Guided Self-Help for Functional Neurological Symptoms

Mayo Clinic

Status: Terminated

Conditions: Functional Neurologic Disease

Treatments: Behavioral: Guided Self-Help; Behavioral: Treatment As Usual

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01643161

11-005721

Details and patient eligibility

About

Functional (psychogenic or somatoform) symptoms are commonly observed in neurology clinics. There is no known empirically validated treatment approach to functional symptoms. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can be effective, but there are major obstacles to its provision. The investigators will test the hypothesis that adding a CBT-based guided self-help (GSH) as compared to treatment as usual (TAU) improves patient outcomes.

Enrollment: 33 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adult neurology outpatient with functional symptoms not largely explained by neurologic disease.

Exclusion criteria

• Unable to use the Guided Self-Help intervention, such as due to significant cognitive impairment or unable to comprehend English.
• Requires specialist psychiatric care.
• Has headache as the only symptom.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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33 participants in 2 patient groups

TAU+GSH

Experimental group

Description:

Treatment As Usual plus Guided Self Help.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Treatment As Usual

Behavioral: Guided Self-Help

TAU

Active Comparator group

Description:

Treatment AS Usual.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Treatment As Usual