A groundbreaking study from King's College London shows that integrated Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for psychosis (TF-CBTp) safely eliminates PTSD diagnoses in half of patients with co-occurring psychosis and PTSD.
The Research
The STAR (Study of Trauma And Recovery) trial, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, recruited 305 participants across five UK sites over five years. Led by Professor Emmanuelle Peters at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), it is the largest multi-site randomized controlled trial of trauma-focused therapy for people with co-occurring psychosis and PTSD.
Results: After 9 months of integrated TF-CBTp, 50% of the treatment group no longer met clinical criteria for PTSD, compared to just over 20% receiving treatment as usual. Similar improvements were seen for complex PTSD. The therapy had an exceptionally low disengagement rate of 6.5%.
Participants showed significant improvements across 22 of 27 measured outcomes, including moderate-to-large reductions in PTSD severity, plus reductions in depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, paranoia, and multisensory hallucinations.
Why It Matters
Historically, people with psychosis were excluded from PTSD research due to fears that addressing trauma directly could worsen hallucinations or delusions. This study overturns that taboo, providing robust evidence that direct trauma memory processing is safe. Given that PTSD is up to five times more common in people with psychosis than in the general population—and that trauma often shapes psychotic symptoms—this opens a new, effective treatment pathway.
For anyone curious about cognition, this research highlights how untreated trauma can intertwine with other mental health conditions, and that targeted therapy can yield broad-spectrum recovery.
What You Can Do
If you experience trauma-related symptoms, seek therapists trained in trauma-focused CBT. This study shows that even in complex cases, evidence-based therapy works. For self-assessment of cognitive functions like memory and attention, consider a free, validated tool such as the iqgenio test.
Source: Neuroscience News
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