Effectiveness of audiobooks for patients who hear voices: a pilot study

Psychotic disorders are often accompanied by impaired concentration, both by
disease and medication. Because of this, reading books is often impossible. By
giving audiobooks to the patients, we offer an activity which was no longer
possible. We want to know whether this intervention is associated with an
increase in qulaity of life, decrease in general psychopathology and whether it
reduces the burden of auditory hallucinations.

Primary objective: the primary goal is to investigate the effect of audiobooks
on quality of life, general psychopathology, the experienced power of the
voices and the burden of the voices.
Secondary objective: the second goal is to determine whether the research is
possible for patients woth psychotic disorders. This includes the feasibility
of (1) the execution of the study in the proposed manner and (2) the
intervention itself.

In this study, we use a controlled design. The experimental groups receives and
intervention consisting of the use of audiobooks for eight weeks. The control
group receives no intervention. Both groups receive pre and post measurements.

The durations of the study for an individual patient is twelve weeks. The first
four weeks are used for including the patient in the study and for the patient
giving permission to participate. After these four weeks, the patients in the
experimental group receive the audio player. All participants receive the
questionnaires after inclusion and at the end of the period of intervention.

The total duration of the study is eight months. During the first six months,
the inclusion and measurements are executed. The last two months are used for
analysis and reporting.

The intervention is providing audio books to patients who perceive auditive
hallucinations (hearing voices).

The choice of books that the patients are listening to is left entirely to the
participants. They are not obliged to listen to books with a certain subject or
theme. Participants are also free to choose where they want to listen to books
and how often and how long they want to do.

The way the audio books are offered by using daisy players (Digital Accessible
Information System). This audio device uses daisy-roms. This method has the
advantage of saving the entire book on a disk, as opposed to ordinary audio
books on several disks. The daisy player has more options than the usual audio
books, such as navigating the text and setting playback speed and volume.
Patients can use the listening material of 'Loket Aangepast Lezen'
(www.aangepast-lezen.nl). This form of adapted reading was originally designed
for people with visual impairments, including blindness, visual impairment, or
other reading disabilities. Patients will be supported in applying for the
books when they need it.

Participants in the experimental group receive a daisy player for eight weeks.
For patients in the control group, it is possible to use daisy players for
eight weeks after the study to compensate for their investment. This offer goes
beyond the investigation as described in this protocol.

The proposed intervention was not previously discussed in the scientific
literature. The potential risks are not known. Investigations of a similar
interventions, namely the effects of listening to music, have shown no adverse
risks. Based on this knowledge, the researchers expect that the proposed
intervention entails a negligible risk for the participating patients.