Evaluating the effectiveness and acceptability of information and therapy guides for improving the psychosocial well-being of people with facial palsy

Objectives: Facial palsy (FP) can have a negative impact on an individual's psycho-logical and social well-being, irrespective of esthetic severity. There is a lack of psychological interventions tailored specifically for this population and individuals with FP report difficulties accessing specialist psychological treatment. This paper describes a pilot study evaluating the effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of information and therapy guides for this popula-tion.Design: Quasi-experimental, repeated measures design.Methods: Six separate information and therapy guides were designed, drawing on cogni-tive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and social skills training ap-proaches. These were tested by 132 participants with FP, over a 4-to-6-week period. Partici-pants completed self-report measures assessing psychological well-being, social function, and appearance-related distress before and after the testing period, as well as provided feedback on the perceived effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of the intervention.Results: After completing an information and therapy guide, participants reported signifi-cant improvements in psychological well-being and social function, as well as improvements in appearance-related distress. Ninety percent of participants reported having found it helpful to complete a guide, while 79.7% reported feeling more able to cope with FP and 95.3% agreed that the guide had been easy to understand and use.Conclusions: Self-guided information and therapy guides are an acceptable and effective in-tervention for improving the psychosocial well-being of people with FP. They provide a low intensity, universal, and cost-effective option for supporting the psychological needs of this population.Clinical Trial Registration Number: NCT03943953 Crown Copyright (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. All rights reserved.