The Study of Trauma and Recovery (STAR)
An NIHR-funded multi-site randomised controlled trial to evaluate if TF-CBTp is safe, acceptable, and effective for trauma survivors with distressing psychosis
What did the STAR trial investigate?
The primary research question was:
Does TF-CBTp reduce PTSD symptoms (at the end of therapy) in people with distressing psychosis and PTSD symptoms?
The secondary research questions were:
Does TF-CBTp reduce psychosis symptoms, distress and functioning problems?
Is this therapy acceptable to participants and to therapists?
Do the effects last?
Is it cost effective?
What happened in the STAR trial?
Who participated?
People who were at least 18 years old and who met diagnostic criteria for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and were experiencing distressing psychosis.
What was the design?
Participants were allocated randomly to either Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for psychosis (TF-CBTp) + usual treatment, or usual treatment alone.
Therapy lasted nine months with a trained therapist.
Following a baseline assessment, all participants were followed up at 4, 9 and 24 months.
