Brown Poppy, Crabtree Anna
Oxford Institute for Clinical Psychology Training and Research, Oxford Health NHS Foundation trust and University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Royal Holloway University of London, Egham Hill, Egham, United Kingdom.
Clin Psychol Eur. 2023 Sep 29;5(3):e11173. doi: 10.32872/cpe.11173. eCollection 2023 Sep.
This report presents the single case of Jack, a 67-year-old referred to our Older Adult Community Mental Health Team (OA CMHT) for his distressing persecutory delusion and high levels of worry. Jack also reported learning difficulties and autistic traits, although neither were formally diagnosed.
Ten sessions of worry intervention taken from The Feeling Safe Programme worry module were used to reduce Jack's time spent worrying and increase his engagement in meaningful activity. Weekly face-to-face sessions were held, with Jack's brother acting as a co-therapist. Adaptations to the intervention were made based on Jack's learning preferences. An AB single case experimental design was adopted to compare Jack's scores on measures of worry, paranoia and delusional conviction, and wellbeing and daily functioning before and after intervention.
Results demonstrate the worry intervention improved Jack's scores on all measures to a clinically significant degree.
This is the first known report of applying the worry intervention to an older adult. The results show the intervention can be of considerable benefit in terms of reducing worry and paranoia, in the context of both older age and suspected neurodiversity.
本报告介绍了杰克这一单独案例，一名67岁男性因令人痛苦的被害妄想和高度焦虑被转介至我们的老年社区心理健康团队（OA CMHT）。杰克还报告有学习困难和自闭症特征，不过均未得到正式诊断。
采用了取自“安全感计划”焦虑模块的十次焦虑干预，以减少杰克焦虑的时间，并增加他参与有意义活动的程度。每周进行面对面治疗，杰克的哥哥担任共同治疗师。根据杰克的学习偏好对干预措施进行了调整。采用AB单案例实验设计，比较杰克在干预前后焦虑、偏执和妄想确信度以及幸福感和日常功能测量指标上的得分。
结果表明，焦虑干预使杰克在所有测量指标上的得分都有了临床上显著的提高。
这是已知的将焦虑干预应用于老年人的首份报告。结果显示，在老年和疑似神经多样性的背景下，该干预在减少焦虑和偏执方面可能有相当大的益处。
