Comparison of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, cognitive behavioral writing therapy, and wait-list in pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder following single-incident trauma: a multicenter randomized clinical trial.
Practice guidelines for childhood posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) recommend trauma-focused psychotherapies, mainly cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a brief trauma-focused, evidence-based treatment for PTSD in adults, but with few well-designed trials involving children and adolescents.
We conducted a single-blind, randomized trial with three arms (n = 103): EMDR (n = 43), Cognitive Behavior Writing Therapy (CBWT; n = 42), and wait-list (WL; n = 18). WL participants were randomly reallocated to CBWT or EMDR after 6 weeks; follow-ups were conducted at 3 and 12 months posttreatment. Participants were treatment-seeking youth (aged 8-18 years) with a DSM-IV diagnosis of PTSD (or subthreshold PTSD) tied to a single trauma, who received up to six sessions of EMDR or CBWT lasting maximally 45 min each.
Both treatments were well-tolerated and relative to WL yielded large, intent-to-treat effect sizes for the primary outcomes at posttreatment: PTSD symptoms (EMDR: d = 1.27; CBWT: d = 1.24). At posttreatment 92.5% of EMDR, and 90.2% of CBWT no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. All gains were maintained at follow-up. Compared to WL, small to large (range d = 0.39-1.03) intent-to-treat effect sizes were obtained at posttreatment for negative trauma-related appraisals, anxiety, depression, and behavior problems with these gains being maintained at follow-up. Gains were attained with significantly less therapist contact time for EMDR than CBWT (mean = 4.1 sessions/140 min vs. 5.4 sessions/227 min).
EMDR and CBWT are brief, trauma-focused treatments that yielded equally large remission rates for PTSD and reductions in the severity of PTSD and comorbid difficulties in children and adolescents seeking treatment for PTSD tied to a single event. Further trials of both treatments with PTSD tied to multiple traumas are warranted.
de Roos C
,van der Oord S
,Zijlstra B
,Lucassen S
,Perrin S
,Emmelkamp P
,de Jongh A
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Psychological therapies for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents (Review).
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is highly prevalent in children and adolescents who have experienced trauma and has high personal and health costs. Although a wide range of psychological therapies have been used in the treatment of PTSD there are no systematic reviews of these therapies in children and adolescents.
To examine the effectiveness of psychological therapies in treating children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with PTSD.
We searched the Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Review Group's Specialised Register (CCDANCTR) to December 2011. The CCDANCTR includes relevant randomised controlled trials from the following bibliographic databases: CENTRAL (the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) (all years), EMBASE (1974 -), MEDLINE (1950 -) and PsycINFO (1967 -). We also checked reference lists of relevant studies and reviews. We applied no date or language restrictions.
All randomised controlled trials of psychological therapies compared to a control, pharmacological therapy or other treatments in children or adolescents exposed to a traumatic event or diagnosed with PTSD.
Two members of the review group independently extracted data. If differences were identified, they were resolved by consensus, or referral to the review team. We calculated the odds ratio (OR) for binary outcomes, the standardised mean difference (SMD) for continuous outcomes, and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for both, using a fixed-effect model. If heterogeneity was found we used a random-effects model.
Fourteen studies including 758 participants were included in this review. The types of trauma participants had been exposed to included sexual abuse, civil violence, natural disaster, domestic violence and motor vehicle accidents. Most participants were clients of a trauma-related support service. The psychological therapies used in these studies were cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), exposure-based, psychodynamic, narrative, supportive counselling, and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR). Most compared a psychological therapy to a control group. No study compared psychological therapies to pharmacological therapies alone or as an adjunct to a psychological therapy. Across all psychological therapies, improvement was significantly better (three studies, n = 80, OR 4.21, 95% CI 1.12 to 15.85) and symptoms of PTSD (seven studies, n = 271, SMD -0.90, 95% CI -1.24 to -0.42), anxiety (three studies, n = 91, SMD -0.57, 95% CI -1.00 to -0.13) and depression (five studies, n = 156, SMD -0.74, 95% CI -1.11 to -0.36) were significantly lower within a month of completing psychological therapy compared to a control group. The psychological therapy for which there was the best evidence of effectiveness was CBT. Improvement was significantly better for up to a year following treatment (up to one month: two studies, n = 49, OR 8.64, 95% CI 2.01 to 37.14; up to one year: one study, n = 25, OR 8.00, 95% CI 1.21 to 52.69). PTSD symptom scores were also significantly lower for up to one year (up to one month: three studies, n = 98, SMD -1.34, 95% CI -1.79 to -0.89; up to one year: one study, n = 36, SMD -0.73, 95% CI -1.44 to -0.01), and depression scores were lower for up to a month (three studies, n = 98, SMD -0.80, 95% CI -1.47 to -0.13) in the CBT group compared to a control. No adverse effects were identified. No study was rated as a high risk for selection or detection bias but a minority were rated as a high risk for attrition, reporting and other bias. Most included studies were rated as an unclear risk for selection, detection and attrition bias.
There is evidence for the effectiveness of psychological therapies, particularly CBT, for treating PTSD in children and adolescents for up to a month following treatment. At this stage, there is no clear evidence for the effectiveness of one psychological therapy compared to others. There is also not enough evidence to conclude that children and adolescents with particular types of trauma are more or less likely to respond to psychological therapies than others. The findings of this review are limited by the potential for methodological biases, and the small number and generally small size of identified studies. In addition, there was evidence of substantial heterogeneity in some analyses which could not be explained by subgroup or sensitivity analyses. More evidence is required for the effectiveness of all psychological therapies more than one month after treatment. Much more evidence is needed to demonstrate the relative effectiveness of different psychological therapies or the effectiveness of psychological therapies compared to other treatments. More details are required in future trials in regards to the types of trauma that preceded the diagnosis of PTSD and whether the traumas are single event or ongoing. Future studies should also aim to identify the most valid and reliable measures of PTSD symptoms and ensure that all scores, total and sub-scores, are consistently reported.
Gillies D
,Taylor F
,Gray C
,O'Brien L
,D'Abrew N
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Turning wounds into wisdom: Posttraumatic growth over the course of two types of trauma-focused psychotherapy in patients with PTSD.
Treatment studies in PTSD patients have mostly focused on adverse psychopathological outcomes whereas positive outcomes have received less attention. Objectives of this study were to investigate posttraumatic growth in response to two different psychotherapies, to examine the relationship between symptom improvement and growth, and to determine if posttraumatic growth predicted treatment response.
Outpatients diagnosed with PTSD after various types of trauma (n = 116) participated in a randomized controlled trial that compared Brief Eclectic Psychotherapy for PTSD (BEP) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR). Posttraumatic growth was assessed pre- and post-treatment. PTSD severity was measured weekly.
Posttraumatic growth scores significantly increased after trauma-focused psychotherapy, as well as scores in the subdomains personal strength, new possibilities, relating to others, and appreciation of life. Greater self-reported and clinician-rated PTSD decline was significantly related to greater increase in posttraumatic growth. No changes were found between treatment conditions, except for a stronger correlation between PTSD symptom decrease and increase in relating to others in BEP as compared to EMDR. No predictive effects were found.
We were unable to control for time effects because for ethical reasons, no control group not receiving treatment was included, and the stability of the changes could not be determined.
Findings indicate that increases in posttraumatic growth accompany symptom decline in EMDR and BEP, and that these changes occur independent of whether the treatment specifically addresses posttraumatic growth as therapeutic process. Further research is encouraged to disentangle the contribution of therapeutic elements to growth.
Nijdam MJ
,van der Meer CAI
,van Zuiden M
,Dashtgard P
,Medema D
,Qing Y
,Zhutovsky P
,Bakker A
,Olff M
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