Skills training followed by either EMDR or narrative therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder in adult survivors of childhood abuse: a randomized controlled trial

Apr 17, 2024European journal of psychotraumatology

Skills training followed by EMDR or story-based therapy for PTSD in adults abused as children: a randomized trial

AI simplified

Abstract

Sixty-eight adults with PTSD following childhood abuse were treated with either STAIR + EMDR or STAIR + Narrative Therapy.

Both treatment combinations led to substantial improvements in PTSD symptom severity, with symptom levels assessed by structured interviews and self-reports.
Patients showed improvements in depression, emotion regulation, dissociation, and interpersonal skills throughout the treatment phases.
Improvements in PTSD symptoms and related issues were maintained or increased at the 12-month follow-up.
Moderate improvements in PTSD symptom severity and depression were noted after the STAIR phase in both treatment groups.
No significant differences in treatment outcomes were observed between the EMDR and Narrative Therapy groups.

AI simplified

Individuals suffering from PTSD following childhood abuse represent a large subgroup of patients attending mental health services. The aim of phase-based treatment is to tailor treatment to the specific needs to childhood abuse survivors with PTSD with a Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR) phase, in which emotion dysregulation and interpersonal problems are targeted, and a trauma-focused phase.The purpose of this study was to compare STAIR + Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) vs. STAIR + Narrative Therapy (NT) as treatments for PTSD following childhood-onset trauma in a routine clinical setting.Sixty-eight adults were randomly assigned to STAIR/EMDR (8 STAIR-sessions followed by 12 EMDR-sessions) or STAIR/NT (8 STAIR-sessions followed by 12 NT-sessions). Assessments took place at pre-treatment, after each treatment phase and at 3 and 12 months post-intervention follow-up. Primary outcomes were interviewer-rated and self-reported symptom levels of PTSD. Secondary outcomes included symptom levels of depression and disturbances in emotion regulation and interpersonal skills.Multilevel analyses in the intent-to-treat sample indicated that patients in both treatments improved substantially on PTSD symptom severity (CAPS: = 0.81 to 1.29; PDS: = 1.68 to 2.15), as well as on symptom levels of depression, anxiety, emotion regulation, dissociation and interpersonal skills. Effects increased or were maintained until 12-month follow-up. At mid-treatment, after STAIR, patients in both treatments improved moderately on PTSD symptom severity (PDS: = 1.68 to 2.15), as well as on symptom levels of depression (BDI: = .32 to .31). Symptoms of anxiety, emotion dysregulation, interpersonal problems and dissociation were not decreased after STAIR. There were no significant differences between the two conditions on any outcome.PTSD in adult survivors of childhood interpersonal trauma can effectively be treated by phase-based interventions using either EMDR or NT in the trauma-processing phase.ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01443182.. Background: Objective: Method: Results: Conclusion: Trial registration: d d d d

Key numbers

26.6 of 34 participants

Participants achieving no PTSD diagnosis

Number of participants reporting no PTSD in the NT condition at follow-up.

28%

Treatment dropout rate

Percentage of participants who did not complete the treatment.

71.4%

Participants with reliable and clinically significant change

Percentage of participants achieving significant change at 3-month follow-up.

Full Text

We can’t show the full text here under this license. Use the link below to read it at the source.

View full text ↗

Abstract

Key numbers

Full Text

Related papers

what lands in your inbox each week: