The EMPOWER blended digital intervention for relapse prevention in schizophrenia: a feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial in Scotland and Australia.

BACKGROUND

Early warning signs monitoring by service users with schizophrenia has shown promise in preventing relapse but the quality of evidence is low. We aimed to establish the feasibility of undertaking a definitive randomised controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of a blended digital intervention for relapse prevention in schizophrenia.

METHODS

This multicentre, feasibility, cluster randomised controlled trial aimed to compare Early signs Monitoring to Prevent relapse in psychosis and prOmote Well-being, Engagement, and Recovery (EMPOWER) with treatment as usual in community mental health services (CMHS) in Glasgow and Melbourne. CMHS were the unit of randomisation, selected on the basis of those that probably had five or more care coordinators willing to participate. Participants were eligible if they were older than 16 years, had a schizophrenia or related diagnosis confirmed via case records, were able to provide informed consent, had contact with CMHS, and had had a relapse within the previous 2 years. Participants were randomised within stratified clusters to EMPOWER or to continue their usual approach to care. EMPOWER blended a smartphone for active monitoring of early warning signs with peer support to promote self-management and clinical triage to promote access to relapse prevention. Main outcomes were feasibility, acceptability, usability, and safety, which was assessed through face-to-face interviews. App usage was assessed via the smartphone and self-report. Primary end point was 12 months. Participants, research assistants and other team members involved in delivering the intervention were not masked to treatment conditions. Assessment of relapse was done by an independent adjudication panel masked to randomisation group. The study is registered at ISRCTN (99559262).

FINDINGS

We identified and randomised eight CMHS (six in Glasgow and two in Melbourne) comprising 47 care coordinators. We recruited 86 service users between Jan 19 and Aug 8, 2018; 73 were randomised (42 [58%] to EMPOWER and 31 [42%] to treatment as usual). There were 37 (51%) men and 36 (49%) women. At 12 months, main outcomes were collected for 32 (76%) of service users in the EMPOWER group and 30 (97%) of service users in the treatment as usual group. Of those randomised to EMPOWER, 30 (71%) met our a priori criterion of more than 33% adherence to daily monitoring that assumed feasibility. Median time to discontinuation of these participants was 31·5 weeks (SD 14·5). There were 29 adverse events in the EMPOWER group and 25 adverse events in the treatment as usual group. There were 13 app-related adverse events, affecting 11 people, one of which was serious. Fear of relapse was lower in the EMPOWER group than in the treatment as usual group at 12 months (mean difference -7·53 (95% CI -14·45 to 0·60; Cohen's d -0·53).

INTERPRETATION

A trial of digital technology to monitor early warning signs blended with peer support and clinical triage to detect and prevent relapse appears to be feasible, safe, and acceptable. A further main trial is merited.

FUNDING

UK National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of interests AIG reports personal fees from University of Manchester, personal fees from University of Exeter, personal fees from British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies and other interests with UK National Health Service (NHS) Education for Scotland outside the submitted work. JA, SL, and SB report other interests with CareLoop Health, outside the submitted work. SB reports grants from the Medical Research Council and UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) during the conduct of the study. SL reports grants from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) during the conduct of the study. JA reports grants from MRC, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, NIHR, and the US National Institute for Health, and was a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute during the conduct of the study. AB reports personal fees from Bayer, Merck, Janssen, Novartis, Sword Health, Amgen, and Daiichi Sankyo outside the submitted work. JF reports grants from National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) during the conduct of the study and other interests with Melbourne Health (NorthWestern Mental Health) outside the submitted work. HMcL reports grants from NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) during the conduct of the study, and grants with Academy of Medical Sciences, Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity, and Scotland's Chief Scientist's Office. CM reports grants from National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) during the conduct of the study. JN reports grants from the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh during the conduct of the study and declares membership of the following NIHR boards: Cardio Pulmonary Resusitation decision making committee; HTA commissioning board; HTA commissioning sub-board (expression of interest); HTA funding boards policy group; HTA general board; HTA post-board funding teleconference; NIHR clinical trials unit standing advisory committee; NIHR HTA and Efficacy Mechanism Evaluation editorial board; pre-exposure prophylaxis impact review panel. PF is a member of the HTA mental health prioritisation panel. CW reports grants from NIHR during the conduct of the study and from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and other interests with Five Areas outside the submitted work. AY reports an NIHR Senior Investigator Grant. JG reports grants from the National Health Medical Research Council. All other authors declare no competing interests.