ArticleThe Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia2025
Lay health worker-delivered case management for early episodes of psychosis in Bangkok, Thailand (Lay-CARE): a single-centre, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial.
Article in The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Concerns on construct validity and contamination in the Lay-CARE study - authors' reply.The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · 2025Article
- Concerns on construct validity and contamination in the Lay-CARE study.The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: While specialist-led early intervention services (EIS) have been shown to be effective for early-phase psychosis, the effectiveness of a non-specialist-led EIS is still unclear. The study aims to determine the effectiveness of a low-intensity case management (LICM) programme led by lay health workers for patients during early episodes of psychosis on six-month outcomes compared to usual care (UC) in Bangkok, Thailand. Methods: This pragmatic randomised controlled trial (Lay-CARE) included patients aged ≥18 years with a history of a first or second episode of psychotic disorder residing in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (Thammasat University hospital's catchment district). Participants were randomised to either LICM or UC group. LICM intervention consisted of family psychoeducation, facilitation of access to services, and home or telephone visits, whereas UC was the baseline of care participants were receiving. The intervention started in October 2020 and ended in May 2021. The 6-month endline assessment started in April 2021 and ended in May 2021. The primary outcome was social functioning measured by the Personal and Social Performance Scale Thai version. Secondary outcomes were symptom severity, service use and medication adherence. The treatment effect size was determined using the average treatment effect (ATE). Due to the nature of the intervention, blinding of participants and assessors was not possible. The trial was registered with the Thai Clinical Trial Registry (TCTR20210509001). Findings: 130 participants were randomised to LICM group and 125 to UC group. At the six-month endline, participants in LICM group demonstrated improved socially useful activities (ATE 0.06, 95% CI 0.00-0.13, p = 0.041), less aggressive or disturbing behaviour (ATE -0.17, 95% CI -0.27 to -0.06, p = 0.002), and better self-care (ATE 0.13 95% CI 0.05-0.22, p = 0.003) than participants in UC group. LICM intervention did not affect personal and social relationships, symptom severity, medication adherence, or service use. Interpretation: In low-resource settings, LICM programme can improve areas of social functioning among patients with early episodes of psychosis over six months. Funding: Health Systems Research Institute (HSRI), Thailand (Grant No. 60-087).
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.