Published: 24 January 2024
The NIHR-funded NEON study has found that personal accounts of how people have overcome their struggles with mental illness are effective at helping others with similar experiences.
The study, led by experts at the University of Nottingham, was published in the journal World Psychiatry. It is the first mental health trial in the world to report findings on an intervention making use of mental health recovery narratives. The method was also found to be a cost-effective treatment option for the NHS.
“We believe the findings of the NEON study are an important contribution that will shape practice. We found that a recovery narratives intervention was effective at improving quality of life, increased people’s perception that their life had meaning, and was a cost-effective use of NHS resources, so this was a trial with a very positive set of findings,” said Dr Stefan Rennick-Egglestone from the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham, who co-ordinated the study.
Narratives describing first-hand experiences of recovery from mental health problems are widely available. Yet, no trial has ever been carried out to investigate whether they can benefit people experiencing their own mental health struggles. The researchers developed the Narratives Experiences Online (NEON) Intervention. This is a web application which includes a collection of over 600 recorded mental health recovery narratives.
They investigated whether access to the NEON Intervention benefited adults experiencing non-psychotic mental health problems. The participants’ quality of life was assessed 52 weeks after signing up for the trial using a questionnaire.
The study recruited 1,023 participants from across England. The most common mental health problems among the participants were:
- mood and or anxiety disorders
- stress-related disorders
Half of the participants were given immediate access to the collection. Half were given access 52 weeks after signing up for the trial. All participants completed online questionnaires at the beginning and end of the trial. This allowed the team to identify any changes due to the timing of access to the NEON Intervention.
The study found that people who received immediate access experienced an improvement in their quality of life. They also had an increased perception that their life had meaning. Both changes were small but still meaningful. The NEON Intervention was also shown to be cost-effective for the NHS. The resources related to these changes were roughly a 1/3 of what the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends for cost-effective intervention. Especially for participants already utilising NHS mental health services, the intervention saved money by reducing the time spent with psychologists or psychiatrists.
Mike Slade, Professor of Mental Health Recovery and Social Inclusion at the University, said: “Our England-wide study found that personal accounts of recovery recorded by people with mental health problems can improve the lives of others with similar experiences. Our key findings were that the NEON Intervention improves quality of life and meaning in life, and is cost-effective enough that it can be recommended for use within the NHS. We’re very excited about the potential for new approaches to supporting recovery which use this lived experience of what it’s actually like to live with, and live well with, mental health problems.”
Dr Stefan Rennick-Egglestone adds: “As an important part of our study, we looked at the impact of the NEON Intervention on people who had used or never used NHS mental health services. Whilst the NEON Intervention provided cost-effective benefits for all, it was particularly cost-effective for people currently using NHS mental health services, to the extent that introducing the NEON Intervention reduced NHS resource use.”