This blog post was written by PhD student Chloe Kennedy. If you would like to find out more, please contact here.
In the UK, there are around 700,000 autistic people (National Autistic Society). Research shows that autistic people are at increased risk of experiencing a co-occurring disorder, such as anxiety (Hollocks et al., 2019).
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is considered the ideal treatment for such disorders (Clark, 2011), but may be less effective for autistic adults than the general population or autistic children (Weston, Hodgekins & Langdon, 2016).
Acceptability, known as the extent to which people delivering or receiving an intervention consider it to be appropriate (Sehkon et al., 2017), can influence intervention uptake, adherence, effectiveness and implementation. However, our scoping review showed that acceptability is rarely a primary research aim, typically only measured in part and research lacks use of appropriate theory. So, there is need for a theory-driven study focusing on CBT acceptability in real-world practice.
This PhD project thus aims to identify the extent to which CBT for autistic adults is (un)acceptable to autistic adults and clinicians in routine practice, and to understand why it is acceptable/unacceptable to consider potential adaptions to CBT. The study aims to achieve this through an acceptability-specific online survey with optional interviews and focus groups.
The findings from this could help in development of evidence-based adaptions to CBT for autistic adults and improve understanding of CBT acceptability from both sides of the therapy experience. The study is now open for recruitment and we would love to hear from all autistic adults and clinicians with experience of delivering or receiving CBT that can participate to make sure the potential impact of this project becomes a reality.
National Autistic Society. (no date). What is Autism? https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism
Hollocks, M. J., Lerh, J. W., Magiati, I., Meiser-Stedman, R., & Brugha, T. S. (2019). Anxiety and depression in adults with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological medicine, 49(4), 559-572.
Clark, D. M. (2011). Implementing NICE guidelines for the psychological treatment of depression and anxiety disorders: the IAPT experience. International review of psychiatry, 23(4), 318-327.
Weston, L., Hodgekins, J., & Langdon, P. E. (2016). Effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy with people who have autistic spectrum disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical psychology review, 49, 41-54.
Sekhon, M., Cartwright, M., & Francis, J. J. (2017). Acceptability of healthcare interventions: an overview of reviews and development of a theoretical framework. BMC health services research, 17(1), 1-13.