Romantic relationship group intervention for men with early psychosis: A feasibility, acceptability and potential impact pilot study

Aim To assess the feasibility, acceptability and potential impact of a cognitive behavioural group intervention occurring over 12 sessions and focusing on romantic relationships for single men with early psychosis. Methods Recruitment, drop-out and participation rates were collected. An A-B-A within-subject design (n = 7), where each participant acted as his own control, was used to determine potential impact (on social functioning, romantic relationship functioning, self-esteem, theory of mind [ToM] and self-stigma) across time (six time points). Results Feasibility and acceptability were established. As for the potential impact of the intervention, participants did not all evolve the same way. Improvements were found on social functioning ("behaviours" subscale), romantic relationship functioning and ToM ("mentalizing" subscale). Conclusions More studies are warranted to expand on these results and to further help men with early psychosis in their social and romantic development.