Citation

Foa EB, Hearst-Ikeda D, Perry KJ. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 1995; 63(6): 948-955.

Affiliation

Medical College of Pennsylvania, Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, Philadelphia 19129, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, American Psychological Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8543717

Abstract

The efficacy of a brief prevention program (BP) aimed at arresting the development of chronic PTSD was examined with 10 recent female victims of sexual and nonsexual assault who received 4 sessions of a cognitive-behavioral program shortly after the assault. Their PTSD and depression severity was compared with that of 10 matched recent female assault victims who received repeated assessments of their trauma-related psychopathology (assessment control; AC). The BP program consisted of education about common reactions to assault and cognitive-behavioral procedures. Two months postassault, victims who received the BP program had significantly less severe PTSD symptoms than victims in the control condition; 10% of the former group met criteria for PTSD versus 70% of the latter group. Five and a half months postassault, victims in the BP group were significantly less depressed than victims in the AC group and had significantly less severe reexperiencing symptoms.

Language: en