Negative symptoms are frequently experienced by people with schizophrenia. People with negative symptoms often have impaired social functioning and reduced quality of life. There is some evidence that cognitive–behavioural therapy results in a modest reduction in negative symptoms. Behavioural activation may be an effective alternative treatment for negative symptoms.The study aims to examine the feasibility and acceptability of implementing a behavioural activation trial delivered in three community mental health services in South Australia to support adult consumers experiencing negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

This randomised controlled study will recruit a total of 60 consumers aged 18 years or above with mild-moderate negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The consumers will be randomly allocated to receive behavioural activation plus usual mental healthcare or usual mental healthcare alone. The intervention group will receive twelve 30 min sessions of behavioural activation, which will be delivered twice weekly over 6 weeks. In addition, we aim to recruit nine mental health workers from the three rural mental health services who will complete a 10-week online training programme in behavioural activation. Changes in negative symptoms of schizophrenia and depressive symptoms will be assessed at three time points: (a) at baseline, at 6 weeks and 3 month follow-ups. Changes in health-related quality of life (Short Form F36; secondary outcome) will be assessed at two time points: (a) at baseline and (b) immediately at postintervention after 6 weeks. At the end of the trial, interviews will be conducted with purposively selected mental health workers and consumers. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis will be used to assess feasibility and acceptability.

The findings from our feasibility study will inform the design of a fully powered randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of behavioural activation as a treatment for negative symptoms in schizophrenia. The study protocol was approved by the Central Adelaide Local Health Network Human Research Ethics Committee. The findings from this study will be disseminated through peer-reviewed scientific journals and conferences.

ACTRN12623000348651p.

Sustainable approaches to support care coordination and symptom management needs of critically ill adults living with multimorbidity are needed to combat the challenges and complexity that multimorbidity presents. The study aims to test the feasibility of the Care cOORDInatioN And sympTom managEment (COORDINATE) intervention to improve health outcomes of adults living with multimorbidity.

A multicomponent nurse-driven intervention was developed using experience-based co-design and human-centred design. Inclusion criteria include (1) age 55 years and older, (2) admitted to an intermediate care unit, (3) presence of two or more chronic health conditions and (4) signed informed consent. Data collection will occur at baseline (time of recruitment predischarge) and 6 weeks and 3 months following hospital discharge. Outcome of interest from this feasibility study is to evaluate the financial, technical and logistic feasibility of a full-scale study including data collection and protocol adherence. Additionally, Cohen’s d effect sizes for the change in outcomes over time will be computed to establish power calculations required for a full-scale study. The protocol was prepared in accordance with Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials (SPIRIT) checklist.

The study has been reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Given the success of this feasibility study, the potential for the COORDINATE intervention to decrease the symptom burden and improve participant quality of life among critically ill people with multimorbidity will be tested in a full-scale study, and findings will be actively disseminated.

NCT05985044.