ACT-group for Stroke Survivors (Pilot Study)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-based Group Therapy for Mental Health After Stroke - a Pilot Study

The goal of this clinical pilot trial is to test the feasibility, acceptance and preliminary efficacy of an adapted group psychotherapy manual in stroke survivors with psychological stress. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Is the group therapy feasible?
• Is the group therapy accepted by stroke survivors and therapists?
• Are there first indications on the efficacy of the group therapy to improve mental health?

Participants will take part in 8 weekly group therapy sessions of 90 minutes each.

This trail aims to investigate the feasibility, acceptance and preliminary efficacy of a group therapy manual based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. The manual is an adaptation of "Living Well with Neurological Conditions" (Hill et al., 2017), which was conducted in groups with acquired brain injury in general. The manual was translated to German and adapted to the needs of stroke survivors who are often older, have more comorbidities and specific neurological impairments. Session length was reduced from 165 minutes to 90 minutes. The program includes 8 weekly sessions. In addition, outcome questionnaires were translated to German and all measures are translated into plain language to increase accessibility.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Value above a cut-off on one of the DASS-21 subscales (depression > 10, anxiety > 6, and stress > 10)
• Sufficient cognition and language ability (clinical rating)
• Sufficient therapy motivation (clinical rating)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Behavioral disorders (e.g., high irritability or apathy in clinical rating)
• Other severe mental disorder (dementia, psychosis, personality disorders, intellectual disability)
• Parallel psychotherapy or neuropsychological therapy