Trial reportTrials2015
The effects of an Audio Visual Assisted Therapy Aid for Refractory auditory hallucinations (AVATAR therapy): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in Trials, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Avatar Therapy for people with schizophrenia or related disorders.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Targeting auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia: effective connectivity changes induced by low-frequency rTMS.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Relating behaviours and therapeutic actions during AVATAR therapy dialogue: An observational study.The British journal of clinical psychology · 2021Trial
- Assessing the subjective experience of participating in a clinical trial (AVATAR).Psychiatry research · 2018Trial
- AVATAR therapy for auditory verbal hallucinations in people with psychosis: a single-blind, randomised controlled trial.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2018Trial
- Relational Therapies for People Who Hear Voices: Operationalisation and Current Status of an Emergent Group of Psychological Therapies.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2026Review
- Potential Applications of Digital Technology in Assessment, Treatment, and Self-help for Hallucinations.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2019Review
- Fast and slow thinking in distressing delusions: A review of the literature and implications for targeted therapy.Schizophrenia research · 2019Review
- The use of virtual reality in psychosis research and treatment.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2017Article
- The most important things I have learnt in my career as a psychiatrist.BJPsych bulletin · 2017Article
- Human-Avatar Symbiosis for the Treatment of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Schizophrenia through Virtual/Augmented Reality and Brain-Computer Interfaces.Frontiers in neuroinformatics · 2017Article
- What Role Can Avatars Play in e-Mental Health Interventions? Exploring New Models of Client-Therapist Interaction.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPsychological interventions which adopt an explicitly interpersonal approach are a recent development in the treatment of distressing voices. AVATAR therapy is one such approach which creates a direct dialogue between a voice-hearer and a computerised representation of their persecutory voice (the avatar) through which the person may be supported to gain a sense of greater power and control. The main objective of the trial is to test the clinical efficacy of this therapy to reduce the frequency and severity of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). Secondary objectives of the study are to explore explanatory mechanisms of action and potential moderators, to carry out a qualitative evaluation of participants' experience and to conduct an economic evaluation. METHODS/
designThe AVATAR randomised clinical trial will independently randomise 142 participants to receive either 7 sessions of AVATAR therapy or supportive counselling (SC). The study population will be individuals with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders who report hearing persistent distressing voices, for more than 12 months, which are unresponsive or only partially responsive to antipsychotic medication. The main hypotheses are that, compared to SC, AVATAR therapy will reduce the frequency and severity of AVH and will also reduce the reported omnipotence and malevolence of these voices. Assessments will occur at 0 weeks (baseline), 12 weeks (post-intervention) and 24 weeks (follow-up), and will be carried out by blinded assessors. Both interventions will be delivered in a community-based mental health centre. Therapy competence and adherence will be monitored in both groups. Statistical analysis will follow the intention-to-treat principle and data will be analysed using a mixed (random) effects model at each post treatment time point separately. A formal mediation and moderator analysis using contemporary causal inference methods will be conducted as a secondary analysis. The trial is funded by the Welcome Trust (WT). DISCUSSION: AVATAR therapy showed promising effects in a pilot study, but the efficacy of the approach needs to be examined in a larger randomised clinical trial before wider dissemination and implementation in mental health services.
trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN: 65314790 , registration date: 27 March 2013.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.