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Psychiatry

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About the Project

INFORMATION AND UPDATES

There are two phases to the COMMEND project.

Phase 1: Intervention development and feasibility study - complete

We adapted ACT for people with MND through a series of workshops and interviews with people with MND, their caregivers and healthcare professionals who work with them.  We have now completed a feasibility study in order to determine how feasible it is to deliver this type of talking therapy to people with MND and how acceptable it is to them. In this part of the project 28 people with MND were recruited to receive our newly developed intervention. Their feedback on their experience of this therapy and of taking part in the project was recorded through qualitative interviews. In combination with feedback obtained in the same manner from the therapists who delivered ACT, we have re-designed and tailored a Randomised Controlled Trial to further investigate the effectiveness of ACT in MND (Phase 2)

Phase 2: Randomised controlled trial - complete

In Phase 2, we will test our newly developed intervention in a randomised controlled clinical trial with 188 people with MND. We will compare the clinical and cost effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy plus usual multidisciplinary care with usual multidisciplinary care alone to find out if ACT improves psychological health in people with MND. Recruitment was halted in March 2020 due to COVID-19 but reopened with new procedures to allow all activities to be delivered remotely in September 2020. On 31 August 2022 we closed recruitment with a total of 191 patients recruited. Over the next year we will continue to follow up the remaining patients and commence data analysis. Thank you to all of the wonderful people living with MND, their caregivers and our project staff who have contributed to this project. 

Find out more on our Get Involved page.

PUBLICATIONS

Read our article on the Phase 1 workshops and interviews here or download the PDF: 

Weeks, K.R., et al. (2019). Needs and preferences for psychological interventions of people with motor neuron disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Degeneration, 20:7-8, 521-531, DOI: 10.1080/21678421.2019.1621344 (PDF)