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Research at Edinburgh Napier University regarding psychosocial interventions for trauma has pioneered management of mental health problems. We have developed and tested a number of individual, group and self-help interventions aimed at promoting recovery following psychological childhood and adulthood trauma. We have trained a large number of healthcare professionals on our interventions in the voluntary and statutory sectors. Our research has also informed policy regarding the management of psychological trauma. Self-help materials developed through our research are currently being used by health and social care workers in Scotland and abroad, making an impact on the wellbeing of survivors of trauma.
Research at Sheffield has changed UK and international clinical guidelines for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and has ensured that more appropriate treatments target people who have been traumatised. The Sheffield studies revealed the limitations and ineffectiveness of a commonly adopted clinical approach reliant on psycho-education and self-help. These studies concluded, on the basis of three randomised control trials of self-help provision, that despite the provision of information being valued by patients, it had no direct effect on relieving symptoms or enhancing quality of life or functioning. These research findings have directly contributed to good practice guidance for public health, disaster management and relief, and responding to terrorism and conflict.
While in Oxford, David M. Clark and colleagues developed psychological models of panic disorder and social anxiety disorder, tested the models in experiments, and devised novel psychological treatments (forms of cognitive therapy [CT]) that target the processes in the models. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) showed that CT was more effective than existing psychological and drug treatments, with 70-80% of people recovering. The therapies are recommended first-line interventions in current NICE guidelines, and are widely available in the NHS through the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, which Clark helped establish and is now evaluating. The treatments are also being used and recommended in many other countries.
UK and international government and healthcare institutes have incorporated Cardiff University research findings relating to the management of intervention for individuals post-trauma into public healthcare policy, strategy and services. Results from a randomized controlled clinical trial of psychological debriefing (PD) following traumatic events delivered strong evidence against the (then) standard approach of advocating these one-off interventions post-trauma. The Cardiff findings led to the global understanding that by not providing PD post-trauma many tens of thousands would benefit, resulting in better patient care and reduced healthcare costs.
Eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and related conditions) are common, often chronic and disabling, and sometimes fatal. Christopher Fairburn and colleagues have engaged in long-term research into the nature and treatment of eating disorders. The impacts are: (1) developing the standard measurement tools for eating disorders; (2) devising the leading and most effective evidence-based therapy for bulimia nervosa (`CBT-BN'); (3) showing that a modified form of the treatment is effective for all eating disorders (`CBT-E'); (4) developing an effective and popular self-help version. These treatments allow, for the first time, a significant chance of complete and sustained recovery from an eating disorder. The treatments are recommended by NICE and international guidelines, and are being disseminated worldwide.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS (also known as CFS/ME) affects two percent of the population. Michael Sharpe and colleagues in Oxford developed a cognitive behavioural treatment (CBT) for CFS. In 1996 they published the first randomised controlled trial finding that CBT was substantially more effective than standard care, with patients three times more likely to improve. This was the first treatment ever to be shown to be effective for CFS in a clinical trial. The finding was subsequently confirmed in other trials. Sharpe's research has benefitted people with CFS by: [a] challenging the prevailing view of the illness as untreatable, [b] informing current NICE treatment guidance, [c] providing the leading evidence-based treatment. In England alone, the treatment is implemented in 46 NHS specialist CFS centres, to over 7000 patients per year.
This case study describes how Prof Cecilia Essau's research into emotional and behavioural problems in children and adolescents has been of benefit to children and has helped parents and schools to provide them with better support. Essau has worked with a children's charity to use her externally funded research to contribute to public understanding through providing presentations and skills training and to underpin the development and implementation of an anxiety prevention programme, Super Skills for Life (SSL), which has had a demonstrable benefit on children's wellbeing. In addition, Essau's research has been of value in informing the development of DSM-5, in introducing a specifier to the diagnosis of conduct disorder using callous-unemotional traits, and in refining the diagnosis of somatic symptom disorder. It has also contributed to policies and interventions internationally.
Research by the UoA has transformed trauma recovery for children in situations of on-going violence. Hitherto, trauma recovery was provided post-conflict. Trauma recovery programme research developed at Dundee and led by Dr. Barron has directly improved psycho-trauma assessment and intervention for over 6000 children in Palestine. The UoA has led the development of a battery of screening measures and the delivery of culture-specific programmes into counsellor practice (N=200). These changes in psycho-trauma recovery have developed throughout Gaza (N=5000 children), across the West Bank (N=1000) and into other Middle East countries (Jordan and Egypt; N=200). The research has led to the delivery of trauma recovery programmes for maltreated children in 30% of Scotland's Secure Estate (N=50).
A research programme of randomised controlled trials undertaken at the University of Southampton demonstrating the efficacy of the New Forest Parenting Programme (NFPP) played a crucial role in: (i) influencing the developers of clinical guidelines to recommend parent training in general as a core part of the treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and (ii) establishing the NFPP, in particular, as a widely employed evidence-based treatment for ADHD, a condition estimated to affect up to 400,000 children in the UK alone. As a direct result of the trials, the programme, a novel therapeutic intervention that teaches parents of preschool children with ADHD how to modify their children's behaviour and improve their self-regulation, has been included in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and other clinical guidelines and recommended internationally as an effective alternative to medication, which often brings only short-term benefits and is associated with a range of potentially debilitating side-effects.
Two books and review/research articles in Italian have disseminated the findings from the underpinning research on creating false autobiographical memories and the dangers of inadequate interviewing techniques. This work has critically increased awareness in the Italian legal system amongst both barristers and judges, to the point of shaping the practice of interviewing witnesses in that country. It has also informed all verdicts on child sexual abuse by the Supreme Court of Cassation.