Enhancing sense of recovery and self-reflectivity in people with schizophrenia: A pilot study of Metacognitive Narrative Psychotherapy

摘要

Objectives. This study investigated the effectiveness of an innovative, manualized psychotherapy aimed at enhancing recovery and self-experience in people with schizophrenia, Metacognitive Narrative Psychotherapy.Design. Treatment effects were assessed using a mixed methodology. Data were quantitatively assessed using a single-sample, pre- and post-therapy design and qualitatively assessed using a case-study methodology.Methods. Eleven patients diagnosed with schizophrenia received Metacognitive Narrative Psychotherapy over the course of I 1-26 months. Therapists were seven supervised postgraduate psychology students. On average patients attended 49 sessions over the course of therapy. Patients completed interview-based and self-report measures for general and treatment-specific outcomes at pre-, mid-, and post-treatment.Results. Quantitative analyses showed that patients significantly improved on the general outcome of subjective recovery, as well as the treatment-specific outcome of self-reflectivity, with medium to large effect sizes. Case-study evidence also showed improvements for some patients in symptom severity, and narrative coherence and complexity.Conclusions. These results are consistent with previous case-study evidence and suggest that this manualized version of Metacognitive Narrative Psychotherapy produces general and approach-specific improvements for people with schizophrenia. Replication is needed to ascertain its effectiveness with a larger sample size and within a controlled design.