Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for PTSD

Trauma-Focused Behavioural Cognitive Therapy for PSTD
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Trauma-Focused Behavioural Cognitive Therapy for PSTD
Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioural Therapy treatment is usually intended to be a slightly short-term treatment, characteristically lasting twelve to sixteen sessions. According to Dalgleish et al. (2014), more than 8 in 10 traumatized children who get this form of treatment experience great improvement following 12 to 16 weeks of treatment. Depending on the needs of the individual child and family, treatment might be offered for longer episodes (Jensen et al., 2014). It is worth mentioning that Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy could be utilized as part of a larger treatment plan for kids who have complex difficulties. For young people who have PSTD, TF-CBT is usually recommended (Dalgleish, 2010). This research seeks to determine the efficacy of TF-CBT in treating youngsters who have PSTD.
Research question and hypothesis
The research question to be answered is:
How effective is Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in the treatment of young people with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD)?
The hypothesis that was tested is as follows:
The symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder would reduce appreciably with a twelve-session Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy intervention relative to those participants who receive Treatment as Usual.
Method
1.0 Participants
In this study, a total of 46 trauma-exposed children aged 4-9 are included and they would be randomized to either the Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy treatment group (n=23) or the Treatment as Usual group (n=23). These participants are selected randomly. The inclusion criteria are as follows: (i) individual has experienced a serious traumatic event in the past. The qualified participants would have experienced a distinct stressor such as a medical procedure or emergency, experienced violence or witnessed it, or experienced a serious accident. Children who had both chronic PSTD that lasted for over 6 months, and acute PSTD that lasted between 1-6 months would also be included in the study since researchers have demonstrated that Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy actually benefits children who have acute and chronic PSTD alike (Cohen, Mannarino & Iyengar, 2011). (ii) They were aged between 4 years old and 9 years old at the time when they experienced the severe traumatic event as well as at the time of enrolment; (iii) the individual has no less than 4 symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder with one or several of them being a re-experiencing symptom.
The exclusion criteria are as follows: (i) deafness, learning disability, blindness, inability to speak the English language, having an autistic disorder, and being mentally retarded; (ii) having head trauma with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of at most 7; (iii) history of organic brain damage; and (iv) ongoing exposure to threat. Physical or sexual abuse victims would not be included due to the need of involving specialist services. Of all the participants, 66% of them were boys, 51% were Black, 44% of the White, whereas 5% are Latino. The mean age of the children was 6.6 years. All the study subjects were screened for trauma. In this randomized control trial (RCT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is compared with Treatment as Usual. A half-crossover design is utilized such that the study subjects who are allocated to the Treatment as Usual group would be provided with the intervention following a twelve-week waiting period if still indicated. In the course of the research, the study subjects would be assessed four times; that is, at baseline, after Treatment as Usual or after treatment with TF-CBT intervention, and three-month and twelve-month follow-up for the study subjects allocated to the TF-CBT treatment condition.
2. Recruitment of participants
The 46 participants would basically be recruited through 2 different pathways. The first one will entail recruiting participants in Emergency Department. Participants attending Emergency Departments in hospitals following an event of trauma such as an assault or road accident, falls, as well as other medical injuries and accidental injuries would be recruited. The parents or caregivers of the children who satisfy the inclusion criteria would be sent details about this particular research study through post. They would then be contacted in order to get verbal consent to participate in this study. The other pathway in which the study subjects would be recruited is through community sources such as victim support agencies; the police; general practitioners; as well as placing adverts in children centres, on the internet and in the newspapers.
3. Allocation of participants
Each of the eligible participants would be randomized to Treatment as Usual group or Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy group with the use of a minimization procedure appropriate for small samples, constrained by the following variables: initial clinical severity for instance low or high; gender; and age group, that is, 4-6 years or 7-9 years. These three variables are used due to their possible influence on treatment response. In essence, the randomization would take place only after taking informed consent and after completing the baseline measures.
4. Intervention
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a manualised, structured treatment which is adapted for children including adolescents. It is founded on a cognitive conceptualization of posttraumatic stress disorder (Kameoka et al., 2015). In this study, the treatment materials are actually developmentally sensitive. Complex cognitive exercises would be introduced for the older study participants in the 7-9 year ag...