Brief acceptance and commitment therapy for psychotic inpatients: A randomized controlled feasibility trial in Sweden

Psychiatric inpatient care in Sweden is often described as lacking in content other than medication and mere containment. In an attempt to increase structured psychological content in the ward context, this study aims to investigate whether a brief form of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a feasible addition to standard care for psychotic inpatients. ACT has previously been administered to psychotic inpatients in the US, and the present study was an attempt at implementing this intervention in Sweden. In this feasibility study, 22 psychotic inpatients were randomized to one of two conditions: treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU plus an average of two ACT sessions. Measures of rehospitalization and values-based living were obtained before treatment, after treatment, and at four-month follow-up. Results indicate that participants in the TAU plus ACT group were rehospitalized at a lower rate than those who only received TAU (9% vs. 40%), though the difference was not statistically significant. Controlling for age, gender, and pretreatment values-based living scores, there was a significantly higher risk for TAU participants to be rehospitalized. There was a trend toward increased values-based living scores in the ACT group. These results suggest that it is feasible to add structured psychotherapeutic interventions to the existing care package at psychiatric inpatient wards in Sweden. However, the findings need to be explored in larger samples.