Lessons from an aborted controlled trial on the impact of befriending in an early intervention in psychosis population

Aim: the current study aimed to explore the effects of organized befriending for an Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) population.Methods: participants were randomly assigned to control or intervention groups. Those in the befriending arm were paired based on a shared interests questionnaire. Qualitative and quantitative methods were planned to assess experience and impact of the intervention across clinical and recovery outcomes. We aimed to recruit 60 participants, however only 16 participants completed the trial.Results: the study was unsuccessful due to issues with recruitment and retention of participants. We gathered feedback from those who withdrew, to understand this better.Conclusions: we offer our observations to other clinicians who may be considering similar research. A more assertive researcher-led approach over the first few meetings between matched pairs is likely to have been more effective in retaining participants' engagement in the study.