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CompletedNCT01920685CITADELUpdated Mar 20, 2017

Computerised Interventions for Thinking and Anxiety in Delusions (CITADEL) Trial

An interventional study of Anxiety intervention in Paranoia in People With Schizophrenia-spectrum Diagnosis, sponsored by King's College London. Completed at 2 sites in United Kingdom. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-03-20.

Sponsored by King's College London · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
25
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

People with a schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis often experience distressing worries or beliefs about others intending to cause them harm (also known as paranoia). Paranoid beliefs are associated with significant distress and disruption to the person's life. This results in high use of services and costs to mental health providers.

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence recommends that cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) is offered to everybody with a schizophrenia spectrum psychosis. The latest meta analyses report improved outcomes, and reduced inpatient stays following CBTp, making it a cost effective intervention.

Although improved outcomes have been obtained by therapies, CBTp has only small to moderate effects on paranoid beliefs. Further, training therapists to competently deliver CBTp is intensive, expensive and takes up to a year. CBTp is therefore not widely available to service users, resulting in inequalities in access to care.

The investigators are seeking to improve outcomes and accessibility of CBTp for people with distressing, paranoid beliefs. The proposed research programme aims to conduct a feasibility study of a brief therapeutic intervention, aimed at targeting and improving anxiety processes that are causally implicated in paranoia (Freeman et al, 2015).

The investigators have preliminary evidence indicating that the pilot intervention, with interactive multimedia content, reduced distressing beliefs and improved coping (Freeman et al, 2015). Participants also reported they found the therapy acceptable, enjoyable and useful. Based on these results, the investigators have further modified the intervention. The feasibility and efficacy of the therapy will be investigated in a randomised controlled design (n = 34).

Please note the protocol has been been amended to exclude a pilot trial of a second brief intervention targeting reasoning styles in paranoia, as since the initial protocol was developed we have obtained data from two randomised pilot studies demonstrating its feasibility and acceptability (Garety et al, 2015; Waller et al, 2015). A further pilot trial of the reasoning styles intervention is therefore not indicated.

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Conditions studied

  • Paranoia in People With Schizophrenia-spectrum Diagnosis

Keywords

  • Paranoia
  • CBT
  • Reasoning
  • Anxiety
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In context

Paranoid Disorders

20 studies on the registry are indexed under Paranoid Disorders; 7 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 25 is below the median of 60 across 19 interventional studies indexed under Paranoid Disorders.

Browse Paranoid Disorders studies →

Lead sponsor

King's College London is the lead sponsor of 520 studies on the registry; 126 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Self reported worries about being harmed or at risk from others
  • Non-affective psychosis(ICD10,F20-F29)
  • Age 18-65
  • Symptoms stable no major relapse or crisis in last 3 months prior to consent
  • Sufficient command of English to provide , complete the measures and participate in the brief interventions
  • Score above the cutoff for levels of paranoia on the Green Paranoid Thoughts Scale (Green et al, 2008)
  • Paranoia is triggered by being outside

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Lack of capacity to provide
  • Primary diagnosis of drug or alcohol use with secondary psychosis
  • Primary diagnosis of mood disorder or bipolar affective disorder
  • Primary diagnosis of learning difficulty
  • Unstable residential arrangements (making a move away during the course of participation in the research likely)
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(2)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
25 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Immediate therapy

    6 sessions of talking therapy, targeting anxiety processes associated with paranoia, will be delivered for a period of 8 weeks immediately after randomisation.

    Other: Anxiety intervention

  • Other
    Delayed intervention

    Therapy will be delayed until 12 weeks following randomisation, and then 6 sessions of talking therapy, targeting anxiety processes associated with paranoia, will be delivered over a period of 8 weeks.

    Other: Anxiety intervention

Interventions

  • OtherAnxiety intervention
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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Green Paranoid Thoughts Scale

    Time frame: Change from baseline in paranoia scores at 8 weeks and 12 weeks

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Study locations

2 sites
  • Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
    Dartford, Kent DA2 7WG, United Kingdom
  • South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
    London, SE5 8AF, United Kingdom
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References and documents

Publications

  • Freeman D, Emsley R, Dunn G, Fowler D, Bebbington P, Kuipers E, Jolley S, Waller H, Hardy A, Garety P. The Stress of the Street for Patients With Persecutory Delusions: A Test of the Symptomatic and Psychological Effects of Going Outside Into a Busy Urban Area. Schizophr Bull. 2015 Jul;41(4):971-9. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbu173. Epub 2014 Dec 20. PubMed 25528759 ↗
  • Freeman D, Waller H, Harpur-Lewis RA, Moore R, Garety P, Bebbington P, Kuipers E, Emsley R, Dunn G, Fowler D, Jolley S. Urbanicity, persecutory delusions, and clinical intervention: the development of a brief CBT module for helping patients with persecutory delusions enter social urban environments. Behav Cogn Psychother. 2015 Jan;43(1):42-51. doi: 10.1017/S1352465813000660. Epub 2013 Aug 9. PubMed 23930939 ↗
  • Garety P, Waller H, Emsley R, Jolley S, Kuipers E, Bebbington P, Dunn G, Fowler D, Hardy A, Freeman D. Cognitive mechanisms of change in delusions: an experimental investigation targeting reasoning to effect change in paranoia. Schizophr Bull. 2015 Mar;41(2):400-10. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbu103. Epub 2014 Jul 21. PubMed 25053650 ↗
  • Waller H, Emsley R, Freeman D, Bebbington P, Dunn G, Fowler D, Hardy A, Kuipers E, Garety P. Thinking Well: A randomised controlled feasibility study of a new CBT therapy targeting reasoning biases in people with distressing persecutory delusional beliefs. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2015 Sep;48:82-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.02.007. Epub 2015 Feb 24. PubMed 25770671 ↗
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 20, 2017, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01920685
Responsible party
Dr Amy Hardy (Research Clinical Psychologist, King's College London) — Principal investigator
First posted
Aug 12, 2013
Start date
Jan 2014
Primary completion
Oct 2016
Completion
Oct 2016
Last update
Mar 20, 2017

Study contacts

Philippa Garety, CPsychol, MPhil, PhD, FBPsS
study chair · King's College London

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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