Farooq Naeem, Rupinder K Johal, Claire Mckenna, Olivia Calancie, Tariq Munshi, Tariq Hassan, Amina Nasar, Muhammad Ayub

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is found to be effective for common mental disorders and has been delivered in self-help and guided self-help formats. Crisis and transitional case management (TCM) services play a vital role in managing clients in acute mental health crises. It is, therefore, an appropriate setting to try CBT in guided self-help format. This was a preliminary evaluation of a formulation-driven cognitive behavioral guided self-help. Thirty-six (36) consenting participants with a diagnosis of nonpsychotic illness, attending crisis and the TCM services in Kingston, Canada, were recruited in this study. They were randomly assigned to the guided self-help plus treatment as usual (TAU) (treatment group) or to TAU alone (control group). The intervention was delivered over 8-12 weeks. Assessments were completed at baseline and 3 months after baseline. The primary outcome was a reduction in general psychopathology, and this was done using Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - Outcome Measure. The secondary outcomes included a reduction in depression, measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and reduction in disability, measured using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. Participants in the treatment group showed statistically significant improvement in overall psychopathology (P<0.005), anxiety and depression (P<0.005), and disability (P<0.005) at the end of the trial compared with TAU group. A formulation-driven cognitive behavioral guided self-help was feasible for the crisis and TCM clients and can be effective in improving mental health, when compared with TAU. This is the first report of a trial of guided self-help for clients attending crisis and TCM services.