difficulties understanding and managing their emotions (emotion regulation difficulties), yet evidence-based interventions are lacking. Brief interventions that teach emotion regulation skills show promise but service users report wanting additional support to apply what they have learned in therapy to their lives.

Aim: To test the initial feasibility and acceptability of a VR-assisted therapy (called MANaging emOtions in Everyday life Using Virtual REality; MANOEUVRE) for emotion regulation difficulties in psychosis

Methods A mixed methods case series will be undertaken. The study will recruit people with psychosis from NHS community care teams (in England). Assessments will be at baseline, post therapy and 3-month follow up. Feasibility and acceptability of a future trial will be assessed based on uptake/ recruitment, data completeness and qualitative feedback. Feasibility and assessment of the therapy will be assessed based on adherence, acceptability (sessional feedback ratings, qualitative interview feedback, side effect and satisfaction ratings), safety (adverse effects), implementation resources and fidelity.

Participants will complete measures of emotion regulation difficulties, adaptive emotion regulation skill use, psychological distress, personal recovery goal achievement and quality of life. To assess feasibility, individual-level changes will be calculated using the reliable change index to assess whether changes are more likely to reflect measurement error or actual clinical change. Group-level changes will be assessed using means and standard deviations and effect sizes (Cohen's d) with confidence intervals . A post therapy semi-structured interview will explore participants' experience of receiving MANOEUVRE.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

15

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United Kingdom
    • Greater London
      • London, Greater London, United Kingdom, SE5 8AF
        • Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Currently under the care of South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service (NHS) outpatient services.
  • Clinical diagnosis of psychosis (schizophrenia spectrum disorder) (as assessed by their clinical team)
  • Willing to have the interview audio recorded (if taking part in post therapy interview)
  • Willing and able to provide informed consent to participate in the study (as assessed by their clinical team)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Clinical presentation (e.g., immediate serious risk to self) (as assessed by their clinical team)
  • History of photosensitive epilepsy

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: MANOEUVRE therapy
Other: MANOEUVRE therapy
Virtual reality assisted psychological therapy for emotion regulation difficulties

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale 16 item version (DERS-16)
Time Frame: Pre therapy, immediately after therapy, 3 month follow up
Self reported emotion regulation difficulties
Pre therapy, immediately after therapy, 3 month follow up

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
DBT Ways of Coping Checklist - DBT Skills Subscale
Time Frame: Pre therapy, immediately after therapy, follow up
Adaptive use of emotion regulation skills
Pre therapy, immediately after therapy, follow up
Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-10 item version (CORE-10)
Time Frame: Pre therapy, immediately after therapy, 3 month follow up
Psychological distress
Pre therapy, immediately after therapy, 3 month follow up
Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS)
Time Frame: Pre therapy, immediately after therapy, 3 month follow up
Personal recovery goal achievement
Pre therapy, immediately after therapy, 3 month follow up
Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL-10)
Time Frame: Pre therapy, immediately after therapy, 3 month follow up
Quality of life
Pre therapy, immediately after therapy, 3 month follow up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

King's College London

Collaborators

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Professor Dame Til Wykes, King's College London
  • Study Director: Professor Matteo Cella, King's College London
  • Principal Investigator: Dr Caroline Lawlor, King's College London

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

September 1, 2027

Primary Completion (Estimated)

May 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

November 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 20, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 28, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

June 3, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 3, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 28, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • NIHR305247

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Individual participant data that underlie the results after deidentification

IPD Sharing Time Frame

After publication

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

The final anonymised study dataset will be available to other researchers at the end of the programme provided that does not compromise confidentiality.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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