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

Background 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,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of child psychology and psychiatry Vol. 58; no. 11; pp. 1219 - 1228
Main Authors: Roos, Carlijn, Oord, Saskia, Zijlstra, Bonne, Lucassen, Sacha, Perrin, Sean, Emmelkamp, Paul, Jongh, Ad
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2017
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescents
Adults
Anxiety
Behavior
Behavior problems
Child
Child & adolescent psychiatry
Child psychology
Childhood
Children
children and adolescents
Clinical medicine
Clinical research
Clinical trials
Cognition
Cognitive behavioral therapy
cognitive behavioral writing therapy
Cognitive therapy
Cognitive Therapy - methods
Comorbidity
Desensitization
Eye movement desensitization
eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing - methods
Eye movements
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Help seeking behavior
Humans
Male
Medical diagnosis
Medical treatment
Mental depression
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Pediatrics
Post traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Psychological Trauma - complications
Psychology
Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology)
Psychotherapy
Psykologi
Psykologi (exklusive tillämpad psykologi)
Remission (Medicine)
Samhällsvetenskap
Severity
single trauma
Single-Blind Method
Social Sciences
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - etiology
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - therapy
Trauma
Treatment methods
Waiting Lists
Writing
children and adolescents
Posttraumatic stress disorder
cognitive behavioral writing therapy
single trauma
eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
ISSN:0021-9630, 1469-7610, 1469-7610
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background 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. Methods 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. Results 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). Conclusions 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.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
content type line 14
ObjectType-Feature-3
ObjectType-Evidence Based Healthcare-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ObjectType-Undefined-3
ISSN:0021-9630
1469-7610
1469-7610
DOI:10.1111/jcpp.12768