Interpersonal art psychotherapy for the treatment of aggression in people with learning disabilities in secure care: A protocol for a randomised controlled feasibility study

Background: Art psychotherapy has greater potential for use with adults with mild to moderate learning disabilities as it places less of a burden on verbal interaction to achieve positive therapeutic, psychological, and behavioural goals. The feasibility study objectives include testing procedures, outcomes, validated tools, recruitment and attrition rates, acceptability, and treatment fidelity for manualised interpersonal art psychotherapy.

Methods: Adult males and females with mild to moderate learning disabilities will be recruited from four NHS secure hospitals. Twenty patients will be recruited and randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: fifteen 1-h individual sessions of manualised interpersonal art psychotherapy, or a treatment as usual waiting list control group. The Modified Overt Aggression Scale will be administered to both treatment arms. Four patients will be recruited to a single-case design component of the study exploring the acceptability of an attentional condition.

Discussion: This multi-site study will assist in future trial planning and inform feasibility including, procedures, treatment acceptability, therapist adherence, and estimation of samples size for a definitive RCT.