Research news: ORBIT Trial update

Posted on 14 January 2020

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A new paper called: 'Protocol for the Process Evaluation of the Online Remote Behavioural Intervention for Tics (ORBIT) randomized controlled trial for children and young people' has been published in the journal 'Trials'.

The ORBIT study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an Internet-delivered behavioural therapy compared to an Internet-delivered education programme aimed at children and young people with tics. A process evaluation will be carried out alongside the main trial to determine exactly how the behavioural intervention works and find out whether, and if so, how, the intervention could be successfully implemented in standard clinical practice. The study also explores the experiences of participants, therapists and supervisors and referring clinicians of ORBIT. The demand for therapy for young people with tics and Tourette’s is large and it often depends on the region in which you live as to whether you can receive therapy or not. By giving therapy online, this would open up a new way of delivering behavioural treatments for tics. This could be very encouraging to young people with tics and Tourette’s, as if the online therapy is found to be effective and can be made available by the NHS then this would give more patients access to therapy.

The protocol paper describes the justification, aims, and method of the ORBIT trial process evaluation. The paper was written by PhD student Kareem Khan in collaboration with: Professor Chris Hollis; Dr Charlotte Hall; Dr Bethan Davies; Professor David Mataix-Cols; PhD student Per Andrén; Dr Tara Murphy; Dr Bev Brown; Professor Elizabeth Murray and Professor Cris Glazebrook.

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