Recovery From Paranoia: a Qualitative Exploration

Inclusion criteria

• Participant has recovered from the paranoia. This is defined as: A.) conviction in persecution beliefs is rated as less than 10% and B.) not experiencing significant distress related to paranoia and C.) currently scoring outside the clinical range of the revised Green et al., Paranoid Thoughts Scale (R-GPTS; Freeman, 2019);
• Participants should have had experiences of paranoia in the context of non-affective psychosis. This will be determined by participant's agreement that they previously had the sort of thoughts listed in the revised Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale (R-GPTS; Freeman, 2019);
• Participant is currently a patient of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust;
• Participant is willing and able to give informed consent for participation in the study;
• Aged 16 years or above;
• Participant has sufficient English language skills to participate in the interview.

Exclusion criteria

The following exclusion criteria will apply based on concerns regarding risk and capacity to consent:

• Currently experiencing acute psychiatric symptoms which preclude ability to participate in a sustained interview;
• Diagnosis of a moderate to severe intellectual disability;
• High levels of associated risk to self or to others e.g. actively suicidal;
• Primary diagnosis of alcohol or drug misuse; personality disorder; significant forensic history;
• At the time of recruitment COVID-19 restrictions do not permit face-to-face interviews and the participant is not willing or able to conduct the interview remotely via video call.