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WELCOME TO
STOP

​​The purpose of the STOP (Successful Treatment of Paranoia) smartphone App is to help people who experience exaggerated suspiciousness. Sometimes this can get in the way of life and cause distress. Exaggerated suspiciousness (sometimes called paranoia) can be one of the most disabling psychological experiences. It can cause other mental health problems, and problems in work, family, and social situations.

Why have we created STOP?

Watch our Welcome Video

Watch our Welcome Video

How does STOP work?

STOP involves reading text that invites suspicious thoughts, but then teaches people to respond in an alternative, less suspicious, and less distressing way.  The app is designed to make suspiciousness less distressing and disruptive to peoples’ lives by training the brain to respond differently to the kind of everyday situations and events that can cause these problems. The app will potentially be a more flexible, cheaper and less effortful way to challenge and change negative thinking patterns, than traditional in-person psychological therapies. 

No one treatment will be right for everyone and STOP may not be right for you. However, an early study testing out the basic idea with 63 people showed promising results, and participants told us that use the prototype treatment was a positive experience. This led us to create and test STOP in a large UK trial with 274 people whose exaggerated suspiciousness was causing them distress. We compared STOP with a control group where people just read text. Everyone carried on receiving their usual treatment throughout the trial.


STOP is not yet publicly available, but if you think you might benefit from using it please consider joining our waiting list!

How do I know STOP will help?

Find out more about how STOP differs from other mental health treatments and get answers to other common questions.

Get more questions about our study?

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